Putting on flame retardant suit in preparation for the firestorm of indignation this post is going to cause .... :roll:
However I choose knowledge over ignorance so any LE offended by this post should take the following information for what it is ... information and use it to make a more informed choice on their body armour and undertstand the limitations of that armour.
The photo pretty much says it all. The vest was ex-RCMP issue with a level II rating. It has 21 layers of kevlar. Rounds were fired from approx 10" with the vest sitting on top of a bucket full of wet phonebooks so we could get an idea of the blunt trama a wearer might suffer or catch any bullets that penetrated.
Level II is rated for high velocity 9mm and 357 mag.
The subsonic rifle ammo was included just cause we had no idea how it would perform against the vest. The .30 cals blew through the vest like it wasn't there and then went through more than 16" of wet phonebooks to come out the other side in perfect condition.
Subsonic 223 only penetrated 2 layers of kevlar.
The 147gr Golden Sabre also only penetrated 2 layers. This bullet was included as a representative sample of common heavy JHP ammunition. We didn't expect it to penetrate but were interested to see how it would turn out.
The Winchester 85gr Ranger frangible went in 6 layers before being stopped by the kevlar. However it left a huge trauma impact in the paper. We highly suggest vest users include a chest trauma plate cause a bullet doesn't have to penetrate the vest to kill you.
The Blended Metals and Internation Frangible high velocity rounds blew through the vest and penetrated deeply into the wet paper.
We finally confirmed the longstanding rumours about the power of IVI FMJ 9mm. Fired out of a carbine it blew through the vest and about 9" of wet phonebook. Surprisingly this heftily constructed FMJ round even expanded quite a bit. Fired just into wet paper alone this round does not expand at all.
However I choose knowledge over ignorance so any LE offended by this post should take the following information for what it is ... information and use it to make a more informed choice on their body armour and undertstand the limitations of that armour.
The photo pretty much says it all. The vest was ex-RCMP issue with a level II rating. It has 21 layers of kevlar. Rounds were fired from approx 10" with the vest sitting on top of a bucket full of wet phonebooks so we could get an idea of the blunt trama a wearer might suffer or catch any bullets that penetrated.
Level II is rated for high velocity 9mm and 357 mag.
The subsonic rifle ammo was included just cause we had no idea how it would perform against the vest. The .30 cals blew through the vest like it wasn't there and then went through more than 16" of wet phonebooks to come out the other side in perfect condition.
Subsonic 223 only penetrated 2 layers of kevlar.
The 147gr Golden Sabre also only penetrated 2 layers. This bullet was included as a representative sample of common heavy JHP ammunition. We didn't expect it to penetrate but were interested to see how it would turn out.
The Winchester 85gr Ranger frangible went in 6 layers before being stopped by the kevlar. However it left a huge trauma impact in the paper. We highly suggest vest users include a chest trauma plate cause a bullet doesn't have to penetrate the vest to kill you.
The Blended Metals and Internation Frangible high velocity rounds blew through the vest and penetrated deeply into the wet paper.
We finally confirmed the longstanding rumours about the power of IVI FMJ 9mm. Fired out of a carbine it blew through the vest and about 9" of wet phonebook. Surprisingly this heftily constructed FMJ round even expanded quite a bit. Fired just into wet paper alone this round does not expand at all.
8)
