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So just came back from two glorious days of a medieval fair, running the archery range and having a general good time.
Unfortunately, due to a bit of a fail with planning, it wasn't made clear that when the range is in place, there needs to be a huge f*cking dead zone behind it for safety reasons. Yes, we roped off the dead zone, but we STILL had problems.
There were two main issues with where we were:
1) We were right near the toilets (there were at least four blocks around the ground, so THAT wasn't the issue, but it was the closest ones for some of the other groups including ours)
2) NONE of the groups located near us had archers as part of their membership. (Closest were the Dutch group who shoot muskets and a cannon)
Several times over the space of two days, we had to yell "HALT" during a round because some twit would walk through our dead zone or juuuust outside of the rope, but still essentially in the zone. (to give you an example, we roped off about 50m out and we had someone who would walk 51m out) Inevitably, this was to have easier access to the toilets, because going through the general grounds was far too much for them apparently. -_-
The WORST ones however, turned out to be the HEMA guys (basically people who will wear full armour and beat the absolute crap out of each other), who figured that since the public were only shooting low-poundage bows, it was perfectly fine. Er, no. If you see bows pointing in your general direction with pointy arrows on them, it doesn't matter how low poundage they are, you DO NOT WALK THROUGH A F*CKING ARCHERY RANGE!
Thankfully, the public weren't sucky about it, because whenever we would call "halt," we'd turn around and start snarking about the twit who was stupid enough to wander through the dead zone
(usually along the lines of "Ladies and Gentlemen, as you can see, this person is clearly tired of life. Unfortunately our insurance sucks, so this is why we call halt.")
LARP arrows are a different story though - there was archery tag next door to us and they were actually fairly cool with the arrangement. We also made a deal with them that if their arrows landed in our dead zone (which was fairly rarely), they weren't to go jumping in here, we'd go and get them. Likewise, if any of ours landed there, they'd chuck them back over. No dramas.
Unfortunately, due to a bit of a fail with planning, it wasn't made clear that when the range is in place, there needs to be a huge f*cking dead zone behind it for safety reasons. Yes, we roped off the dead zone, but we STILL had problems.
There were two main issues with where we were:
1) We were right near the toilets (there were at least four blocks around the ground, so THAT wasn't the issue, but it was the closest ones for some of the other groups including ours)
2) NONE of the groups located near us had archers as part of their membership. (Closest were the Dutch group who shoot muskets and a cannon)
Several times over the space of two days, we had to yell "HALT" during a round because some twit would walk through our dead zone or juuuust outside of the rope, but still essentially in the zone. (to give you an example, we roped off about 50m out and we had someone who would walk 51m out) Inevitably, this was to have easier access to the toilets, because going through the general grounds was far too much for them apparently. -_-
The WORST ones however, turned out to be the HEMA guys (basically people who will wear full armour and beat the absolute crap out of each other), who figured that since the public were only shooting low-poundage bows, it was perfectly fine. Er, no. If you see bows pointing in your general direction with pointy arrows on them, it doesn't matter how low poundage they are, you DO NOT WALK THROUGH A F*CKING ARCHERY RANGE!
Thankfully, the public weren't sucky about it, because whenever we would call "halt," we'd turn around and start snarking about the twit who was stupid enough to wander through the dead zone
(usually along the lines of "Ladies and Gentlemen, as you can see, this person is clearly tired of life. Unfortunately our insurance sucks, so this is why we call halt.") LARP arrows are a different story though - there was archery tag next door to us and they were actually fairly cool with the arrangement. We also made a deal with them that if their arrows landed in our dead zone (which was fairly rarely), they weren't to go jumping in here, we'd go and get them. Likewise, if any of ours landed there, they'd chuck them back over. No dramas.
, but last time I was at a Renn Faire, my son and I tried out the archery range. I've shot arrows before, but couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.
) at our range. Everyone enjoys themselves though 
We have made that joke MANY times, up to and including the suggestion that I should steal our old dummy from the office, dress him up and stick arrows in him, including one in the knee. (I've also been making that joke of late, as aerial hoop results in bruising on the backs of the knees 
) 
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