If I could splurge, Id got Midwest FM4 or VelSys BZ....

but lets be more realistic...

This is the CONUS. AP threats aren't a threat right?

AK, AR15 (m855/m193), 308 rounds are the common.

Thinking something along the lines of Midwest FM3+, Grey Ghost 3+ or one of AT Armors plates....all seem to be about the same specs/manu?

I want multicurve SAPI. Single curve is cheap...but meh...
Weight too...most the cheap plate are HEAVY..

Recommendations?

Hesco

With M855A1 and M80A1 becoming more of a reality (and the inevitable surplus of both), I'd say level IV ceramics are the flavor of the day plate wise.

Read through the forum. There are about three dozen similar threads full of info.

I am working on a setup as well. I plan on getting plates (level 4 ceramics) from HighCom, trauma pads from Spartan Armor, and a Crye AVS.

Have been. And it gets more and more confusing. And misinformation.

Level 3+ and triple curve will be tougher to find, especially for a reasonable price. Level 4 sapi will be heavier but easier to find at a relatively decent price. 3+ single curve is abundant. I assume you are looking for 10x12. If you need larger your choices become vastly smaller and almost limited to sapi. Paraclete has some sapi cut level 4 plates that are 6.5-7 pounds each that may be the best compromise of weight and protection.

The Hesco 4400 or 4600 plates look pretty sweet.

You don't say..

http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_6_10/467089_hesco_plates.html

Also dont forget labour day is coming up. Look for sales.I would go with either hoplite armor or midwest.

www.highcomsecurity.com has their Personal Protection kit for $350.  Level IV multi hit ceramic rated plates and a plate carrier.  This is an excellent deal.

I know what you mean,was in the same boat ,but after a month or so reading different threads here.and watching as many videos as I could find.i ended up buying hicom 4sas7 level IV multicurve. shellback tactical has them for $165 ea.they where In the price range for what I was looking to spend,and are a nij certified. I called to see if they were in stock was told they would ship from manufacturer in 3-4 weeks but ended up getting them in about a week.so far not that I know anything ,but they seem very nice ,and the multicurve seems to be comfortable,although I've only worn them an hour or so around the house.

Isn't that when HighCom has their big sale? like 20-30%?

Armour wear has the best priced plate for what you are looking for. Not as well made as others mentioned but stops same threats and is lighter, thinner, and less expensive.

Also not NIJ certified but that means nothing really on a 3+ plate. Just that it passed 6 shot .308 testing. Level III+ is all about the other tests done at the lab... M193, M855, 7.62x39 mild steel core, etc.

I'd check out bluefalcon, Buffman_LT1, or 10mm_'s videos showing ArmourWear's performance before recommending them.

No sorry. I believe in getting what you pay for.

I checked and didn't see one test on the plates I referenced. I have seen the lab testing on the plates, have you? Doesn't sound like it. You might want to do so before dogging a particular plate.

Double checked and all I see is silly steel armor testing. No one has tested the ceramic/HB212 plates on this site. Perhaps I will put in a request and get a plate to shoot from AW with the Hoplite ceramic HB212 shoulder plates I am about to test. Its the same aluminum oxide ceramic from the same Italian armor company and the same HB212 behind it.

You are paying for profit, an NIJ fee amortized across plates, and a cordura skin instead of a vinyl skin. What you are not getting is better armor. The Ultralight poly ceramics AW plates are $279 a plate,  $558 a pair, in large SAPI, yet you dismiss them because they are too cheap? Yet you consider cheaper alternatives? No wonder this place gets so much flak. Its aluminum oxide over HB212 backed by Kevlar and foam. Its the same material selections from the same companies for the other plates you are considering. But wait... its not popular and we don't think with our own logical minds here on arfcom do we? We just go with what is popular at the moment.

Buy a Hesco 3610 then... it was given in a link and only $490 a plate or $980 a pair. You get what you pay for after all.

These are the only Ceramic AW plates that I have found being tested, besides on AW's YouTube Channel:

GY6 Part 1
GY6 Part 2
.338 vs Lvl4 AW

Terrible advice.

You failed to specify what Level III+ plate you were recommending and I assumed you were suggesting these steel plates - since you didn't say steel or composite in your post - but because of your defensive reply I went and found ArmourWear's Level III+ composite offering.

That being said,  bluefalcon for sure (and maybe Buffman_LT1 too, but I am not sure) have stated his concerns with ArmorWear in the past. I am not going to paraphrase and possibly mangle what either or both have posted, but those concerns can be found pretty easily in this sub-forum.

As always, I could be wrong.

HighCom usually has a big sale around Black Friday.  

I've seen the past post re: the skepticism re: AW.  Most of the criticism is due to the AR680 plates it seems.  Beyond that, I cannot find where any of the people mentioned have actually tested the ceramic based plates (please link me if I am mistaken).

From Soldier Systems:
"Matt, I was looking long and hard at those plates as well. If you dig into the company they are affiliated with a textile company that legitimately did nylon work for the Corps. So their nylon stuff is likely on point. The owner of the company is also listed on the LLC filing for a “ceramiche” company so they are likely manufacturing their own ceramics for their plates.

The sticking point with the plates is that they aren’t NIJ certified. There is nothing saying that they have to be certified. If they stop the rounds, they stop the rounds. That is all that matters. They claim that they will provide testing reports upon request. I requested and while I got a response I didn’t receive the report as I had asked. In fairness it was SHOT show week so stuff gets lost…

The other thing, and decide whether this matters to you or not, they have Yeager wring their stuff out. You either love the guy or hate him. To me he’s like the Tom Cruise of the tactical world. Either you like his work or you think he’s the world’s biggest tool bag. That’s up for you to decide and then how that influences your decision about the plates."

http://soldiersystems.net/2015/05/13/armour-wear/

There are also threads on Lightfighter about this and people on that forum seemed to have received the independent testing reports.  

I have had plenty of reasons to dislike the practices of AW in the past based on what was clearly disingenuous behavior. I won't dig them all up again. However, I would like to make a few observations about the quote you posted.

1. You link a quote from another website, posted by a seemingly random person named "J.D.", which provides vague positive comments about the company. If you have some particular information about who J.D. is and what gives him credibility, I would think that is worth sharing. I am uncertain what this is supposed to prove but even more curious why you feel it substantiates anything at all.

2. J.D. says "If you dig into the company they are affiliated with a textile company that legitimately did nylon work for the Corps. So their nylon stuff is likely on point."  When I was running my company, we were "affiliated" with nearly everyone in the industry at the time. If my company had been a bag of dicks, would that have made the entire industry a bag of dicks? Also, Nylon makes a good outer liner for armor. Nylon has nothing whatsoever to do with the ballistic qualities of a plate, except where containment of ceramic ablation might be a factor.

3. Next line, "The owner of the company is also listed on the LLC filing for a “ceramiche” company so they are likely manufacturing their own ceramics for their plates."  Wow, that's quite the assumption! The chances of them making their own ceramics are almost zero. Maybe less. The equipment required to make your own ceramics is a giant hurdle. However, the knowledge of how to make your own ceramics is an even bigger hurdle. Ask me how I know, if you're particularly bored, but there is a reason that the Chinese can only make 1" wide tiles of anything that isn't chemically sintered garbage. I only know of four companies (I may be forgetting one) that can fire Alumina Oxide, and only two companies that can fire B4C, and all of them stay very busy.

4. And... "The sticking point with the plates is that they aren’t NIJ certified. There is nothing saying that they have to be certified. If they stop the rounds, they stop the rounds. That is all that matters."  No, it is not fucking all that matters! How high is the backface deformation? Does the back spall? Does the round splatter off the front? All of these things matter in the same way that having holes in your parachute matters; the parachute opened but you're still pretty much fucked. You aren't screaming "at least it opened!" as you plummet to your death. The NIJ06 requirement is a maximum on the first two shots (for hard armor) of 44MM BFD. 44MM still hurts like hell and can cause some internal injuries. The worst case that I ever witnessed while personally conducting testing was a hard plate that extruded eight inches on the first shot. Eight inches! Anyone wearing it would have been dead, possibly suffering more damage than just getting shot without the plate, but hey... it stopped the round!

5. "They claim that they will provide testing reports upon request. I requested and while I got a response I didn’t receive the report as I had asked."  I asked for a copy of those reports a while back. They would not respond. I still have yet to see these unicorn reports posted anywhere and I suspect I know why. If someone has them, post them here.

6. AW used to claim NIJ06 testing. Now their products say "found to comply with level 4 performance in accordance with NIJ STD 0101.04 / 05". I didn't know anyone still manufactures to the 04 standard but whatever. If this is true, it shouldn't be asking too much for them to say who tested it (what lab) and whether it was a full test or "it stopped a bullet, yay!" test. On a side not, if it does actually comply with NIJ04, that still means it wasn't required to pass the very nasty drop test that NIJ06 requires, so there will be no protection at all for the ceramic component.

Great post, thanks for taking the time to respond to that.