school me on body armor

jron

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So I have started to do some reading on body armor. It is something on the list to get. Don't know what to look for whats good, what are reasonable price points. I don't have a ton of money but wont want a cheap pos since its a personal protection piece.

So school me on lightweight armor please.
 
So I have started to do some reading on body armor. It is something on the list to get. Don't know what to look for whats good, what are reasonable price points. I don't have a ton of money but wont want a cheap pos since its a personal protection piece.

So school me on lightweight armor please.

Whats the mission?
 
Soft armor is only good for pistol calibers. Any rifle rounds and your talking hard armor. Steel or ceramic. Steel is cheaper than ceramic. Ceramic is lighter than steel. Steel offers better multi-hit protection than ceramic. Steel plates require a liner or soft armor behind it to protect you from spalling. Steel also has a potential for frag off of the plate hit.

Also, soft armor usually expires after 5-6 years. Longer if not used much.
 
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I just hope my vest and plates show up before the next apocalypse, everything is backordered, 4 weeks for my vest and accessories and at least 10 weeks for my plates
 
Soft armor is only good for pistol calibers. Any rifle rounds and your talking hard armor. Steel or ceramic. Steel is cheaper than ceramic. Ceramic is lighter than steel. Steel offers better multi-hit protection than ceramic. Steel plates require a liner or soft armor behind it to protect you from spalling. Steel also has a potential for frag off of the plate hit.

Also, soft armor usually expires after 5-6 years. Longer if not used much.

This is an excellent summary.

If you're pressed for cash, buy a condor, three double mag pouches and two steel plates. You can upgrade later, get something now.

http://www.tacgear.com/condor-modular-operator-plate-carrier/
http://www.tacgear.com/condor-multicam-triple-ar-ak-mag-pouch/
http://www.bulletproofme.com/RP-Steel.html

If you have money look on SKDTAC.com. Brands like American Eagle, Tactical Tailor, etc.

Buy the carrier, mag pouches and mags to fill it first. You're better off having ammo and no plates, than plates and no ammo.
 
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I'm looking at minimum 400 for stand alone level iv and a simple carrier. Last thurs/Friday was a wake up call.
 
If you buy armor, learn to shoot with it on, and repeatedly. It is another world when armored up and shooting, some folks can adapt a whole hell of a lot quicker, some can't. One thing for sure, you need to reestablish your comfort zone wearing armor, especially plates. If you are like some of us here that don't just shoot strong side but shoot offhand, prone and in weird positions, 69 etc, get use to life in armor. In fact wear it and go for a run, then arm up and go for another run, then shoot.

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Armor does nothing for you if your still a friggin target, remember that, it just prolongs the inevitable by a few seconds.
 
If you buy armor, learn to shoot with it on, and repeatedly.

Armor does nothing for you if your still a friggin target, remember that, it just prolongs the inevitable by a few seconds.

All good advice, i am trying to build my vest, partly because i like tacticool things and i find it fun to do, and the other is for that possible time in the near future when all hell brakes loose from a natural or man made disaster,

people will do realy stupid stuff when shtf, and having a armor vest could be the one thing that saves me if some unprepared a**h*** trys and attack me to steal my generator or something
 
If you buy armor, learn to shoot with it on, and repeatedly. It is another world when armored up and shooting, some folks can adapt a whole hell of a lot quicker, some can't. One thing for sure, you need to reestablish your comfort zone wearing armor, especially plates. If you are like some of us here that don't just shoot strong side but shoot offhand, prone and in weird positions, 69 etc, get use to life in armor. In fact wear it and go for a run, then arm up and go for another run, then shoot.

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Armor does nothing for you if your still a friggin target, remember that, it just prolongs the inevitable by a few seconds.

Also remember you will have to adapt your stance when shooting in armor. The armor does no good if you tend to have a sideways stance. You need to learn to always square up.

Shooting or moving. If you're not shooting you should be moving and if you're shooting you should be thinking about moving. This means you should get used to RUNNING with your carrier on. I recommend partaking in the Excruciathons Atmay and others help put together.
 
They have a service life, not an expiration date.

I have a used kevlar vest from a former LEO and it does expire after a certain amount of time as in the effectiveness of the kevlar is diminished. I suppose we're just talking semantics here..
 
everything else has been covered that i was going to say, so:

Watch the movie "Rampage" and build your own. You'll be unstoppable.

ewe, uwe... whatever. boll reps.

carrier_zps34520948.jpg


that's my carrier with my rifle and some 'merica. a third HSGI TACO pouch has since been added. also, the label on the bayonet says 'HAVE A NICE DAY'. the armor alone is 29-30 lbs, carrier is ~4, and ammo is about another ~6. blargh.
 
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I've been considering it for a while, finances put it off. Now I'm building a soft vest primarily for pistol/frag for the wife and stand alone hard for me. I live within pissing distance of W-Town, and even with my AR in arms reach on thurs. fri. I was concerned about explosives and direct rifle fire. Hence I'm gonna eat light for a few weeks. My intent will be to eventually have two sets of hard armor and 2 of soft.
 
If you're not going to wear it everyday, I'd skip the soft and have extra hard carriers or just focus on buying more mags and keeping them loaded.

If you and your wife need armor and your rifles, you need a shitload of loaded mags on hand too. Loose ammo is useless in a firefight.
 
what ever you do don't get the AR500 plates. After 10 minutes you will hate life. Find some nice ultralight weight SAPI plates (under 5 lbs).

Some hard plates need soft plates to back them up FYI
 
I've worn my steels all day at a three day Harrington rifle course. It's heavy, but it's not bad. The important thing is to train with it on as often as you can. If you can't get out to the range, wear it around the house for a little while each week.
 
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