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<div class="moz-text-html" lang="x-western">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.<br>
<br>
Note this is <i><b>Effective Immediately</b></i>. Your ammo will
not pass inspection until it meets these new requirements.<br>
<br>
Yes, the cost in materials and more importantly time for a group like
mine that has thousands of pieces of ammo is staggering.<br>
<br>
Regards,<br>
<br>
-EA<br>
<br>
<br>
============================================<br>
The Ruling:<br>
<br>
------------------------<br>
<br>
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:<br>
<br>
* Combat Archery ammunition may have at most 1" thick padding on the
tip after taping.<br>
<br>
* 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.<br>
<br>
* 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.<br>
<br>
* 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".<br>
<br>
---------------------------<br>
<br>
The Explanation:<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
If archers have more than 1" of foam on the tip, it needs to be taped
down tighter, or a little bit cut off.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
In Service,<br>
Siegfried - Society Combat Archery Marshal<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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