Hmmm, weird that it would show numerous hits. Makes me think something else is going on here. Is this a multiplayer setup by any chance? If not, the first thing I might to do to clean it up is immediately disable collision when a “valid” collision is detected so at least you’ll only ever get one collision.
Secondly … are you saying they always register a hit now? When you say it was “to no avail” it sounds like it didn’t change anything but your next sentence seems to indicate the problem is now having multiple collisions (instead of sporadically none).