The unconfined fine grain pentaerythritol tetranitrate explosive columns whose size of φ5×5 mm2 and density of 1.2 g/cm3 were impacted and initiated by laser driven flyers launched from substrate backed aluminum films. The flyers were driven by single pulse from a Q-switched Nd:YAG (yttrium aluminum garnet) laser. The aluminum flyer plates were 5.5 and 10 μm in thickness, and had diameters of ∼1 mm. The induced stress in samples was intense but of only nanosecond duration. The initiation threshold of the explosive under such short pressure pulse (3.8 ns) was obtained in experiments as 7.1±0.2 GPa. The whole process of initiation had been simulated successfully using one-dimensional Lagrange hydrodynamic code SSS and a forest fire burn technique had been used in the simulation. The pressure and reaction fraction of explosive during the initiation process have been obtained and the theoretical results may be 20% higher than that of experiments.