combat archery

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Savian states:
> 
> First, yes, I have tested the various heads on both the sending and 
> recieving ends.

Great!!

(edited) yes, it IS dangerous to do what we do in the SCA. I
> have not found a Thistle Missle to be more dangerous than a sword though,
> and I have been hit by a lot more arrows than swords. My conclusion is
> that the Thistle Missles DO STING when they hit, but not nearly so much as
> ANY of the few sword blows I have taken. 
>
Okay, so you are advocating thistle missles for use in heavy weapons 
combat only???  What about the marshalls???  

> The solution to the problems you name seems to be to police 
ourselves better.

Yes, and the Marshallate as a whole in this Kingdom is continually 
working on doing just that. Honour though is not enforcable. 

>Trying to blame this kind of safty problems on a rubber arrow 
> head doesn't make the game safer -- it makes it more dangerous by ignoring 
> the real problems.

True. I was not placing the blame on the thistle misstle itself. 
Yes, real problems need to be addressed.  

> As for the Marklands being cushier, how about the idea of adding a layer 
> of foam on top? It would be cheap and eazy to do.

True, have you introduced this idea to the marshallate.

> Finally, I will say there IS a place for physics in this discussion. 
> Physics is not just theory, it is the mathmatics that describes how 
> things work in the real world.  The 600 inch pounds I quoted translates 
> into real force from a real crossbow.  If someone states that this head 
> hits harder we can at least get an idea if this could be so from the 
> numbers. 

True, but I did not denigh that there is a place for physics. I was 
just trying to make the point that theory and practice are two 
different things. And to really prove a point you have to have 
physical evidence to back up the theory. 

I still am concerned for the marshalls! To play this version of our 
game they are required. How would you go about keeping fighters and 
marshalls safe in melees involving combat archery?

IMHO Combat archery is a problem waiting to be played out anyway 
because of the possibility of the fletch end possibly getting into a 
helm because of bounce back or piling up of fighters(where an arrow 
could get caught between fighters).  The marshallate is investigating 
ways to make this less likely.   

Lorraine Deerslayer