My experience with dynamite and blasting caps dates from, literally, fifty years ago.When transporting the materials, we had the caps and dynamite in different, separate vehicles. They never met until the dynamite was armed with the cap. My mentor instructed me to always know where the plunger was at all times, preferably in my hip pocket, and disconnected from the wires.

We did not blast during lightning storms...needless to say. Scholarly, mild mannered archaeologists does not usually employ dynamite, but when it absolutely, positively, must move, nothing beats a half stick.