in theory it can happen with any weapon, it's more noticeable with the mauls because they are longer (so you see them physically "in the ground" at the end of the animation), and they can crush through. Would be nice if the end of animations just didn't do any damage, I know there's a window in the animation that can be set to do some damage, full damage, basically no damage, etc.
I think the only problem with that, is what about when you're on terrain, or something like that...not all situations are static, but the amount of damage compared to where you're at in the animation does stay the same. It's always been annoying when a maul is sitting in the ground and they helicopter spin it on the ground and you get crushthroughed or knocked down...but I don't know what can be done to fix it without fucking something else up. I think they tried their best (and succeeded for the most part) with the limiting of how much you can turn with heavy weapons once you swing them (basically it ended helicopter swinging great mauls/pikes).