[Archers] PVC Bows disallowed in Atlantia

[jaynardone at comcast.net]

Good afternoon my Brothers and Sisters of the Bow. As most of you know last year the issue concerning PVC bows and safety came up. At that time I did not want to make a Kingdom wide ruling without having more data. I left the decisions to our MIC's at each event to be able to evaluate the bows in question. As a scientist in mundane life, I like to base my decisions on data, fact and testing. Over this past year that is exactly what I and other DEM / Archer Generals did. At Pennsic this year we all got together, (both combat archery DEMs and TA DEMs) to discuss our findings and research. Also 2 bows were constructed that were left in the UV light as much as possible to simulate being out in the sun during the year at events. We also built two bows the first few days of Pennsic at Pennsic and each of us took turns shooting them and recording the number of shots through these bows. 

Without going into all of the details here, the data and testing was damning enough that most of us agreed we would no longer support PVC bows in our respective Kingdoms. The two new bows we built were already showing stress cracks in the PVC after hundreds of shots. While this was not the only evidence we had, that based on the research data we had about the chemicals used in PVC and their volatility in sun light, it was a much easier time to make a decision. 

So, at this time I am making the ruling that PVC bows are disallowed in Atlantia for Target Archery. I obviously don't speak for CA and they will need to make their own ruling. I will be updating the TA handbook and our teaching materials and ultimately our rules to reflect this decision. For all of our marshals, if you get archers that show up with these bows, please be polite and explain to them our ruling and that they can easily find a better replacement in the cheap fiberglass bows or a good used wood bow. My desire is to keep everyone safe and I just cant continue to let these accidents waiting to happen exist on our ranges. 

In Service 

Janyn 


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