The bullet skimmed the top of the platform like a skipping stone, is my thinking.
Exactly. I don't get how we can all be looking at the same photo and not see that. Of course, I'm not a ballistics expert, but it looks pretty plain to me. At the bottom of the pic is the first impact. It barely makes a dimple in the metal. The next spot just above it in the pic, you can see the rounded shape of the bottom edge of the bullet and it has dug a little deeper. To the left (arrow) is where it ripped the web of expanded metal loose. In the third from bottom circle, the bullet is digging a pretty deep furrow and should be deforming and slowing the bullet drastically now. At the top of the pic, the bullet is transferring most of it's energy into the thin metal and is deflected upward sharply, thus tearing the metal as it continues on.
