[Archers] Sponsored shoot at Pennsic

[John Atkins]

The composition of the team presents a slippery slope.  First the
crossbows.  I know In Atlantia we do not allow rifle stocks, but other
kingdoms do.  There are several who show up on the range at Pennsic with
rifle stocks and range marks up the wazoo.   There is even one joker who
has a center shot crossbow!  Yes it severely irritates me but apparently
this is legal in their kingdom.  So there may be a bit of snubbing folks
with these types of crossbows.  I think we could word around it by
saying this is an Atlanitan sponsored shoot and we are following
Atlantian archery rules.
 
The other issue is the handbows.  What is period?  Is a horse bow a
recurve, thus not period, or is it considered period?  Does a period bow
HAVE to be shot off the hand and have a D cross section?  What about the
modern recurve bow?  Horse bows and Janapese bows were recurved.  I've
been seeing recent work that states that the ELB when new actually had a
bit of reflex to it.  Does this mean that a modern reflex/deflex longbow
is not period or is it?  Flat bows are period.  Many cultures used them.
Recurves, see the horse bow discussion above.  So the issue of period
bow gts a bit sticky.  Obviously my Martin Hunter is not a period bow
but it's basics are..........
 
Could we perhaps simplify the rules to say teams must be made up of one
crossbow and two handbows?  I realize there is a drive to have more
period bows on the range but I also think the spirit of this suggestion
is participation.  The more things we do to eliminate people the more
exclusive we make it.  Personally, I'm sick, I have 14 bows hanging in
my garage (and that does not include the 6 crossbows) but not everyone
can afford this type of addiction.  Is it right to eliminate an archer
just because the only bow they have is a modern recurve bow?  For that
matter I've seen a lot of modern "traditional" bows being used by the
archers in the Masters Shoot.
 
And finally is it a correct assumption that the corssbow to handbow
ratio among SCA archers is 1 to 2?  i.e. teams are one crossbow to two
hand bows?  And does this mean an archer can shoot the course once with
a handbow and a second time with a crossbow?
 
I don't mean to be a pain in the backside with this, but if we don't
have answers for these issues they will come up and someone will make a
big deal about it.
 
cog
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