A little body armor story

N

Nukem

New member
This is sort of a little FYI.
I took the wife to the Biltmore estate over the weekend for a little getaway. After a tour, there was an archery demonstration being put on by Easton factory shooters. One of the shooters was also a LEO. Part of the demo included shooting a Safariland vest with a target tipped arrow out of a compound bow, it penetrated! How things come full circle, eh?
 
Did you know that a steel crossbow bolt will go straight thru most of the armored cars driving around. A friend proved it to one of the armored car companies.
 
Soft body armor can be penetrated by a ice pick or a sharpened screwdriver.

An arrow (300-400 fps) will often completely penetrate the torso of a deer when shot broadside. It's all a matter of sectional density.

Soft armor is meant to protect against bullets with soft cores. Hence the 1986 federal armor piercing bullet law bans handgun bullets with hard metal cores. Soft armor isn't intended to protect against edged weapons.

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/s/ Shawn Dodson
Firearms Tactical Institute
http://www.firearmstactical.com
 
What Shawn has said, but even the body armor designed for protection against knives and such will not stop an arrow. It does not have to be a compound bow either, a long bow or re-curve will fling an arrow fast enough to pin the wearer in his/her vest.

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"If there be treachery, let there be jihad."
Ne Conjuge Nobiscum

[This message has been edited by Jim V (edited October 02, 2000).]
 
This is why ceramic rifle plates are a GOOD thing.

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The Alcove

I twist the facts until they tell the truth. -Some intellectual sadist

The Bill of Rights is a document of brilliance, a document of wisdom, and it is the ultimate law, spoken or not, for the very concept of a society that holds liberty above the desire for ever greater power. -Me
 
Of course, if you're close enough and have enough time to draw and aim a bow, you're also in a pretty good spot to make a head shot with a rifle.
 
But the bow makes very much less noise, allowing for more follow-up shots...

Target shooting with bows is done up to 100 yards (90 meters) with a bulls eye about the size of a human torso (a little less, I think).

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I see no elephant in my cellar. If there were an elephant in my cellar, I would surely see it. Therefore, there is no elephant in my cellar.

http://www.ety.com/tell/why.html
 
Gunter-
Not to worry about elephants in the cellar; they can't get upstairs anyway. Its the skeletons in the closet you must be mindful of. ;)

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NRA LIFE MEMBER
Better to have it and not need it; than need it and not have it
 
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