The following is a complete documentation of the procedures used for conducting this test
The ammo used in this test was made exactly identical, and with easily findable materials, so that it could be reproduced by anyway, anywhere, easily. Each type of ammo (Baldar/UHMW) was preproduced for 10 bolts worth, making 20 bolts total in the test. Some of the construction methods were exactly the same for both of them. Both had 1/4" fiberglass shafts, as bought from Northstar Archery. They were cut to be 20" long, to accomodate crossbows with long shelves. All had Siloflex APDs, as produced again by Northstar Archery. These are 160 PSI APDs, with a routed channel, straight cut. The mounting details will follow. Finally, all were covered, as required, with a longitudinal piece of strapping tape, 3M brand, 1" wide.
The night before the testing, I took all measurements of the crossbows, except for draw weight, and recorded all the data. All data was recorded to 1/16" accuracy, except for string thickness, which went down to 1/32" accuracy out of necessity. All measurements are in inches. On the day of the testing, I measured each crossbows draw weight with a bow scale, and checked my bow scales accuracy with another person's bow scale. (They measured the same by about a pound, so I went with mine). It was determined that 3 of the crossbows there that day were over legal limits, but that this was acceptable, and perhaps even desirable for the testing, (plus we didn't want to play with the string length/etc to try to get them legal at the last minute after already doing all the measuring). Theorectically, these ones should definately be hitting 'too hard'
When it came time to shoot, everything was handled as follows. A pavise was set up between the fighter, and myself, with the chronograph on a tripod behind the pavise. It was designed so that the fighter was 20ft away from where I stood to fire the crossbow, 5ft beyond minimum, and a common broken field/bridge battle shooting distance. The chrono was strategically placed to be far enough that the bolt would have left the bow from even the longest crossbow I was shooting. Every shot was sent through the chrono, to then impact the fighter. The fighter would call the shot on a 1-7 scale of 'ouchiness'. The FPS, and the scale, would be recorded. If there was any problem with the chrono, or the shot in general, it would be redone (to the fighter's chagrin). It was discovered that Baldar Eggs are hard to chronograph, and often would not read.
All shots had to land on the 'torso' to count. A couple hit arm, helm, or crotch (sorry!) and were redone. The reason for this, is that I was trying to 'mix up' where the shots would land, partially, to keep the fighter from getting sore in any one spot, and also to get them registering across the torso in different areas. Each fighter was shot three times with each ammo, from each bow. Making 6 shots from each bow at them. Before each round of shooting, they would be shot by the 'sample case'. This was a 27lb fiberglass recurve at 28", and has a 6.5" brace height. The ammo used were 1/4" fiberglass shafted, Siloflex APD, Markland headed arrows. (It's what I had laying around)
The impact testers were instructed to take the shots from the bow as a '4', an average hit, and then to rate each hit on the following scale: