Have you heard of the SCA?

\"How do you determine when you are dead i wonder?\"

Haha I get that question alot, and there is a couple of different ways.

1. Your ammo consists of regular white paper normally, but! sometimes they add in a red, or a black cartridge, if you pull the red one, fall down wounded, black, you die. 2. If you run out of ammo, die, or be wounded, normally we tend to go out in a blaze of glory, haha! 3. Hand to hand conbat kinda explains itself, and if you are that close, and you make eye contact with someone and you fire, honor code to fall down

anyways, yeah, I think I covered all the ways...

Someone else made the comment dont you re-enact real battles, answer is yes, but if one side wins on saturday, the other wins on sunday. It's a curtosy thing

so you guys use black powder rifles with paper ammo that shoots out?

That's what the SCA is like here, and I'm in Australia. For armour I'm getting a lorica segmentata one of these days, and an actual metal sword, something else I heard the SCA doesn't like.

the SCA allows you to wear your live-steel in as your garb, but we dont allow live steel in battle. they use rattan wood for the swords.

there are some fringe groups that are not part of teh SCA that do live steel battles, but i have heard a few horror stories about live steel battles.

lorica segmentata is some serious armor good luck with your suit!

I'm not talking sharp steel, of course, that would never be allowed. And this group that I;m with a requirement of duelling is a helmet of a certain type and metal, shield and a certain type of sword.

Do you guys realise that a wooden sword hits harder than a metal one that isn't sharp?

Any of you guys who have played gameworkshop games such as warhammer may have heard of the peryy brothers who design/sculpt the figures.

One of them lost an arm in a re-enactment battle when a cannon backfired.

As for swords... did you know a proper broadsword is not designed to cut, it doesnt have a true blade, it is a clubbing weapon, the next ranks (based on viking warfare) had the bladed weapons (axes etc) who finished off the wounded the broadswords left behind.

Also, there is a famous fight between two samurai. One 'forgot' his sword, so carved a bokken from an boat oar.... he wont he fight too... moral to that tale but i'll leave you all to work it out.

As far as im aware, SCA (Seal Knot Society?) are re enactment purists and are thus rightly 'picky/fussy' about what people wear etc. I can understand and appreciate this as someone who is very interested ancient/medieval warfare and mistakes in movies etc (such as Gladiator) do irritate me a little.

At the end of the day, one decides what they want to do and joins a society that accommodates them, no point in trying to force your opinions on others when the majority wont take any notice of you. IF SCA wont let you dress as XYZ then dont go there... would a StarTrek group let you wear jedi garb? I dont think so...

MTFBWY - A

Hey Rich, I know a guy who lost his hand in a connon backfire at a re-enactmnt

If you look up the civil war era ammunition, it is roughly 50 grians of powder, in the bottom of a paper cartridge, and then the ball is at the top, of course, we dont have the actual ball, haha

We've had various injuries, the worst I can think of was when one of our guys got his scalp split open during our battle reenactment. A lot of blood, a concussion and an interesting scar, but no real, permanent damage. They're really paranoid about the black powder in our group so that helps. Mostly just sprains, strains and various broken bones. We have several medics, so we're ready for most emergencies, lol

sounds like the sort of thing i should get involved with, i seem to spend most of my time at docs or hospital anyway


seriously tho, any activities where injury is likely, I personally believe anyone taking part should have at least a basic knowledge of first aid, preferably a formal course from Red cross or st Johns etc, you never know when it may be needed.

On the other hand, with the current age we seem to be in, where everyone takes everyone to court for the simplest thing, is it wise to be a good Samaritan... no doubt that in itself is a topic for discussion, I personally have studied and certificated in advanced public and industrial first-aid but in this day n age, unless I genuinely feared for the life of someone, id certainly have to think carefully about assisting a stranger.