# Claymore anti personnel mine question
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Tags:** movies
**Created:** [October 6, 2025, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728 "2025-10-06T22:37:00Z")
**Posts on this page:** 17
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2025, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/1 "2025-10-06T22:37:00Z")
In a very tense scene in a Vietnam war movie (Platoon?) the protagonist is on forward watch one night when the shadowy figure of an enemy soldier slowly emerges from the misty underbrush and approaches him. Our guy glances down and realizes that if he lunges for the rifle at his feet that will provoke the attack on him. At the last second his sergeant spots the intruder, grabs a Claymore detonating device and pumps it three times until the Claymore explodes, unleashing a furious firefight.
From this scene I thought that the Claymore required several squeezes of the M57 detonator to fire it. But I was recently studying the Claymore system and can readily see that the M57 detonator is just a cheap magneto spark device and the mine itself just requires a blasting cap to be inserted in a socket.
Is the scene confusing or wrong or am I remembering it wrong?
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2025, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/2 "2025-10-06T22:41:51Z")
Is this the scene you’re thinking of? I don’t see anyone with a detonator, but there’s three flashes as someone yells “motherfucking claymore”.
Of course, I’m sure there’s other edits of it that may show someone hitting it three times or setting of three mines.
ETA, it’s cued up, check your sound, it gets loud right away.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNKBo0whRA8&t=88)
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2025, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/3 "2025-10-06T22:45:46Z")
Take it with a grain of salt, but I just went to close the window I opened to find the scene and noticed this from Google AI
> - While the “three-time squeeze” is a popular dramatic device in films and media, it is not an accurate depiction of the Claymore’s M57 firing device.
> - The detonator is a simple one-squeeze device, though a slight delay in detonation can sometimes be mistaken for multiple squeezes
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2025, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/4 "2025-10-06T23:08:37Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#):
>
> Is this the scene you’re thinking of? I don’t see anyone with a detonator, but there’s three flashes as someone yells “motherfucking claymore”.
Yes. Right after the first explosion you can see someone’s hand rapidly clicking a detonator three times.
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2025, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/5 "2025-10-06T23:13:47Z")
In another movie, maybe a Western, there is a funny scene involving an old fashioned dynamite detonator, the wooden box with the T handle coming out the top. Pulling the T handle up preps it and when you plunge it downward the magneto spins and the dynamite explodes. In this scene, after their careful setup, the guy pulls the T handle up and the explosion occurs immediately to their surprise.
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### Author:  [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)
#### Post date: [October 6, 2025, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/6 "2025-10-06T23:38:11Z")
> [@mixdenny](#):
>
> Yes. Right after the first explosion you can see someone’s hand rapidly clicking a detonator three times.
The safety bail (which prevents the handle of the detonator from closing) was in place, which is why he hits it repeatedly without the mine going off.
[ ](https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/23-23/fig12.gif)
Stranger
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### Author:  [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2025, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/7 "2025-10-07T01:21:31Z")
> [@mixdenny](#):
>
> In another movie, maybe a Western, there is a funny scene involving an old fashioned dynamite detonator, the wooden box with the T handle coming out the top. Pulling the T handle up preps it and when you plunge it downward the magneto spins and the dynamite explodes. In this scene, after their careful setup, the guy pulls the T handle up and the explosion occurs immediately to their surprise.
For some reason, I remember that being in The Monuments Men. But google searching fails to find it.
Also in the clip from Platoon, Sheen is trying to set off the claymore, but a veteran is yelling for him to take the safety off. So, yeah. He was pushing that handle A LOT for no effect.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2025, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/8 "2025-10-07T16:02:43Z")
So, it says “front toward enemy”. How much explosion goes aft, toward friendlies? How close is safe behind it?
And do they still use these?
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2025, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/9 "2025-10-07T17:34:02Z")
Here is a diagram of the firing and safety zones
[https://www.quora.com/If-you-stand-behind-a-claymore-mine-how-close-can-you-stand-before-getting-hurt](https://www.quora.com/If-you-stand-behind-a-claymore-mine-how-close-can-you-stand-before-getting-hurt)
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2025, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/10 "2025-10-07T17:41:52Z")
> [@Hypno-Toad](#):
>
> For some reason, I remember that being in The Monuments Men. But google searching fails to find it.
I did see Monuments Men a few months ago so that could be it.
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### Author:  [@Pork\_Rind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pork_Rind)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2025, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/11 "2025-10-07T17:51:15Z")
That is **significantly** more range, both forward and backward than I expected. For those that didn’t click on the link, the forward impact zone is **300 meters**! Rearward danger zone is 16 meters unless the mine is strapped to something that can fragment and blow back, in which case it’s 100 meters backwards
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2025, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/12 "2025-10-07T18:58:58Z")
I did a post a year ago about an incident at the North/South Korea safety zone that nearly flared into a war. At least one US soldier was killed. When the North Koreans massed as a show of force they were met with a wave of South Korean soldiers who stripped off their tunics and revealed that they each had a Claymore mine strapped to their chest! In fear and awe the North Koreans withdrew. That’s some serious dedication.
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2025, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/13 "2025-10-07T19:01:46Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#):
>
> For those that didn’t click on the link, the forward impact zone is **300 meters**!
The “sure kill” zone is designed to be 50 meters. You get 5 or 6 steel pellets streaming through you at 3900 ft/sec, Mach 3.
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### Author:  [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2025, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/14 "2025-10-07T19:12:41Z")
Official M57 (among other anti-personnel mines) instructions can be found here:
> **[FM23-23C2(73).pdf](https://www.bits.de/NRANEU/others/amd-us-archive/FM23-23C2(73).pdf)**
>
> 1179.63 KB
IIRC in actual training, soldiers were instructed to squeeze the detonator several times. This was because it was a non-battery-powered, piezo-electric device, and the first squeeze may not set it off. Multiple good, sharp squeezes in quick succession would ensure detonation.
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### Author:  [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)
#### Post date: [October 7, 2025, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/15 "2025-10-07T19:58:54Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> So, it says “front toward enemy”. How much explosion goes aft, toward friendlies? How close is safe behind it?
The blast wave goes everywhere, but the steel projectile fragments are arrayed on the front face of the mine, and those are the things you want to send toward the enemy. The blast wave can kill or injure in your direction over a relatively modest distance (in this case, 16 m as @Pork_Rind reports), but the fragments continue for a long distance toward the enemy after the blast wave that launched them has dissipated, much like a bullet continues long after the propellant that launches it has dissipated.
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [October 8, 2025, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/16 "2025-10-08T04:24:10Z")
> [@Dorjan](#):
>
> IIRC in actual training, soldiers were instructed to squeeze the detonator several times. This was because it was a non-battery-powered, piezo-electric device, and the first squeeze may not set it off. Multiple good, sharp squeezes in quick succession would ensure detonation.
I watched a video taking one apart and fixing it. When you press down the handle past a certain point a steel bar snaps up and completes the magnetic field. When you release it the bar snaps back down, collapsing the field and generating a 3 volt pulse. Not much to it. The magnets lose strength so most of the surplus ones have to have the magnets replaced and the case is not designed to be taken apart.
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2025, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/claymore-anti-personnel-mine-question/1023728/17 "2025-10-09T01:59:46Z")
> [@Pork\_Rind](#):
>
> That is **significantly** more range, both forward and backward than I expected. For those that didn’t click on the link, the forward impact zone is **300 meters**! Rearward danger zone is 16 meters unless the mine is strapped to something that can fragment and blow back, in which case it’s 100 meters backwards
That’s the maximum range. The maximum effective range is 50 meters. For safety reasons you don’t want to be closer to the blast than 300 meters but you really can’t count on anyone getting hit unless they are much closer. Just like the hand grenade, detonation of a claymore is a lot less impressive in person than it is in the movies.