The main ingredient in most percussion primers is actually lead styphnate. A few contain minute amounts of azide, but so little as to be of fairly
unusable consequence.
That being said, lead styphnate itself can be used as a primary effectively. It's VoD and brisance are fairly comparable to lead azide, and the
difference can be made up by slightly increasing the quantity and confinement. A couple grams in good confinement with 250mg or so of ETN pressed
under it makes for robust and reliable initiations for most energetics. Orders of magnitude safer to handle than TATP or HTMD as well. Just beware
of heat and static, as styphnate is very spark sensitive. |