On larp archery - packing your arrows in the quiver.

As I mentioned in the larp quiver guide this post is about packing your arrows. Someone might ask, ok so what's so difficult about packing your boffer arrows in the quiver? Well for once they are boffer arrows - they have a big foam head on the front. That's why most people simply load the arrows upside down in their quivers, like this.

Which is well and good, however when it comes to shooting, you have to turn each arrow upside down before firing, which cuts your ability to shoot fast. One way to solve this is by learning how to hold several arrows in your hand like I did, fire in volleys and then hide behind your line to reload.

The other is to fix the obvious problem with boffer arrows and quivers - the arrows being upside down.
If they are not, you can shoot much faster since every arrow you draw is ready for nocking.
Unfortunately you can't just stuff your arrows in the other way. They will get tangled with one another because of the boffer heads and you are likely to spill half your ammo if you try to pull one out. However, that problem is not without cure. The cure is to carefully arrange your arrows. In the quiver guide I mentioned that I closed the quiver with a single seam instead of sewing a bottom to it for a reason.

Here is the reason. The bottom of my quiver is exact fit for 3 larp arrows. No more, no less, no room for wiggling and tangling.

So once we load it up those 3 arrows can't get tangled and spill out. OK you'll say, but 3 arrows is a bit low right? Well, let's repeat the experiment.

After the first 3 arrows go in, another 3 are set ABOVE them. There is no room for the top 3 arrows to fall below the lower 3. You can't mix them either since the top 3 are standing higher in the quiver.

 6 arrows is more or less the usual arrow compliment for a larp archer, but we can add another 2
as a 3rd layer here, and my quiver is reaching its limit. 

When firing its simply a matter of drawing arrows layer by layer, you start with the top two then the 2nd layer and finally the last 3 arrows. You can't mix them since they stand at different height unless you are wearing your quiver on your back - the arranging is only good if you have a hip quiver.

I can still pack some extra arrows in here, placed upside down in the usual manner and simply fire them first.

Heavy duty larp boffer arrow

 This Sunday, during my practise, I noticed something funny about the heads of my boffer arrows.Namely, that I've had a bit of an accident with one of them- the shaft had somehow pierced the head.

 I quickly dropped it all and inspected all of my arrows. Sure enough I found another few with the same issue and other that were on the way as well...As you can see - the plastic bottle cap is already fractured.  Obviously my stress testing which was indeed a bit rough, showed that the Hungarian recurve was too strong for ordinary boffer arrows.

 Therefore I went for making better ones, before Someone gets an arrow in the eye...or knee.


For this, I decided on two things - adding a cork, and a coin to the head. That's a simple wine cork, leftover from New Year's eve, rest is pretty clear.

 First thing I did was drill a hole in the cork with a drill the same diameter as the arrow shaft.

 That's because the cork won't be used to cover the shaft - it will instead keep the head stable - not leaning to the left or right.

 Bit of tape was added, since the cork is not the same diameter as the cap.

 After that its business as usual for making a boffer arrow. Cap with coin is fitted on and firmly secured with tape...
 

 Then the foam layers are added. One side layer, 2 top layers to be precise.
 

   And its done. I will put it to the test soon enough. Making more will be a bit of a problem, since I don't have that many corks around. I might have to find a replacement for it.

Moral of the story? Stress test and double check your arrows!