Need Advice On Body Armor

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Dwight55

New member
Last night in Columbus, Ohio: all four local TV channels gave time to a couple of city councilmen who apparently are looking to make a name for themselves.

They and several policemen took what looked like a CETME rifle, an AR (full auto at that), and a white body armor and staged a performance.

First: fire up the CETME as fast as you can pull the trigger, looked like a 20 rd magazine, . . .

Second: fire up the AR on full auto, . . . make the shell casings ding.

Third: put the body armor on a dummy with what looked like a chest area made of modeling clay. Get back 20 feet and shoot the dummy with the CETME. They obviously penetrated the body armor and made a hole in the modeling clay that looked to be about 2 inches across. It was impressive!

My question: is there any standard body armor that is designed to take a full load from a 7.62 mm NATO, FMJ? I was under the impression that there is not any standard body armor effective enough to stop that round (I may be wrong, but I am pretty sure that is what was being shot, . . . or at least something that approximated it).

The reason I ask the question: there is to be public forums on the councilmen's recommendation to 100% ban any "assault weapons" from Columbus. I figure that I just might go down there if I can get the info, . . . and just publicly rake them over the coals (if I can get to speak).

The body armor was white, it did not have a front pouch for a trauma plate, and it really looked chintzy, cheap in the video, . . . like maybe it was a left over piece from the civil war or something.

Any information is appreciated, . . .

May God bless,
Dwight
 
The general rule of thumb for a vest is, you want it to stop whatever round you carry in your service weapon.

Most vests meet level IIIA specs that will stop on average a .357 magnum FMJ round fired at point blank range.

I have a vest, a Safariland Zero-G that has both front and back inside carriers, which allow ballistic panels to be inserted over the main soft panels.

I have two First Choice Rifle Plates that will stop a 7.62 NATO round at 3200 FPS

Both have multi-hit capacity and are hard enough to also stop a knife attack as well, although they are not designed to do so.

The vest cost around $700.00 and both panels cost around $600.00 each, the extra oversized carrier was about another $75.00.

The whole setup weighs about 9.75 pounds and conceals under my uniform shirt, which is one size larger than I normally wear.
 
Look for Level 3 Rifle Plates. They're designed to stop up to a .308 Win. Or Level 4 plates which should stop one round of armor piercing 30-06 ammo. Soft body armor isn't designed to stop rifle rounds so it won't. Hard body armor is what you want. The least expensive is hardened steel but is also the heaviest. There's also ceramic plate which is lighter but more expensive. I attached a pdf detailing the different armor classifications and the procedures for testing body armor protection.
 

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The armor I've seen works on the inserts idea. You insert trauma plates, upgrading basically. But the one's I've seen are heavy, bulky, and limited target area, still plenty of space for that rifle round to sizzle thru. But they work. Better to stay behind the car's engine or get out of the area. Only guys I ever saw wearing them were the special ops officers, I just used soft armor.
 
What ticks me off is that they used an "assault rifle", so that is what needs to be banned. If they had used a Remington 700 chambered in .300 Win. Mag., it probably would have gone completely through the mannequin. But they can't ban those, so they will go after the "assault rifles" instead. What a crock.
 
Did they blow the dummy up with NFO? Hit it with a car or truck at thirty MPH? Stab it with an icepick? Throw acid on it? Hit it in the head with a baseball bat, etc., etc.

Lots of threats out there that render armor useless, no matter what level you wear. But then, that wasn't the point of the show, was it?
 
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