Well that does make a lot of sense, but what about in cases where a bomb squad detonates a suspicious device/package. Wouldn't it make it rather hard to prove there was explosive material in the device to begin with?
Even if the package contained only the explosive – and no hardware – the resulting blast would be larger than expected from just the detonating charge. That would be proof enough it contained explosives.
"Well that does make a lot of sense, but what about in cases where a bomb squad detonates a suspicious device/package. Wouldn't it make it rather hard to prove there was explosive material in the device to begin with?"
When EOD detonate a suspected bomb, they use a small charge to destroy it. If it's a bomb (or several other substances that can be ignited or set off by shock) they get a secondary explosion that is larger than the little charge they used could be. Most EOD types will be able to tell from the sound if there was anything explosive there, even if there were no residue. (I'd not expect there to be NO residue, but very little is possible, but I'm neither an explosives expert nor a chemist.)