yes, that’s how the distance should work. If you set the NCDS of an actor to a really low value, the actor shouldn’t get replicated beyond it.
Epic’s introduction Video to Networking has a small example with a chest, where it only updates if the other player steps into the NCDS zone.
I assume your Actor meets a previous criteria. See slide 70 from my Network Compendium:
Compendium Link: http://cedric.bnslv.de/unreal-engine-4-network-compendium-released/