Rabbit Damage

[MIdiscgolfer]

If a pet rabbit chewed on the edge of your discs a little bit would that be considered an altered disc and illegal for play? The damage is very minor and no holes in the flight plate.

[marmoset]

I don't know; good question. I have a friend who "lost" his Pro Roc for a few nights and it had been "chewed" very evenly around the rim by a "rodent" of some kind while it "sat in the woods." I don't know if I should believe him or not. It is a super-duper flippy Roc now; he uses it for turnovers and hyzer-flips.

802.01.C. Players may not make post-production modification of discs which alter their original flight characteristics. This rule does not forbid inevitable wear and tear from usage during play or the moderate sanding of discs to smooth molding imperfections or scrape marks. Discs excessively sanded or painted with a material of detectable thickness are illegal. See sections 802.01 D, E and F.

If the rodent did it, the thrower didn't do it. I don't think I could call him on it unless I know he did the modification. What happens if he baited the mouse with peanut butter on the disc rim.

[Dogma]

802.01.C. Players may not make post-production modification of discs which alter their original flight characteristics. This rule does not forbid inevitable wear and tear from usage during play or the moderate sanding of discs to smooth molding imperfections or scrape marks. Discs excessively sanded or painted with a material of detectable thickness are illegal. See sections 802.01 D, E and F.

I don't think I could call him on it unless I know he did the modification.

It's a grey area. By the same reasoning I could just have my wife modify all my discs for me since she isn't the one playing. I think the second sentence is what clarifies it. If the assumption is that the only thing that isn't forbidden is "wear and tear from usage during play," then every thing else is illegal. By that standard I say the rabbit-chewed disc is only legal if it was chewed during a round.

[black udder]

I'd say it's legal as long as the flight plate wasn't penetrated. The modifications were not made by the player or made with the intention of modifying the disc. It's the same as hitting objects on the course.

Where's Chuck? He'll know

[MIdiscgolfer]

It's basically an academic point because the discs in question belong to a friend of mine that's not really into tournaments anyway and they are discs he doesn't use which is why the rabbit had access to them . I'm inclined to agree with Dogma tho just because allowing discs that were "modified" by a non player ie pets/spouse/child opens up a lot of loopholes for potential cheating. And if you can't keep your Tournament discs out of a tame rabbits mouth you deserve what you get

[sweeper]

I had a friend who would let his 2 year old play with discs in the driveway to help get them under stable. He'd scuff them up but good!

[Fritz]

Legal. As long as the rabbit didn't perforate the disc, you are good to go.

[Chuck Kennedy]

I'd be hard pressed to call someone on this as long as the flight plate wasn't perfed when you consider that it's a common practice to "condition" DX plastic by multiple rips into a wall. Until DGA started putting the protection band around the number plate, they were notorious for taking chunks out of your putter which was usually still useable.