[Ansteorra-archery] New Combat Archery Rule affecting Egg Baldar Blunts

[jspinks at ix.netcom.com]

Thank you for your reply and explanation Lord Eadric and please forive my ire.  The points you bring up are indeed valid.  With the units that I have the tip of the baldar extends to 3/8" past the 1" diameter point and the max diameter is 1-5/16".  The sides of the tip are quite steep at this point and I can see a possibility of them sticking between bars and increasing their opening size if they were to hit just right. It occurs to me to wonder whether we are fixing the problem or just uncovering another in whether the face grills in question had the proper opening size to begin with.  As you point out- the accuracy of crossbows is greatly improved although my own experience is that bows get about a 25% misfire rate.  This has prompted myself and a number of other archers to switch to crossbow- simply for safety and accuracy of fire.  With this in mind- I am wondering if the increased use of crossbows with attendant increased accuracy may not be another part of the issue.

Jacques

-------Original Message-------
From: Eadric Anstapa <eadric at scabrewer.com>
Sent: 04/19/03 12:17 AM
To: ansteorra-archery at ansteorra.org
Subject: Re: [Ansteorra-archery] New Combat Archery Rule affecting Egg Baldar Blunts

>
> ----- Original Message -----
From: <jspinks at ix.netcom.com>
>
> Which means the 50 new Baldars I just assembled are basically worthless.
Although cheaper
> than a lawsuit it is getting way too expensive and difficult to be a
combat archer (maybe that is the
> intent?).  I reckon the same is now going to apply to the back end of
the
arrow as well and we
> will have to revisit that issue too?

I assure you that this was not about money, it was about safety and
liability.  It is a shame that there are people who have spent money on
these blunts who can now not use them, particularly since it is about the
most expensive blunt that you can put on an arrows costing about three
times
as much as a home made blunt.

In the 30 some odd year history of combat archery in the SCA  to my
knowledge we have never had a properly made Modified Markland Blunt (this
includes UHMW cored blunt) enter thru the grill on a legal helm and hurt
someone.  However in the 1 year that this blunt has been allowed there
have
been three incidents of it entering more than 1/2" into a grill and while
nobody has been hurt there have been people who got the face bruised
(luckily it wasn't an eye).  The reports of these striking too hard and
causing excessive bruising have been too numerous to count.  Something had
to be done.

The sad fact is that the Society Combat Archery Marshal was not involved
or
consulted on the approval of this blunt.  She was told last year at Gulf
War
by the person who was at that time the Earl Marshal that he had approved
them and that they were now allowed society wide.  The archery marshallate
was basically not involved in the approval process.  Unfortunately,
Ansteorra followed suite and allowed these blunts without doing testing of
our own and we need to make sure that doesn't happen again.

The same has not been true with APDs.  The Society Combat Archery has been
given a lot of grief over the time taken to approve new APDs and on the
APD
designs that she has failed.  She is simply doing her job and wants to
make
sure that every approved design is safe and that we can hopefully avoid
similar situations where something is approved hastily and then later have
it's approval withdrawn.

Shortly before Gulf War the new Asgard APDs where approved at the society
level. I was given similar grief by people who wanted me to instantly
approve them for use Ansteorra without having ever seen the final design.
(keep in mind that these people pressing me to approve the APDs had never
even seen them themselves).  When I stated that I would not approve them
without seeing the final design and having the opportunity to test them
myself I was accused jeopardizing our war preparation efforts by giving
the
Trimarians a "material advantage".  I simply did not want to endanger the
health or the pocketbooks of our archers and in the end they were
approved.

I don't think that any of our currently approved APD designed are in
danger
of being withdrawn.  I think most agree that they provide the designed
level
of safety as long as they are well made.

Before any of us get too upset lets remember that sometimes there is a
silver lining.  When the APD ruling was handed down there were many people
up in arms.  Two years later we know the silver lining is that APDs have
actually helped crossbows and improved their accuracy by balancing out the
heavy blunts.  Even if we don't yet recognize it, perhaps there will be a
silver lining here.

I think the glass is far more than half full.

Lord Eadric Anstapa
Kingdom Archery Marshal, Ansteorra
eadric at scabrewer.com




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