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Posted: 11/27/2012 10:18:44 AM EDT
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I haven't paid much attention to ballistic vests lately, till I read some online articles. Which.. reminded me, my vest is from the mid 80s or so.. geeze.... I bought it, stuck in in my bag and forgot about it.
So now I'm looking at new vests.. and one question I can't find an answer to is, if I buy a level 3A vest, do I still need any extra trauma protection? 3A is suppose to be better than level 2 for trauma, so I am not sure about it. I actually have 2 old vests, so after I buy something, I may try these out to see how good they still are. |
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I can't believe they were ever NEEDED so much as they are an extra to lessen the suck of a hit in the x ring. Otherwise why aren't they part of the vest or the whole vest that much thicker? As you may or may not know, after stopping the round from penetrating your body the next job of the vest is to mitigate the "back face signature" (BFS) of the hit. The blunt force injuries caused by too much BFS can be just as deadly as bullet penetration. How much BFS a particular vest allows with the test loads is most of what the NIJ 0101.xx standards are measuring. As far as I know there is no industry or government standard for trauma packs/strike plates to follow.
Having said that, I don't use one. I have a "special threat plate" like this one. ETA: Your old vests are most likely made of 100% Kevelar. As long as they were stored in relatively climate controled area and stored flat so the ballistic material didn't get creased, they are probably fine. This does not go for laminated stuff like Goldflex and Spectra Shield. |
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