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<DIV><FONT face=Arial>greetings </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>master pug , it may be a quick and dirty version of the
history, but a very accurate one it is indeed ; )</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>and much better written than my earlier
reply.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>be safe, be happy, have fun</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial>arthur </FONT></DIV>
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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message ----- </DIV>
<DIV
style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; FONT: 10pt arial; font-color: black"><B>From:</B>
<A title=pug@pug.net href="mailto:pug@pug.net">Pug Bainter</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>To:</B> <A
title=ansteorra-archery@lists.ansteorra.org
href="mailto:ansteorra-archery@lists.ansteorra.org">'Archery within the
Kingdom of Ansteorra'</A> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Sent:</B> Tuesday, February 10, 2009 8:05
AM</DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial"><B>Subject:</B> [Ansteorra-archery] Survival of
Combat Archery</DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV>Good Morning,<BR><BR> I think there is something that a
few of us have seen because of our roles<BR>in the upper archery marshal
arena, that the majority of the archers have<BR>not. This viewpoint is one
that gives new light onto some of the arguments<BR>when issues with Combat
Archery come up. This is a very simplified history<BR>with a lot of other
arguments in between, but it gives you an idea.<BR><BR> Combat Archery
was founded and there were very few archers, but they were<BR>having fun and
kept coming back despite having their ammo destroyed all the<BR>time because
of the materials. In general the fighters are having a good<BR>time with it
because there are so few archers that even the good ones can<BR>only make a
limited amount of difference to a major battle.<BR><BR> During all of
this there are a vocal group of fighters including Knights<BR>that are arguing
that Combat Archery is unsafe and unrealistic. It should be<BR>banned from the
SCA so we can get on with fighting like real men do.<BR><BR> At some
point early in my fighting career (about 10-11 years ago now),<BR>Combat
Archery made a big leap in effectiveness on the battle field.
This<BR>effectiveness was due to two factors, the quality of the archers and
the<BR>quantity of the archers. Because of this, the argument about combat
archery<BR>not being safe came up and APDs were created a year or so later.
This caused<BR>a lot of combat archers to drop off the field because of the
anger they had<BR>or the cost/hassle of getting their equipment up to
standard.<BR><BR> During all of this there are a vocal group of fighters
including Knights<BR>that are arguing that Combat Archery is unsafe and
unrealistic. It should be<BR>banned from the SCA so we can get on with
fighting like real men do.<BR><BR> This was fine for a couple years and
then enough archers had switched to<BR>crossbow because of the effectiveness
and the quality and quantity of<BR>archers went up. Because of this, the
argument about it not being safe came<BR>up because of the complex rules and
there being too many styles of ammo and<BR>APD. This caused some angst and
cost/hassle so some combat archers dropped<BR>off the field.<BR><BR>
During all of this there are a vocal group of fighters including
Knights<BR>that are arguing that Combat Archery is unsafe and unrealistic. It
should be<BR>banned from the SCA so we can get on with fighting like real men
do.<BR><BR> There was a new design of Baldar blunts (eggs) that were
sold without<BR>going through the proper approval process. This caused a lot
of archers to<BR>spend money since they were very effective with the way they
transferred<BR>energy which meant that fighters called their shots more often.
After going<BR>through some testing, these were found to be unsafe and
recalled. This<BR>caused some angst and cost/hassle so some combat archers
dropped off the<BR>field.<BR><BR> During all of this there are a vocal
group of fighters including Knights<BR>that are arguing that Combat Archery is
unsafe and unrealistic. It should be<BR>banned from the SCA so we can get on
with fighting like real men do.<BR><BR> Things settled down and archers
came back to the field. This last year,<BR>there were incidents with the
recall of the one piece Baldar blunts because<BR>of a design flaw as well as
with some ammo at Pennsic that started another<BR>argument about the safety of
Combat Archery. This caused several years worth<BR>of Baldar blunt purchases
to be replaced, as well as all UHMW ammo to have<BR>to add foam and meet
previously non-existent maximum amounts of foam in<BR>front of the head rules.
This caused some angst and cost/hassle but it looks<BR>like it did not cause
any combat archers to drop off the field. Matter of<BR>fact, because of
intelligently planning ahead and working with other<BR>kingdoms there have
been few enough changes to the Ansteorran combat archers<BR>in the last
several years that I think we are getting more archers back on<BR>the
field.<BR><BR> During all of this there are a vocal group of fighters
including Knights<BR>that are arguing that Combat Archery is unsafe and
unrealistic. It should be<BR>banned from the SCA so we can get on with
fighting like real men do.<BR><BR> There were lots of side arguments
during all of this including some of my<BR>favorites of just using plain UHMW
heads without padding, getting rid of<BR>weight limits on bows, and using golf
ball heads without padding. As well,<BR>some of the Kingdoms weren't as well
informed during the rules changes and<BR>their archers are having some
problems now. There are a couple kingdoms that<BR>have fairly light poundage
on their crossbows and the most recent Society<BR>rules changes has caused a
fair number of the weapons to not be legal<BR>anymore and has probably caused
their archers to be angry and incur more<BR>cost to get back on the field, if
they do at all right now. Fortunately for<BR>us we paid attention to the data
our marshals had gathered and knew that the<BR>change would impact very few,
if any, of our combat archers.<BR><BR> So for us, our Earl Marshal, our
Archery Marshals, and our Crown, we have<BR>to figure out how to be diplomatic
and logical in our fight to keep combat<BR>archery around. We have to take the
moral high ground since anything else<BR>will just prove 'their' point. While
we may not like it or understand why it<BR>really matters in the long run,
unfortunately it sometimes means only being<BR>able to carry 15 pieces of ammo
at a time in the ravine in order to have<BR>Combat Archery at all in the
ravine.<BR><BR> This is *not* to say that we just roll over whenever
something stupid<BR>comes out, but it does mean we have to be well informed
about the<BR>circumstances and plead a reasonable case and not an emotional
knee jerk<BR>reaction. This will help combat archery to survive.<BR><BR>
Btw, the vocal group of fighters and Knights against this is a very
small<BR>group, but they are so rabid about their argument that they can cause
even<BR>the most pro-archery people to throw up their arms in surrender. I
was<BR>talking to a Knight about it just this weekend who had finally given
up<BR>because of the way it was making him to react.<BR><BR>Ciao,<BR><BR>Pug
Bainter<BR>Phelim Gervase called Pug<BR>Dark Horde Moritu - Barony of Bryn
Gwlad - Kingdom of Ansteorra<BR><A
href="mailto:pug@pug.net">pug@pug.net</A><BR><BR><BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Ansteorra-archery
mailing list<BR><A
href="mailto:Ansteorra-archery@lists.ansteorra.org">Ansteorra-archery@lists.ansteorra.org</A><BR><A
href="http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/ansteorra-archery-ansteorra.org">http://lists.ansteorra.org/listinfo.cgi/ansteorra-archery-ansteorra.org</A>
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