During the Vietnam war some [hard-up] soldiers would chip off pieces from ordnance and eat HMX/RDX to get high.mrvmax wrote:Yep, had to be pretty safe to handle under most circumstances. Some guys did dumb things with it, one of them being eating small amounts. Supposedly small amounts ingested cause some temporary craziness but I never saw that first hand. I’ve been told C4 works well for small fires since it burns well. You just don’t want any shock on it when it’s burning.crazy2medic wrote:Crazy thing is it's relatively safe as long there is no blasting cap.
We used more C4 than I can remember, it was our main go-to explosive along with time fuse and igniters. I got to use a variety of stuff - c4, TNT, dynamite. C4 was best for most applications though, I regularly had bits of C4 on my Leatherman blade from cutting those 1 1/4 pound blocks. I still have my blasting cap crimpers and blasting cap box in my office.
One project I worked on many years ago was a process using HMX in high energy rocket propellants so we had to test it in the lab.
The procedure called for using DMSO as a solvent to suspend the particles. One of the lab techs didn't use his gloves and absorbed some of the material
through his skin. He went home sick that day. He told me that it was not a pleasant feeling. He learned from his mistake and always wore his gloves after that.