From: John Stewart-Smith (john_stewartsmith@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Mar 26 2002 - 15:20:10 PST
WARNING!
Anybody thinking of buying a Kevlar vest, pay attention. If you are buying
one to look cool, no problem, but they are bulky, heavy and too warm for
summer. If you are buying one for protection, DON'T!
The military does not call them "bulletproof" vests, they call them "Flak"
vests. They are designed with a tight aramid weave that will stop large
(relatively) slow chunks of metal. Sometimes they will stop large caliber
handguns, sometimes not. Any small fast rifle caliber will penetrate like a
hot knife through butter. When I was still active duty, my buds and I shot
up a bunch of these vests so that we could find out how much protection we
really had, not how much protection the government handbook told us we had.
We placed 10 Kevlar vests over sheets of one inch plywood and let them have
it. The only rounds that were consistently stopped were the 44 and 45 pistol
calibers. Even though the vests stopped the 44's and 45's, there was still a
fist sized hole in the plywood. We decided that is about enough impact to
break several ribs and 'jello' our important bits. The rifles we used were
5.56mm (.223)(M16), 7.62mm(M60), 9mm(MP5) and the 50 cal. The vest stopped
25 % of the 9mm, none of the 5.56, none of the 7.62 and I really don't want
to describe what was left when we hit them with the 50 cal.
The newer vests with the large ceramic inserts stopped everything except the
50.
If you need a vest for protection, buy from a police supply store (laws vary
state by state) and buy class 3 protection, $700 to $1700 each.
If you want to look cool, buy Kevlar.
Remember, no company on the planet makes a 'bulletproof' vest, the best
guarantee you will get is that the vest is 'bullet resistant'.
I hate to be an old grumpy fart, but I was afraid that someone might be
silly enough to test one and have an unhappy experience.
That's my speech, I'll shut up now.
-Sarge
----- Original Message -----
From: "Scuba Steve" <me_scubasteve@yahoo.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Wednesday, March 27, 2002 5:16 AM
Subject: [MV] Kevlar vests (bulletproof)
> Wondering if anyone can tell me if these are legal to
> buy and where you can get them. Looking for a camo
> one in large or extra large. Thought it would be neat
> with my military collection.
> Steve
>
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