[Ansteorra-archery] Combat Archery - New Society Marshallate Ruling

[Eadric Anstapa]

As a Combat Archer unless you are using only Baldar Blunt's this 
probably effects YOU.  I don't know of any Ansteorran archers that are 
already doing this.  In essence it means ALL of our UHMW cored blunts 
have to be reworked.

Note this is   /*Effective Immediately*/.  Your ammo will not pass 
inspection until it meets these new requirements.

Yes, the cost in materials and more importantly time for a group like 
mine that has thousands of pieces of ammo is staggering.

Regards,

-EA


============================================
The Ruling:

------------------------

Effective immediately by the Society Earl Marshal & the Deputy Society 
Earl Marshal for Combat Archery, the following changes to equipment are 
required due to repeated incidents of helm penetrations:

* Combat Archery ammunition may have at most 1" thick padding on the tip 
after taping.

* All UHMW & Siloflex/Rubber Stopper ammunition must have a side wrap of 
foam added that brings the total diameter of the blunt to at least 1.5" 
after taping.  This wrap must extend from the tip to at least 1/2" over 
the UHMW or Siloflex itself.

* All fletches on any arrows, bolts, or thrown weapons can project no 
further than 1/2" from the shaft, or must be 1.5" thick.

* NOTE:  All Marshals need to be rigorous in their inspections of all 
tips (arrows & thrusting) and mass weapons.  Ensure that the foam is 
firm, will not bend over, returns to shape when compressed, and can not 
be easily pushed into a legal helm more than 1/2".

---------------------------

The Explanation:

  For those that do not know, there were a couple of incidents of the 
foam/tape of UHMW combat arrows touching the face/eyes of people at Gulf 
Wars this year.  There were more incidents at a West/AnTir war, and at 
another event recently.  Much discussion has therefore been going on at 
Society Level about this potential issue ever since Gulf Wars.

  At Pennsic in the Town Battle on Wednesday, there were 4 incidents of 
foam/tape penetrating helms that were reported.  Yes, 4 in one battle.  
Two of them resulted in minor injury.  One was a busted blood vessel in 
an eye, the other resulted in a bruise (black eye).  All of these 
penetrations happened to be UHMW/RubberStopper style ammo.  In one case, 
the rubber stopper itself had penetrated a bit.

  In all of these cases, the UHMW or Siloflex respectively did it's job 
and didn't let any hard parts of the arrow enter the helm.  But 
obviously the force involved with just the foam/tape, from max poundage 
bows at close range, is significant enough to be concerned about.

  At Pennsic, when this happened, CA was canceled for the next battle 
(Mountain Pass) that was scheduled for that day.  Especially because 
that battle had been scheduled to be face plate only so it didn't seem 
to be a good idea at the moment.

  The MiC Pennsic made a ruling that for Siloflex/Rubber ammo to be 
allowed for the rest of pennsic that they would need to add a side 
wrap.  The Local Wal-Mart was bought out of Camp Mats, and much taping 
happened that night so that archers could shoot the next day.

  Later in the war, meetings were held since many Kingdom Earl Marshals 
were in attendance, as well as myself and the Society Earl Marshal.  
These issues were discussed, as well as the fact that Low Profile 
Thrusting tips & Mass Weapons depending on their construction can be 
forced into a helm.  Also it was brought up that there was an incident 
of a polearm entering a helm in the Woods Battle and contacting 
someone's cheek.

  After much discussion, the rulings above were developed.  Basically, 
we already have a rule that weapons should not be able to enter a helm 
more than 1/2", and that people need to be constructing their weapons 
such that this doesn't happen, and the marshals ensuring that weapons 
are done this way.

  Additionally the other rules were added to ammunition.  This is 
because ammo travels with such velocity that we need to be extra 
vigilant to ensure that we do not cause any injury.   The rules as 
designed were done specifically so that they are easy RETROFITS.

  Noone should need to remake any ammunition from scratch.  Instead just 
add a side wrap of foam overtop of existing ammo, and tape it down 
good.   To meet the letter of the law, a 1/8" wrap of foam will not be 
sufficient, since after taping down, it will compress and be less than 
1.5" in diameter.   Therefore two layers of 1/8" foam, or a layer of 
1/4" foam would need to be added and taped down well.

  Note that this side wrap IS required, you cannot just use bigger 
diameter UHMW or Siloflex.  The reason is that by adding the sidewrap, 
you are making the foam on the tip much stiffer, protecting the edges of 
the UHMW, etc.

  If archers have more than 1" of foam on the tip, it needs to be taped 
down tighter, or a little bit cut off.

  Also in general archers need to think about their arrow tips as 
thrusting tips and building them 'solid' like you would a sword tip.  
Using high quality dense foam, and/or using oversized foam and 
compressing it as you tape it down so that it ends up a very firm tip 
that doesn't compress much, especially circumferentially.

In Service,
Siegfried - Society Combat Archery Marshal



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