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

[Marlin and Amanda Stout]

Eadric Anstapa wrote:
> 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
Okay, I'd like a  couple of clarifications here, please.

The descriptions given referred to UHMW/rubber stopper ammo. Is this a 
rubber stopper as the striking surface of a UHMW round, or are some 
kingdoms allowing use of rubber stoppers /instead/ of UHMW? If they're 
allowing stoppers as the striking part of the round (without padding, or 
with less padding) what is the chance that that's why this is happening? 
That the structure of the round is compressible, and is allowing it to 
penetrate where a straight UHMW/foam round may not?

Second, just how in Hell are we supposed to inspect the depth of foam on 
the head of a round when the side is wrapped in a half-inch of 
compressed foam? You can tell 'about' where the head ends, but not 
enough to accurately measure it, especially if we're going to make the 
owner cut off any excess. Or are we supposed to allow a certain margin 
of error here, which the ruling doesn't seem to allow?

What concerns me here is, we require no /less/ than 1" of padding on our 
arrows. Now Society is telling us we can have no /more/ than 1", and we 
are going to be a bit less able to accurately test the depth of the 
padding. So, how can we be sure any of our ammo meets the new 
requirements without disassembly? As a marshal who will have to enforce 
this, I really want to know now, before I have to go inspect somebody's 
ammo.

What I would suggest would be that we look at coming up with some kind 
of standard for how 'squishy' the foam in our rounds (and other weapons) 
can be. Because I'd think that making the foam stiff enough would help 
reduce the penetration problem, while still giving us the compression we 
need for safety.

And, before any yells at me about it, I know that this is a Society 
mandate, and we have to enforce it now. What I'd like to see, though, is 
that we start looking for a better answer now, so maybe we can get the 
ruling adjusted later on into something safe, but easier to administer.

Charles MacKinnon,
Archery marshal at large

PS: Would a layer of 1/4" neoprene give enough of a wrap for this? I've 
been using it for the striking surface of my rounds for years, I'd think 
it's make a good sidewrap as well.