And These Guys Get To Reproduce

[Emperor's Child]

Well, this is sort of a classic myth that does not have much basis in fact. Bombs and other munitions are typically designed to be dropped or damaged without exploding... Called Sailor Proofing or Soldier Proofing, depending on the background. Some of the newer bombs can even be shot or set afire and still wont explode.

[Phoenix-D]

C4 is sort of famous that way. You can supposedly set it on fire and all you get is some really nasty smelling smoke. No boom unless you hit it with just the right electrical spark.

[Thermodyne]

Phoenix-D said:
C4 is sort of famous that way. You can supposedly set it on fire and all you get is some really nasty smelling smoke. No boom unless you hit it with just the right electrical spark.

Wrong….Take a piece of C4 about the size of a golf ball and light it under a canteen cup of water, and you have almost instant boiling water. Many a Claymore fell victim to the cooking needs of soldiers in the field. Problem was when they reassembled them and put them back into stocks. It’s relatively safe to carry, and not have it go off from a near miss concussion, but hot shrapnel will set it on fire. Once upon a time, guys used to keep a block in the bottom of their rucks, with a pull detonator that could be quickly hooked to the ruck flap. If you had to drop your gear and bug out, you could hook it up and give the first guy to find the ruck a real bad day.

[Baron Munchausen]

Thermodyne said:

Wrong….Take a piece of C4 about the size of a golf ball and light it under a canteen cup of water, and you have almost instant boiling water. Many a Claymore fell victim to the cooking needs of soldiers in the field. Problem was when they reassembled them and put them back into stocks. It’s relatively safe to carry, and not have it go off from a near miss concussion, but hot shrapnel will set it on fire. Once upon a time, guys used to keep a block in the bottom of their rucks, with a pull detonator that could be quickly hooked to the ruck flap. If you had to drop your gear and bug out, you could hook it up and give the first guy to find the ruck a real bad day.

The way I heard it from a guy in the reserves (who apparently had real training experience but I didn't go check his credentials... ) is that C4 needs BOTH fire & 'shock' (percussion, physical jolt) to detonate. You can burn it and it's perfectly safe. You can pound it with a hammer and it's perfectly safe -- as long as it's NOT on fire when you pound it! If you light it on fire and then pound the burning chunk of chemicals it will explode. So those guys warming their coffee over a chunk of C4 had better not drop anything on their cookfire fuel.

This relatively stable nature is what makes C4 so useful to the military. There are certainly other explosives more powerful, but these are apparently much more dangerous to handle.

[Thermodyne]

Baron Munchausen said:


The way I heard it from a guy in the reserves (who apparently had real training experience but I didn't go check his credentials... ) is that C4 needs BOTH fire & 'shock' (percussion, physical jolt) to detonate. You can burn it and it's perfectly safe. You can pound it with a hammer and it's perfectly safe -- as long as it's NOT on fire when you pound it! If you light it on fire and then pound the burning chunk of chemicals it will explode. So those guys warming their coffee over a chunk of C4 had better not drop anything on their cookfire fuel.

This relatively stable nature is what makes C4 so useful to the military. There are certainly other explosives more powerful, but these are apparently much more dangerous to handle.

It takes energy. Put enough pressure on it and it will go off.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

/me recalls the movie 'Broken Arrow'...

[Randallw]

I just found out there is a Darwin Awards movie coming out next year. I reckon some of these would qualify.