[NorthMountain]

That could make quite a difference

I would have thought so too, before watching "Ballistic High Speed", "The Slo-Mo guys" and a few similar channels.

Their video shot at hundreds of thousands of frames per second reveals that:

1) Upon firing a rifle or pistol, the bullet has left the barrel by several inches at least, before the weapon even begins to move in recoil

and

2) Similarly, a bullet striking a hard target has completed shattering and/or penetrating long (in milliseconds) before the target begins moving due to the impact.

[Moltke]

Thank you for expounding. I’ll look up those channels.

Important factors I believe are weight disparagy (how many times heavier does the target have to be than the projectile in order to become “quasi-fixed” by inertia), projectile velocity, and relative hardness (elastic vs. plastic deformation; hard/hard, hard/soft, soft/soft).

For a ricochet to occur hardness would be a primary consideration. A hard projectile is likely to ricochet from a hard target due to inertia of the target if the target is at least x times heavier than the projectile. Etc.

I guess there is no limit of scenarios one could exercise through to cover all possibilities.

Best not get hit, anyway!