🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <18322@bcars664.bnr.ca> Henry.Troup@BNR.CA writes:

>Aryk knows more about this than I, but there was a group of Elizabethan
>musketeer/arqubusiers and gentles with pikes drilling at Pennsic.  

The Borough of Southwark Trayned Bandes includes both pike and shot.  This
past year, the musketeers generally were on temporary duty, going back to
pikes when they found out just how heavy a musket is after the first
hour or so of drill.  The corporal of muskets is Mr. Sykes, who is called
Justinian of Rakovec in the SCA and who occasionally posts to this net.

>I recall that either the BoD or the Middle Kingdom forbids the discharge
>of black powder at events; however the use of a cannon for signalling
>the start and end of the battles at Pennsic was sanctioned for several years.

This past Pennsic, there was no discharge of black powder allowed
except for signalling the battles.  In previous years, various sorts
of firing demonstrations have been allowed.  This past year also saw a
prohibition on _modern_ firearms that did not apply to black powder
weapons.

The main problems of allowing black powder on a regular basis in the
SCA (as opposed to firing demos by specially trained people at
Pennsic) are:

	1.  The SCA's emphasis on _complete_ safety, which would
likely require non-period adaptations of weapons (somebody has posted
to the net that percussion caps should be used instead of matchlocks,
for example), would make it difficult to do good black powder stuff.

	2.  The SCA's emphasis on participation ahead of authenticity
would make it likely that non-period firearms would be allowed.  For
instance, would you tell a poor student with a Pennsylvania Rifle that
he had to drop $600 on a matchlock before he could shoot at the big
Musket Tournament at Ice Dragon?

	3.  Muskets are really un-chivalric weapons.  Even in 1600
(and later) pikes were considered appropriate weapons for gentlemen.
Muskets were popular, but theoretically suspect.

Aryk Nusbacher