If the stump is away from anything you don't want damaged I used to take a bit brace with a long 1" auger bit and drill a hole into the stump at a downward angle 10-12" deep, pack it with 1/2 to-3/4" ( I'm guessing 500- 600 grains or so) of black powder. Take a 3-4" piece of 1 1/4 dowel and drill a hole through it to put a piece of cannon fuse through it then drive the "fuse plug" tight all the way down into the hole in the stump with a piece of pipe. Then stand back and touch it off. On a bigger stump 3-4 may be needed but usually it that will break one up enough to be able to hook onto it with the truck and it will pull right out pretty easy , if it doesn't pop it out entirely. No Muss,, No Fuss. Just go under ground level as much as possible though and it will pop the main roots right off so it comes out real easy. Plus you don't get a bunch of racket or debris flying all over Hell. We used to blow them all the time that way on the farm.
I know some of you chuckle heads would probably get carried away, but let me tell ya a little powder will go a hell of allot further than you might think, doing it the way we used to. On our 2nd or 3 rd attempts at removing stumps we had a BIG old Oak stump, and I mean a huge one, maybe 4-5 ' crossed. It was in the corner of a corn piece we had and Pa figured a bit more powder than normal would be better at getting that one out,,,,,
Well he put the powder right to it alright,,,in 5-6 spots and he rigged it with model rocket ignitors and when he touched it off ,,,WELL,,that frigging thing,,,
did a half rotation in mid air and landed back in the hole with the roots pointing at the sky and debris and shit raining down for 30 seconds afterwards, from 100 yards away, and you could even feel the ground shake ,,,:fear::fear:
"yup,,,just a bit to much powder there Pa??" :wow::lol::lol::lol:
Not sure of the new legality's involved with doing it that way nowadays, but that's how we got rid of stumps back in the day. It usually lifts the stumps right out of the ground pretty much in one piece and you can just drag them away and fill the hole in and your done. Fast and cheap too, we could remove 5-6 medium sized stumps with a lb of black powder, and be done in 2-3 hours or so, holes back filled and all.