ARCH - History repeat itself
Eadric Anstapa
eadric at scabrewer.com
Wed Apr 11 09:34:38 PDT 2001
All right, this is me Eadric speaking as Eadric not as any office that I hold.
1. Gilli, Talon and any others who are passionate about this issue, if you
are really interested then you should be participating on the SCA Missle
Combat list. If the Ansteorran Archery community feels strongly about this
then you can not remain isolated and must instead get involved with the
archery community for the other kingdoms.
2. We are NOT talking about some sort of Anti-Bounceback-Device. Bounceback
is going to happen and as mentioned previously the cosequence of eliminating
bounceback is that the engery is istead transferred to the target and you
have harder hitting arrows.
The injuries that occured at Gulf War WERE NOT BOUNCEBACK injuries. In the
most serious one the projectile struck the knights sword and then pivited end-
for-end continuing forward to penetrate the helmet grill/faceflate nock-end
first. The second the projectile struck the spear tip of a spearmen and then
flipped end-for-end continuing on and penetrated the grill/faceplate of a
fighter. Neiether of these were bounceBACK injuries. Head/Blunt design
would likely not have helped.
3. Part of me agrees with Gilli and Talon. A safer solution is to require
eye protection.
However an even safer solution is to ban combat archery all together.
If there are 15000 armored fighters in the Known World and a generous
estimate of 1000 combat archers who do you think the SEM is going to please?
Eye protection is uncomfortable to many and can be costly particularly if you
must have precription safety goggles. They fog and get spotted with sweat.
Full lexan face shield like worn in paintball are hot and restrict airflow.
4. What the SEM has asked for are Safer Alternatives. Some way to reduce
the possibility of grill/faceplate penetrations and if a penetration should
occur then to reduce/limit the damage that will be done over a simple plastic
nock or shaft.
5. Bulbous nocks that accomplish what the SEM is asking are not all bad.
There are some positives. They help balance the otherwise very tip heavy
combat shaft and can actually improve it's flight characteristics at longer
ranges. They can actually make the arrow/bolt easier to handle, draw from a
quiver and manipulate with a gloved/gauntleted hand because there is more on
the nock-end to grab hold to.
6. There are ofcourse disadvantages to bulbous nocks. All arrows and bolts
would have to be retrofitted. Combat crossbows will like have to be
redesigned. We will all have to learn to adjust and shoot with them.
7. Once again, this is not an Ansteorran issue, this is a Society Wide
issue. If you feel strongly about it then you should be present on the SCA
Missle Combat list discussing the matter with archers and marshals from the
known world. There are a lot of Creative people in this Society. Lets be
creative and make positive recomendations backed with real data that mean
something. Writing letters, complaining, and saying "I dont want it" are not
going to get you anywhere.
Always in Service,
Eadric
eadric at scabrewer.com
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