Yes Sir James they are "shooting" at us.
In European re-enactment it has been decided that as long as the archers use a bow of less than 40lb draw weight that they can shoot at live targets using re-enactment blunt arrows, or as they are commonly known, "red heads".
Lob or drop shots across a battle field are acceptable as long as every participant is wearing a helm.
Flat or point blank shooting is acceptable when the target is fully armored and wearing a fully visored helm.
When they hit a fleshy bit it still hurts
Once, a rubber tip/red head broke off as it hit the conical snout of my houndskull and the rest of the arrow got wedged into the ocular of the visor. Because I scrunch myself up in my helm and armor against the onslaught of arrows,I hadn`t realized what had happened. The Archers stopped shooting and the audience laughed at the arrow protruding from my face, I tilted my visor to see what they were laughing at and they laughed even more because now the arrow was sticking out of the top of my head. When I eventually realized what had happened, I blessed the day I had bought a helm with very narrow eye slits
G.