ya' know what else I heard about - piezoelectric igniters and trying to fit them into the nosecone with the CO2 cartridge for um, "impact".
and shotgun shell + hole in side where the powder is + primer cord = grenade
That's basically the premise behind these...
When the nose of that baby hits a target, it crushes the piezoelectric crystal at the tip...an electric charge runs back to the explosives in the cross-hatched area, which detonate causing the copper cone to invert and squirt their way through the target's armor plate.
A chemical penetrator has an advantage over a kinetic penetrator at a distance as it doesn't rely on the round's velocity, but the velocity of the explosion once it reaches the target.