Bean-Face ... and More!

[Scott White]

>The only concern I can see with the beans is having the canister they are
>in break open and throw beans through someone's face gril. 



OH NO!


BEANS TO THE FACE!



AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Remember in POLICE SQUAD when they'd throw a wig or a pillow on someone's
face and they'd go AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!?)

(Sorry Stefan, that's what it made me think of ...)




>Why the beans anyway? Do they rattle or make a crunch sound when they
>hit? Or is it just for increased mass? If so and the small size is a
>problem perhaps something larger can be found.

I think they pulled the cardboard tube out of a roll of TP, stuffed in a
handful of dried beans and taped the whole thing soundly. (I really don't
think the beans could have come out without the aid of a sharp knife.) The
beans made it rattle and maybe added a LITTLE weight ... to tell you the
truth, I really can't say why they put beans in them!


>I thought someone was kidding when I heard them talking about rebar in
>the projectiles. I guess not. Can someone give me more details? What
>kind of projectile was the rebar in? Were they coming loose from the
>projectile?


Sadly, it's no joke. Someone put pieces of re-bar in a taped tennis ball
catapult rock, assumedly to give it more 'heft.' 

My ballista firing partner was hit in the helm with one of these and heard
a metallic 'klunk.' (She was unhurt.) She reported it to the marshall after
the battle and the machine was pulled from the competition; the rest of the
engineers were given a stern lecture. To emphasize his point, I think, the
marshall also removed all machines that fired projectiles that were made of
ANY non-approved weapon materials, hence the beans being disallowed.

I never saw the machine that shot the re-bar rocks.

The part that really pisses me off about this is that Gulf War is possibly
the most siege weapon-friendly war there is; it would behoove us to set an
example for safe operation of siege engines in ALL SCA conflicts.

Gnith
<swhite at cimedia.com>