Seamines and WWII;
I beleive they were required to hit the prongs on the side, at least that was what was said on a program on the history channel the otherday when they had a program on minesweepers and mines.
As for EOD, I was looking into it kinda half assed am still. The MOS info goes on about sending some of their personl to sniper school. It could be a come on for recruitment or for filling other roles.
Water charges: They again had a program on that on some channel the other day as well. Them dammned Canadians came up with it. Which blows the entire device to pieces using the force of the water that is non compressable. They showed alot of video of it, blowing 105 rounds all over as well as the contents of the tunk and the rest of the bombs. It was cool! <Basicaly a water claymore, using the water as a shaped charge.>
Robots, many of them at least in civi hands have shotguns. They used one to deliver a message to Randy Weave of Ruby Ridge Fame, he refused because the robot had the shotgun on it and per his Senate Testimony he was in fear for his life.
I also saw durring an event near my office down town when the police cordoned off a street and sent in their robot, after fouling up the manipulation of their robot, knocking the case over, dropping it, almost knocking it down the storm drain, pulling the plug on it because the power cord was not longer enough they shot the package with the mounted shotgun which blew the package to pieces.
I would suggest:
If one were to shoot specific components of a device you could damage it and prevent it from detonating. Especialy devices with electical components.
I further suggest that rounds that are not fused will not explode with just a rifle shot. Comp B and C-4 are probably some of the more stable explosives out there and C-4 well it is used and abused by troops in the field with out any ill effects.
I think if you can damage the mechanism without detonating the blasting cap/detonator then you can render the explosive safe. However most blasting caps or detoantors are a bit sensitive. So, a round hitting the thing is lible to set it off which would in turn set off the explosive.
A problem with mortar rounds and some other rounds. They have an internal safety. They will need to be fired and do several rotations <also with rounds fired from a grenade launcher> to have them arm. So, that gives a chance of the device not exploding if hit.