What a very strange question. You're describing explosions of devices. The cartridge, the M-80. And you're describing associated devices being damaged. The gun doesn't explode, it is damaged by the 'exploding' cartridge. The mailbox doesn't explode. The 'relief channel' is designed into the device, such as the gun, But let mud get into the barrel, and watch the force get vented otherwise. The door of the mailbox doesn't have to open. The box may or may not be deformed/damaged by the M-80, with or without the door opening. In fact, the box could be damaged by the localized explosion, even with the door open. I'll not tell you where I got my training with explosives, but I can tell you that they've been in business for a long time, and that their training is frequently called upon to change someone's lifestyle. I will again endorse the choice of using stump rotting chemicals, and ignoring you.
As I said in an earlier post, true explosives do not need any confining at all to do their damage. Think about it. Does a stick of TNT need confining to explode? No. Will it do damage if just laying on the ground? Yes. You can enhance the damage by tamping it into the blast hole, but it is not necessary. C4 explosive needs no confining and can be molded to whatever suface you wish to destroy. It can be shaped to do more damage. If you had a flat piece of C4 and scooped out a depression in it, oddly enough that depression is where the most damage will be done. Smokeless powder that is used in modern firearms is NOT an explosive. If you burn small arms ammunition the majority of the cartridges will not detonate, they will rupture relatively harmlessly and burn. ANFO is also a true explosive that needs no confining. And it is perfectly legal to buy the components, just like blackpowder and smokeless powder, and perfectly legal to use any of theses for their intended purposes, but it is absolutely not legal to use any of them to make an explosive device.
Gunpowder isn't unstable, as you well know. Some people are just scared of anything they don't know. OTOH, you apparently haven't been around people who do know how to blow stuff up without making a complete botch of it. You have to shape the charge or at least direct it.
But to the larger topic. Your description of how hard this wood is, sounds like a troll. Or, you have really crappy tools. A simple brace and bit would have bored those holes just fine, let alone using any power equipment. You have had these stumps for years. If you had drilled a few holes and put potassium nitrate in the holes, most of your problem would be solved, and the potassium nitrate if put into the wood holes would not affect your well. You best solution is still to bore deep holes, add potassium nitrate, wait a year, and then burn the stumps. First, don't buy some fancy stump dissolver since it is just plaint potassium nitrate. If you can't find it, just use ammonium nitrate (common fertilizer), pack the holes, add water, and seal the hole if you want. To burn these stumps, a contained fire would work a lot better, although a hot maintained fire will also work. You will need a bunch of fuel, so you need to build a bonfire around the stump.
Of course, a much simpler solution is what everyone clearing land does, buldoze the stumps into a pile and burn them.
Buying potassium nitrate at a hugely inflated price as salt peter isn't really smart. And, unless you live in a very warm and wet climate, the salt peter isn't going to make the stump easlily cut out in a few month. Try 3-4 years and even longer depending on they type of tree.
_Neither_ smokeless powder (eg: pyradex) or blackpowder are explosives.
["Explosive" being defined officially as when the gas expansion is above the speed of sound.]
The difference between gunpowder and smokeless powder is simply that gunpowder's coefficient of combustion is such that it burns _very_ fast even if uncontained - but still not an explosive shock wave.
How fast depends on the grain size (primarily). Antique firearms usually use FFFFg (very fine) or FFFg (fine). Antique firearms simply don't work properly with coarser black powder.
The only way you can get blackpowder to "go boom" is contain it inside something like a pipe with threaded on ends. Then you're getting the boom from the pipe overpressuring and throwing bits.
Pyradex, when unconfined burns fairly slowly comparatively.
Sorry no. Blackpowder does the "flash, lose eyebrows" trick[+]. Pyradex uncontained is _much_ tamer. More like safety matches burning.
The only way you can get firearms to work with pyradex is to contain it to build pressure, then it burns much faster. Blackpowder burn rate doesn't depend nearly as much on pressure.
If blackpowder was an explosive, you couldn't make rocket motors with it. You couldn't use it in a firearm (it's a little late to find that out now ;-)
The chinese started flying blackpowder rockets around 1000AD.
Kids fly model rockets with blackpowder motors (ordinary ESTES model rocket motors) every day.
I fly amateur rockets (I'm certified to motors that can throw a 25 pound rocket 3000' up). While the fuel grains themselves aren't blackpowder (AP actually), we used blackpowder to pressure-eject the recovery system (usually a parachute).
If blackpowder was explosive, the rocket would come down in itty bitty bits. Which can ruin your whole day.
We generally don't use pyradex (despite it being a lot easier to get these days) for ejection charges because when used as we use blackpowder, it produces gas too slowly. To use pyradex, you have to try moderately complicated containment methods that let pressure build up high enough to get the burn rate fast enough, and then let the pressure out without blowing a hole in the rocket.
[+] A friend of mine lost his eyebrows and got a free facial peel from the flash when he got a little too close to a teaspoon of gunpowder set off in a dish. The dish survived. Only slightly melted. If blackpowder was explosive, the dish would be in itty bitty bits. My friend survived just fine too. Lost some acne scars in the process... Some people pay a lot of money for that process... ;-)
Do note that getting ANFO to work _properly_ requires care in selecting ingredients (beyond simply the right chemicals), mixing ratios, etc. McVey tried for quite a while before he got it right.
Secondly, ANFO is difficult to set off. One of it's great attractivenesses is that it's very stable and safe to handle. If you light it, it just burns. Like the fuel oil it contains. You need a pretty violent shock - a blasting cap (or even a stick of dynamite) - to make it detonate. ANFO is great for large scale application. They carry it around in pumper trucks on large quarry sites, and just pour it down the holes. Insert blasting cap, insert a wad of something to seal the hole, and fire the cap.
For a onsey-twosey remove stump job, hiring a contractor to come by with a couple sticks of dynamite is a lot more effective.
Very unsafe. The prison term is when you manufacture explosives without a license. Or store it without a LEUP. Plus violating local ordinances about permits etc.
[As I understand it, and perhaps still even now, I'd merely need to go to the Ontario Provincial Police, say "I want to blow up three stumps at this address at such and such an address", they give me a permit (if they think what I'm doing is reasonable), which gives me permission to purchase the appropriate number of dynamite sticks, and then I can set the stuff off myself as per the permit. Without having a "license" per-se. But the SO won't let me, so I've not gotten to test my understanding... ;-)]
In fact, there's a similar trick you can play with TNT sticks. Let say you want to punch a hole in a rock. Take three sticks of TNT and prop them up as a "teepee" above where you want the hole. Fire all three at once. The shock waves reinforce each other and punch a hole straight down.
Similarly, black powder as used in antique firearms is NOT an explosive either.
If it was, the gun would simply explode in your face, REGARDLESS of whether there was a bullet in front of the charge or not.
look in the yellow pages under tree care or aborists. find those who advertise stump grinding. get some bids. hire one. that is THE best way to do it. youwill endup with piles of rich mulch, nothing broken or screwed up and lighter in the pocket with a job well done
I know. And getting mushrooms started on the stump will break it down, too. Only reason I mentioned the saltpeter is because the stump rotting product had already been mentioned, with the same ingredient. Even if it took a 50 pound bag of ammonium nitrate, it would be better than an amateur trying his hand with blasting stumps.
Anything can cause an explosion if it generates gases quickly enough within an enclosed space. Even water, in a BLEVE with a water heater with overtemperature and a failed/nonexistant popoff protection. But it really agravates me to see those 'Hollywood' fires in which a gallon of gasoline, poured on the floor, 'causes' an explosion. Another thing that sets me off is the flashes that are supposed to indicate gunshot hits.
If I were dead set on blowing stumps with gunpowder, I'd make some pipe bombs a little smaller than the hole in the tree. With care about getting powder into the threads.
Weeeel, fresh out of school young Johnson started his business as a tree surgeon. His first job was a contract to remove a stubborn tree stump in a farmer's field. Not having done it before he wasn't quite sure how much dynamite to use. Rather than appear stumped he pulled out his tape measure and took a lot of measurements in every way he could while he figured out what to do. Finally he couldn't stall any longer and went ahead.
BOOM. He must have used a bit too much dynamite. The stump left a neat hole in the ground and arched gracefully into the air. And landed right on top of his truck's cab.
The farmer's jaw dropped. He was impressed.
"Hey young fella. With a bit more practice your will get it to drop that on the box everytime."
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