Hey Sandstrike,
Thanks for the solution. I should have updated this a couple weeks ago when I finally sorted out the problem but this is helpful for others who might have the same confusion.
You are 100% correct. My error was ultimately related to two things… a misunderstanding of what the impact normal actually is and a rotator that wasn’t working as I intended. I thought the impact normal vector result depended on the angle of the line trace it came from but, as you say, it doesn’t. It will always be orthogonal to the surface it hits, no matter how it hits it.
Thanks!
SVR33