Detonating Chlorates

[Sonny Jim]

I'm facing the problem of my AN supply drying out for a while. Therefore, I'm eager to find as many susbstitutes as possible before that may happen.

I've been thinking about detonating chlorates, as there is no way I'll ever run out of those. Now, I've heard bits and pieces about this and searched the forum, but I havn't really came up with anything detailed enough that I could follow and draw a success from.

I know some of you know! So please fire away if you can spare the time.

[DBSP]

I know Madog tried detonating chlorate/vasline charges using PETN dets some time ago, with various success. Don't remember what the topic was called though.

Found something at least:

http://www.roguesci.org/theforum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=33&highlight=chlorate+vaseline

try searching for chlorate + vaseline and the like.

[Sonny Jim]

Ah thanks DBSP. My search was dircted at 'detonating chlorates' and missed that topic entirely. I wrote that off as kewl balls, seemingly not!

[Anthony]

NaClO3 with 20%-25% Nitromethane and a 1-2gm AP or HMTD cap will behave much like ANNM.

You don't even need to powder the chlorate, although it won't absorb all the NM and I speculate that power is reduced.

Works with KNO3, NaNO3 etc too.

[Sonny Jim]

I have been speaking to a few people who have tried chlorates and only got partial dets. Thing was, they were all 100g or less charges. So I was thinking, if you treated chlorate compositions like ANFO, in that large amounts are used in a wide container for best results, it might work better. What do you think?

[Anthony]

The experiements I did were with ~100gm quantities in plastic bags.

[Sonny Jim]

Did it work as well as Madog's charge of that size, or did you suffer partial dets?

[Anthony]

Full dets :)