How do people feel about band guns?

We might have talk about this before but I came across this site today: bandguns.com/
I was roughtly aware of bandgun combat in the SCA but this was the first time I’ve ever gotten a good look at how it worked.

I think these things look great and they certainly open up some possibilities for new kinds of combat-LARPs that we haven’t explored yet, such as campaigns set in the colonial era or an industrial fantasy setting. They’re nicer and look more relibable than most rubber band guns and anything is better than calls. Who wouldn’t love to see a group of players standing in a line and releasing a volley of bands?

I would be happy to face a shot fired by one of these. There would be some safety concerns such as figuring out what the minimum range that one should fire one of these at would be, but overall surgical tubing doesn’t look much more dangerous than padded melee. Has anyone ever been shot by one of these?

So how would people feel if there was a game using these? Would you play in it?

I certainly would =D, just to go stand in a line, feeling the fear of an almost guaranteed death, and then firing a volley? Hell yea!
Or even if its just stylefully drawing a musket pistol and nonchalantly shooting someone XD.

Just because I’ve been thinking about this sort of this recently, I’m bumping this thread.

I did eventually buy a couple of the pistols, mainly to have something to copy if I ever get around to the point I’ll need to make some. We’ve had some fun at the odd training day shooting each up with them. I think these are a lot safer than LARP archery. The bands they sold with them have a similar large surface area striking you with no core at all. They have just the right amount of force behind them so that you can feel the impact but I’ve yet to see them leave a mark on me. You can get pretty close as well. I’ve shot myself and have had people shoot me from about 5cm away from the skin and while that does sting a bit it doesn’t bruise. Getting hit in the head is about the same as a hit from a LARP sword.

They are also just really fun; I’ve yet to see someone fire these without smiling which is always a good sign. They have a good combination of range, inaccuracy and a slow reloading time to make a really good physrep for early firearms.

I actually got to shoot one of these at one of the training days and be shot by them. They are pretty neat and reasonably safe…I’d say as safe as most throwing daggers in the community (still wouldn’t want to get either in the eye). But I do agree they are probably safer than the arrows all told.

Sounds like fun to me. As long as people are using them responsibly then most things can be deemed safe (like virtually all larp accessories). Have you got pictures?

first post has link