Question about Battle Safety

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• (February 02, 2011, 12:47:01 AM)

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Sturmkatze

[GulfportEagle77]

I've wanted to get into WWII reenacting for sometime now, and have been looking for German units in my area.

I have a question about safety during the battles, that hopefuly someone on this board can help me out with.  In my research on the hobby, I've come across a couple of instances where reenactors were shot on accident by other reenactors using live ammunition.  I think both cases I read about were dealing with ACW reenactors (not sure if that matters or not).

I was just wondering if anyone could shed some light on this issue for me, is this something that happens infrequently, and what kinds of precautions are taken to make sure that blanks are used during battles?

Thanks in advance!
John

[Sturmkatze]

Oh, it's happened in WWII also. One for sure I know about was back in 1985. A Brit reenactor shot a German... this guy had had a reenactment at his family farm... so they have a live fire BEFORE the reenactment D'OH!! Nothing malicious, just dumb. Anyway, it's so rare as not to worry. Well maybe a little, but you're more likely to break something falling in the woods or something. And yes, there will ALWAYS be instances of people getting rung by too close blank fire. 'Tis the nature of the "beast." Want a perfectly safe hobby? Stay at home in the laz-i-boy and watch golf on TV. Dammit man, we're reenacting WAR.

Seriously, reenacting WWII is a pretty safe hobby. Waaaay safer than Silly War... no flyin' ramrods, etc.

[GulfportEagle77]

K.  Thanks for the info!  That's pretty much what I thought, but wanted to check with the veteran's first.

[groomporter]

Yeah there are cases in ACW where ram rods have been accidentally shot down field by someone excited and forgetting to remove it (as well as an injury as a result). My understanding is it's now a common to not allow ramrods in large battle reenactments/tactical just to be safe.

[Huntar]

While I've never been at an event where a reenactor has gotten shot, I know of many through ACW. The ACW that used to be at Monmouth, NJ was stopped when somebody got a piece of a cleaning worm embedded into their head. I did see a canons ramrod rife down field though, that was pretty scary.

As for WW2, I haven't heard of anybody being shot but I've seen a fair share of sprained ankles, scrapes, bruises, heat exhaustion and poison ivy. Saw one guy at Bedford Village in November take a good tumble and get a nice head injury and had to be taken to the hospital.