Activities Scouts are not allowed to do

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brancho

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Feb 20, 2007
3,788
714
56
Whitehaven Cumbria
What activities do you think or know about that Scouts in Scout association (britian) are not allowed to do.


Ie which of the following is not allowed:

using a fixed blade knife or paintballing or knife throwing.
 

Graham_S

Squirrely!
Feb 27, 2005
4,041
65
50
Saudi Arabia
As far as I know,
fixed blades are fine, (parental permission may be required depending on your DC)
I believe paintballing is out,
Knife throwing may be ok (but again check with your DC)
 

johannesburg

Member
Jul 11, 2008
42
0
Nottingham
Are scouts still not allowed to use lasar quest (something along the lines of not shooting at each other - even if imaginary?) that destroyed our fun! We had virtually just bought all the gear aswell!
 

SimonM

Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
Apr 7, 2007
4,015
6
East Lancashire
www.wood-sage.co.uk
You are no longer allowed to wear a sheath knife as part of uniform but of course you can carry it where appropriate and use it likewise.

Talking to the warden at our local campsite a while ago about this. When I was a Scout, you could wear your knive around camp, but not anymore. She blames the Leaders for turning up with great big knives straped to the legs, as it does not look good. When I showed her my Stu Mitchell, she said I could wear it if needed.

So come on Leaders, ditch the Rambo knives and machetes - and get something more discrete and useful. That way we set an example to the young people in our charge.

Simon
 

JohnC

Full Member
Jun 28, 2005
2,624
82
62
Edinburgh
Our scout troop has been laser questing. We had an activity evening of saw and axe use, flagged it in advance for parents etc.
Folding knives were allowed at the last camp, I found it was other leaders that pulled faces if a fixed blade was used, even if involved in something like gutting fish.
 

crazydave

Settler
Aug 25, 2006
858
1
54
Gloucester
its not the leaders that have changed regards length or use of blades but the attitude of the thicko pc brigade of which the scout association seems to enjoy employing after they have been rejected for being too silly for government service.

a sheath knife should be around 6 inches to be of any use otherwise you have to lug around axes and saws. as to machetes a lot of leaders I know used to take them on site to clear the place up a bit which was doing the wardens a favour. if the kids aren't learning that a knife is a tool then they will only see it as a weapon. I made a point of cooking with my blades as well as prying and splitting pallets or making tent pegs.

I fear that the craze for bushcraft blades hasn't helped as it means the axes have come out of the stores which are far more dangerous. I used to keep a stock of birch logs in the store so if we had a quiet night or something fell through we would make tent pegs which they were taught to do with a blade and a mallet. I cant remember any accidents of merit.

on the plus side now we have to teach sex ed then every leader can now be had under the yellow card for 'grooming' the entire troop :)

they should bring back the common sense badge and let the leaders get on with it instead of thinking stuff up just to keep themselves busy and justify their jobs. it was and is broken but not in the ways they keep trying to fix. banning sak's from camps/jamborees incase little jonny might stab little peter when to my knowledge nothing like that has ever happened except in the ubiquitous urban myth. I've got fed up asking whose got a knife to the shake of heads or telling a kid to just cut that off when he cant do it.

as to what activities scouts arent allowed to do - given half the chance all of them I reckon, we even need a risk assessment to use the damn hut.
 

JimN

Forager
Feb 7, 2006
134
2
55
The Amber Valley
What activities do you think or know about that Scouts in Scout association (britian) are not allowed to do.
I know they are not allowed to practice archery at pictures of animals :rolleyes:

(Note: I'm not a scout leader but I am currently going through CRB checking to help out at my local pack)
 

Wallenstein

Settler
Feb 14, 2008
753
1
46
Warwickshire, UK
So come on Leaders, ditch the Rambo knives and machetes - and get something more discrete and useful. That way we set an example to the young people in our charge.

Simon
This was part of the reason I opted for a blaze orange Clipper...

imagexb8.jpg


Basically to show it's a boring tool, not something to use covertly to kill Russians. :rolleyes:

No danger of our cubs/scouts thinking it'd be "cool" to carry that around the streets!

Cubs and Scouts are allowed to shoot air-rifles (with parental permission), but you are not allowed to use a target with a picture of a living being.

A picture of a tree or apple is fine, a bee or a deer is not. You're not even allowed to use imaginary animals - dragons, for example - as they still count as "living".
 

phaserrifle

Nomad
Jun 16, 2008
366
1
South of England
laser tag is fine.
paintball is out, partly because if a leader who is taking part shoots a child, it could get them in trouble with parents (and potentialy the law) when said child goes complaing "steve the leader shot me mum, it hurt"
archery and air rifle shooting at animal shaped targets is out.
fixed blades are not banned, but some leaders can get very annoyed if an explorer carries one (but has no problem calling the same explorer "a young leader", go figure :()
Don't know the rules on knife throwing, but it sounds like fun!
 

Husky

Nomad
Oct 22, 2008
335
0
Sweden, Småland
This all sounds very complicated to me but I haven't been a scout for about 25 years.
I can understand that to only allow folding blades is a convenient way to stop the knifecraze but isn't learning to use knife, axe, saw and rope the bread and butter of scouting any more?
What is the "mission statement" for the scout movement today?


"Whats the difference between the scouts and the brittish army?"
"Scouts don't have heavy artillery!"

:lmao:
 

Wallenstein

Settler
Feb 14, 2008
753
1
46
Warwickshire, UK
You can still use sharps - they just prefer you not to wander around with them the whole time; in the scout hut or within your own camp boundary you can whittle till the cows come home.
 

Chips

Banned
Oct 7, 2008
120
0
scotland
This was part of the reason I opted for a blaze orange Clipper...

imagexb8.jpg


Basically to show it's a boring tool, not something to use covertly to kill Russians. :rolleyes:

No danger of our cubs/scouts thinking it'd be "cool" to carry that around the streets!

Cubs and Scouts are allowed to shoot air-rifles (with parental permission), but you are not allowed to use a target with a picture of a living being.

A picture of a tree or apple is fine, a bee or a deer is not. You're not even allowed to use imaginary animals - dragons, for example - as they still count as "living".

Wow, that knife sheath is awesome, where did you buy the knife?

Another thing we weren't allowed to do is tie the hangmans noose, got in a lot of trouble over that.

Also, igniting gunpowder inside of tents.
 

Rothley Bill

Forager
Aug 11, 2008
134
0
Rothley, Leicestershire
I ubderstood it was paintballing as others have said here.
Ther last time I did some training our district advice on knives was this 'knives to be kept in a locked, preferably steel box and only one knife is allowed out of the box at a time'.
And no knives not even SAKs on site or any activity, which is very limiting, and largely ignored.
 

Wallenstein

Settler
Feb 14, 2008
753
1
46
Warwickshire, UK
Wow, that knife sheath is awesome, where did you buy the knife?
It's Frosts Clipper #860f - very hard to lose (especially in the snow), which is ideal for me (and for lending to scouts)!

Stainless steel blade which some people don't like, but is low maintenance and will still take a great edge.
 

Chips

Banned
Oct 7, 2008
120
0
scotland
It's Frosts Clipper #860f - very hard to lose (especially in the snow), which is ideal for me (and for lending to scouts)!

Stainless steel blade which some people don't like, but is low maintenance and will still take a great edge.

Yeah, but where did you buy it? I've never seen one in that colour and I wondered who sold it.
 

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