Freak accident

Scotsrick

Member
AIUK Saviour
I'll admit to being someone who thought insurance was a necessary evil but with good management it would be almost impossible for something to go wrong.

However when our club was shooting indoors last week (sports hall, 15m distance, 3m behind the line) the tip of an arrow ricoched back and hit the smart watch of another archer, breaking the face.

I mean what are the odds of that? Good in a way that it was only a watch and not someones eye.

It wasn't even a particularly heavy poundage of bow.

The club is just going to replace the watch rather than go through the insurance.

Certainly something I've never heard of happening previously.
 

Scotsrick

Member
AIUK Saviour
Unfortunately one of the very few nights that I wasn’t there.

I‘ll ask tonight see if I can get more info
 

AJBrady

Active member
Without knowing the exact circumstances it’s hard to know if the club was in any way negligent and therefore legally liable for the damage. IANAL but, depending on the circumstances it might be best for them to say that they do not accept legal liability and are making an ‘ex gratia’ payment for the damage.
 

Thorvald

Active member
My guess is - because arrows from low poundage bows more often bounce back if hitting a wooden board rather than sitting in the board. But even so - 15 m and bouncing back so high and hard that it can damage a watch. Never heard of that before, either.
 

Bird_2112

Member
Hi, The Bowmen of Gower indoor venue for 1962 was the skittle alley at the Smelters Arms in Swansea. Founder member Ken Gower recalled one evening when in the long room John Roach was shooting and Ken was consuming a pint of the best mild. The arrow John shot at the target to their surprise rebounded from the target coming directly towards them and stuck in the wood work alongside Kens right ear. How this seemingly impossible event occurred will forever remain a mystery as subsequent inquests failed to find an answer.
 

Timid Toad

Moderator
Staff member
Supporter
Fonz Awardee
Ironman
I've had a bouncer at an outdoor event rebound some 50 yds. I believe but can't prove, that it hit an old longbow point buried in the target. I'd guess that at 20 yards it was going with some energy.
 

Tech-50

New member
We used to have 19mm band-it tape around the target bosses, with the tape toward the edges on the front face, and experienced instances of arrows from low poundage bows hitting the banding-tape and bouncing back (not enough energy to penetrate said band, but enough to compress it, and cause the target to shoot back!).

We now ensure that the band-it tape encircles the target bosses (with appropriate chamfers on the woodwork to allow the band to 'slip' while being tightened to compress the foam).
 

Riceburner

Active member
I've had a bouncer at an outdoor event rebound some 50 yds. I believe but can't prove, that it hit an old longbow point buried in the target. I'd guess that at 20 yards it was going with some energy.
I've witnessed an arrow come back hit the archer who shot it!

Outdoor field course: the shot was downhill into a stream bed setting (the target was a leaping fish, about 30 - 40 yards I think). The archer was using a light Kaya horsebow (iirc only about 25-30lbs), and the shot missed the fish. Seemingly impossibly, it hit a stone in the background and came straight back, pinwheeling, to hit the archer on the chest. Not 'hard', and luckily it was 'flat' when it hit the archer, but enough to make the archer jump, not sure what would have happened if it had arrived point first!

We figured that the arrow (obviously quite a light one) flexed in 'just' the right manner when it hit the stone to retain almost all it's energy and was luckily enough not to be deflected either.
 
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