By means of [Formula: see text] emulsion track detectors, we report the characteristics of the experimental angular distributions of the fast target protons (grey particles) emitted in interactions of [Formula: see text]O with emulsion nuclei at 3.7A[Formula: see text]GeV. Grey tracks in nuclear emulsion corresponding protons with kinetic energy in the ranges [Formula: see text][Formula: see text]MeV. The angular distributions are compared with those resulting from interactions of other projectiles ([Formula: see text]C, [Formula: see text]Ne and [Formula: see text]Si) at nearly the same incident energy. These angular distributions are studied at different target sizes ([Formula: see text]-values) and at various projectile spectator charges ([Formula: see text]-values) in the framework of the modified Maxwell– Boltzmann statistical model. The nuclear limiting fragmentation hypothesis is shown to be fulfilled for these target protons angular distributions which are found to be independent of the target size and centrality of collisions. Also, the size of the projectile is found to be ineffective at Dubna energies. The angular distributions of all groups of events possess peaks positioned at [Formula: see text]. The calculated statistical moments of the distributions along with skewness and kurtosis are investigated in addition to the forward-backward asymmetry ratio [Formula: see text] for the different groups of events.