The article deals with the question of the effect of explosive characteristics of emulsion explosives on the shotpile width. Currently, there are two main points of view to select an efficient type of explosive, which contributes to the qualitative destruction (fragmentation) of coarse clastic rocks. The first is based on the assumption that the detonation velocity of explosives must correspond to the break-down point of the rock (dynamic compression). Another point of view is that the detonation pressure of explosives determines only the head part of the pulse, on which the rock fragmentation is dependent only near the charge, in the contact zone around the borehole. The fragmentation of the entire rock volume within a given borehole array depends on the total magnitude of the explosion pulse, determined not by the detonation velocity, but by the total energy reserve of the explosive charge. Experimental explosions with some of the most common industrial explosives have been carried out in the current conditions of blasting of borehole charges by various types of industrial explosives from the point of view to select the most important parameter, which determines its influence on the shotpile width The investigations have been carried out according to the data obtained to establish that the energy properties of explosives (heat of explosive transformation and density of explosives) determine the decisive influence on the shotpile width, and the operability, the volume of the released gases, the detonation velocity for the change in the shotpile width have very little effect and may not be taken into account in calculations for the prediction of the shotpile.