Regarding the shooter example, I was able to get the cast to node perfectly fine. The issue it’s self is more to do with the confusion with cast to nodes and what they actually do and how you get one.
To get a cast to node you must pull from a blue dot that is an object type of actor, (aka BP (in most instances) that your want to cast to) if you can’t see them make sure your “Context Sensitive” is turned on. This then allows you to either get & set variables from that target BP as well as run functions inside the target BP, however to get these options you must pull from the blue dot on the cast to node itself. 
