Jordan Derrick—widely known as Dugan Ashley—joins Eric Zurface and Matt Landfair for a safety-centered discussion of foundational explosives concepts. The episode focuses on terminology, risk, professional context, common misunderstandings, and the importance of qualified instruction and lawful handling.
Listen to the Episode
Episode Overview
Explosives are frequently discussed through entertainment, informal experimentation, or oversimplified internet explanations. Those sources can obscure the distinction between broad scientific concepts and the specialized knowledge required to work safely and legally around energetic materials. ModCast 402 approaches the subject as a professional risk-management discussion rather than a construction guide.
The conversation introduces basic conceptual categories while emphasizing that explosives present hazards that may not be visible, intuitive, or recoverable once a mistake begins. Material sensitivity, confinement, initiation, contamination, storage, environmental conditions, legal restrictions, and the condition of components can all change risk. Familiarity with firearms does not automatically translate into competence with explosives.
Host and Guests
- Jordan Derrick, known as Dugan Ashley — creator of CarniK Con, filmmaker, and early GunTube innovator.
- Eric Zurface — U.S. Army EOD veteran and current police officer.
- Matt Landfair — Primary & Secondary founder and ModCast host.
Key Discussion Areas
- Terminology: establishing useful distinctions among broad classes of energetic materials and explosive effects.
- Safety culture: understanding why disciplined procedures, supervision, distance, protective measures, and conservative decision-making matter.
- Professional competence: distinguishing informed work by trained personnel from experimentation based on incomplete knowledge.
- Risk assessment: recognizing that sensitivity, confinement, contamination, degradation, and environmental conditions can alter hazards.
- Legal considerations: acknowledging that possession, manufacture, storage, transportation, and use are governed by overlapping laws and regulations.
- Media misconceptions: separating entertainment depictions and internet folklore from responsible technical understanding.
- Consequences: treating small quantities and familiar-looking materials with appropriate seriousness because errors can cause permanent injury, death, fire, and property damage.
Safety and Scope
This episode is presented for general education and historical documentation. It is not a substitute for licensed professional instruction, agency-approved training, legal advice, or the procedures required for handling energetic materials. Readers and listeners should not attempt to manufacture, modify, test, transport, store, or dispose of explosives based on podcast or internet information.
Unidentified, deteriorated, abandoned, or suspicious materials should not be touched or moved. Establish distance, keep others away, and contact the appropriate emergency or bomb-disposal authority.
Practical Takeaways
- Do not mistake general technical interest for practical qualification.
- Explosives safety depends on complete systems and procedures, not isolated rules remembered from informal sources.
- Changes in material condition, confinement, environment, or handling can produce consequences that are not obvious to an untrained person.
- Legal requirements can apply to every stage, including acquisition, possession, manufacture, storage, transportation, use, and disposal.
- When material is unknown or suspect, distance and professional response are safer than inspection or experimentation.
- Responsible education should make risk clearer without turning explanation into an improvised how-to guide.
Release Information
- Episode: P&S ModCast 402 — Dugan & Eric Discuss Explosives
- Released: October 3, 2024
- Runtime: 1 hour, 29 minutes, 54 seconds
- Primary subjects: explosives fundamentals, terminology, safety, professional competence, risk, and legal context
People and Organizations
People: Jordan Derrick / Dugan Ashley · Eric Zurface · Matt Landfair
Associated communities: Primary & Secondary · CarniK Con · firearms media · professional explosives safety · technical education
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P&S ModCast 402 · Dugan and Eric Discuss Explosives · Dugan Ashley explosives podcast · Jordan Derrick · Eric Zurface · explosives safety · energetic materials · explosives terminology · explosives risk assessment · professional explosives training · legal explosives handling · CarniK Con · Matt Landfair · Primary & Secondary