On Fri, 3 Jun 2011 10:38:03 +0000 (UTC), benevenutogiorno

#
##From the diagrams it looks like the detonators are blasting caps that
#are inserted about 1/3 of the way from the edge of the plate inside
#the explosive material.
#
#How the heck does this generate such velocities? There's no cartridge
#casing to contain the explosion, there's no barrel and the whole
#device is free to recoil backward (following Newton's Third Law: for
#every action there's an equal and opposite reaction). Why is a _thin_
#plate sufficient? I would think a _heavy_ plate would be more
#desirable.

Claymore explosive is C4.

C4 has a detonation velocity of 8,092 m/s (26,550 ft/s).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btNdSroBIns&feature=related

You will note in the video..the wide area beyond the target..replay as
necessary to note how the charge is focused by the thin steel plate and
spews the shot in a wide arc

#Is there something special about the dynamics of an explosion
#propagating along a metal plate? And why doesn't the metal plate need
#to be heavy? Can whatever's going on here be used to make a better
#shotgun?

There are low order to high order explosives. C4 is a moderately high
order explosive and the thin plate tends to focus the burn of the charge
from the back out to the front rather than in a 360' pattern.

Gunner

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Learn about rec.guns at                    http://www.recguns.net
-----------------------------------------------------------------