Yep. Schrapnel will fly. A safe distance is about 3 times what you think is a safe distance.
Somewhere on this web, there is a ‘point of view’ video, where the guy filing is blowing up a lawn mower with exploding targets. A shard comes right at him and takes off his leg.
That’s for sure. When I worked at Eglin AFB, we disposed of tons of expired ordnance from rifle ammo to large bombs. During one mission, we wrapped a few pallets of 2000 lb bombs with C4. We were about 2 miles downrange when they lit off.
The explosion made a huge mushroom cloud, with the sound and blast wave following a few seconds later. The initial blast was followed by a thwop-thwop sound as a huge part of a casing flew toward us.
Of course everyone ducked down—a couple of the old civilians threw themselves under a truck with their asses hanging out like two full moons. One of the EOD NCOs hid behind a large airman, but none of us could determine the trajectory until it hit the tall pines behind us. It took out half a dozen trees at about 30’, but missed us all. It was one of those times when you realize that explosions don’t always work as planned.