I'm outside the range of "normal" peeps at 6'8" and have a slight beer belly (working on it; already down 30 lbs, 30 to go). Using a regular steel tape measure (I have a proper cloth one at home, but I'm at work) I'd guestimate 53" or 54" around at both chest and gut. Using the image below I'd probably fall around a 33%.

So, obviously, I'm not just bigger around, but also MUCH taller and therefore have a longer torso. What would be the most appropriate armor to consider (other than making a turtle shell from a propane tank )?

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What type of body armor?

Soft armor vests definitely not.

Oh, sorry.. I'm no expert, so I don't even really know what my options are, but I would assume Level IV, or perhaps III, so I assume that'd all be plate, no?

Measure nipple to nipple.  That is how wide of a plate you need.

And get in better shape.

Plates no. People have different nipple to nipple and neck to sternum measurements.

Measures about 11.5".

Looks like 11 x 14 may be a common size? If so, do the good brands like Esstac make carriers in that size? And do plates that large only come in square cuts?

A good rule is to measure nipple to nipple and jugular notch to 2-3 inches above your belly button.  You want plates close to that size without impeding your ability to shoulder your rifle and move around.

About 19-20 from notch to center of belly button. I'm doubting plates come that long...

What’s your outside nipple to nipple?

LOL think "One size fits none" over "One size fits all"!  Ain't nothing made commercially going to fit you.  You're looking at a custom job unless you just want to cover the vital bits.

What do you mean "outside" ?

So Level IIIA is soft armor, and will stop most pistol rounds .44 MAG and less powerful.

Level III hard armor stops a lot of rifle rounds, but not all.  M193 from a 20" is probably going to punch through it.

Level IV hard armor stops is rated to stop .30-06 M2 Armor Piercing.  It will likely stop all common rifle threats you'll see. If you don't know shit and don't care to find out anything more, get that.

Level III+ is not a standard, it just means it a more capable armor than regular Level III. When you are comparing different Level III+ armor look at what each armor says it can stop so you can compare apples to apples.

Weight matters. An extra 2.2 lbs/ plate = 4.4 lbs. That is over 4 loaded USGI mags.

A good rule of thumb is: Weight, Protection, Low Cost - Pick 2.  

In your situation, I'd avoid steel armor. In every situation, avoid ChiCom armor. There is plenty of information on the Tac Gear board on which ones to avoid. A lot of the YouTube Armor "testers" are just shills.

Multicurve conforms to a body better than single curve, but costs more money. The wear difference is noticeable.  

Also, don't cheap out on a carrier. By the time you buy than Amazon ChiCom Airsoft carrier and stitch it up to actually be as good as a legit carrier, you should have just gotten a legit carrier.

Side of your nips closest to your arms.

It makes a big difference if you have Cardi B nips versus hersheys kisses.

Nope

I have medium which would probably fit most not fat non hugely tall people perfect

I wish I would have went smalls looking back but oh well

Im talking hard armor that goes in a plate carrier

Fuck square cut plates

Esstac carriers are made for SAPI shaped plates I believe.

Make sure your carrier is made for the shape of plates you get (swimmer, shooter, SAPI, etc...)

Ah, definitely not more than 12".
11.5' seems fair.

Yeah if you read what i wrote i said 2-3” above your belly button.  Which puts you at 16” and if you continue to read what i wrote i said something close to those measurements.  Maybe instead of armor you should invest in learning how to read.

You need "big."  It should be sized to fit.

I'd wager I'm willing to sacrifice a little weight for better threat level* as I'm not likely going to be wearing it unless shit has really gone sideways, but I do know that weight and time add up to major fatigue and discomfort, so I'd defer to an experts opinion. I try not to buy Chinese junk EVER, hence my predilection toward Esstac, Crye, maybe SKD.
As for cost, I'd like to keep it under $600, preferably under $500, if possible.

*I've got cans of M2AP for the Garand, and I suspect I'm not alone.

Settle down, Captain Crotchety. You gave an imprecise measurement request and I responded with a precise measurement that you can infer the value from with some elementary school level math...

Highcom 4SAS7 (they sell to other people who put their label on it, but 4SAS7 is a Highcom plate) or Hesco 4400s are a known quality plate, come in multicurve, and in size large.

The EE can be a great place to find a plate carrier.

Wearing body armor

Cool thanks. I've gotta hop offline for a few hours here, but any welcome more input y'all have.

You aren't covering your belly button ....

11x14 is what you want.

Remember, you aren't being bullet proof. You're keeping the heart and great vessels from getting holes.  A hit in the lungs you'll survive, for a while. Unless you clip one of the pulmonary branches, then your "while" is going to be a bit faster than you'd like.  Oh, and go to the Armory section and read up on body armor. It's a better spot than GD for this.

At your size, you're going to have a lot of uncovered area.  Normally that vulnerability would favor lighter plates that make you more mobile, but at your weight, you might not feel much of a difference wearing heavier plates like the Hesco 4400's mentioned earlier.

On the subject of threat level, keep in mind that Level IV is not "strictly better" than all Level III+'s and Special Threat armors at stopping multiple hits from M855 or M855A1.  The main three ways that bullets can penetrate armor are by total energy, velocity, and bullet material/shape.  The Level IV standard requires stopping at least a single round of 30-06, and ideally it can stop some heavy armor-piercing rounds as well.  Most Level IV will still stop a few shots of e.g. M855, but the design emphasis creates a tradeoff, where it's not always superior for taking multiple hits from high-velocity intermediate calibers.

Generally speaking, you'll want to consider what your threats may be.  Common rounds in ConUS will be:

• 7.62x39 and maybe 7.62x39 MSC from the AK's that ideological commies tend to prefer.  Most Special Threat and Level III+ can handle both of these, but not all.  For OPSEC reasons I'm leaving out a few details that you can't reasonably prepare for.  PM me if you want details.
  
• M855 and maybe M193 from AR's.  Most Special Threat and Level III+ can handle both of these, but not all.
  
• M855A1 if the subverted US military starts massacring people or something crazy like that.  This tears through a lot of armor on the market, but some Special Threat armor and at least one Level III+ model can handle it.
  
• .308 from Fudds in the country, cool guys with M14's or AR-308's, or designated marksmen and snipers.  I'd like to think most Fudds wouldn't shoot at you, but Lon Horiuchi probably would.  Level III is defined by handling this, and Level III+ and Level IV qualify too, but Special Threat armors aren't rated to take it.
  
• Less common threats would be 30-06 from ultra-Fudds in the country and less common armor piercing rounds that you'd need Level IV for.  Pray you don't run into .50 BMG or anything tungsten-tipped like M995AP.

You may want to check out Buffman's videos on Youtube.  He's a member here, and he does the best body armor penetration tests that I've seen.  One of the best manufacturers was a huge surprise: Militech, a Chicom outfit, manufactures some Level III+ / RF2 (non-certified) armor that can take over a dozen hits (spaced out) of M855A1 from a 22" barrel.  In comparison, a single shot blew straight through the highly recommended RMA 1092 plates (which did at least stop a shot from a 16" barrel).  The tests were done at different times of year, so the cooler temperature of the backing clay gave the Militech an advantage, but the gulf in performance is hard to ignore.  Part of me worries that they sent him something better-constructed than retail, but for the price you can get twice as much armor and test some plates yourself.  They also defended their competitor RMA after RMA struggled in some Level IV repeated hit tests, which was a classier move than I expected from a Chinese company...so they may just be that good.

Tag for later

Correction to someone’s post above: Level III can stop M193.

Sounds like 11x14 it is.  Those are considered large.

Depends entirely on the carrier. Mine is an adjustable & one size fits all design but does not accept large plates. If you really are a bigger guy, you may want to consider 11x14 plates. They will weigh more and limit your selection of carriers that will accept said armor though as not all carriers will accept plates that large.

M193 out of a 16" AR vs. Level III Steel plate.



Boolit wins

ETA- in case you don't believe the video or think it was a one off:

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you want to protect the vital areas, which for plate armor, is the major blood vessels, and your heart

you are not trying to cover your side fat err... 'muscle' with plate armor, so sizing plate armor for the size of the torso is not correct

and the purpose of armor is to decrease the chances/extent of a life threatening trauma, so you have a chance to get to advanced medical care

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the nipple to nipple is a suggested range to cover. obviously, if you have a exagerated upper torso, either because of gynecomastia or other condition, that range won't be correct

I'm pretty sure that's untrue.  M193 is not part of the NIJ Standard-0101.06 (the Level III standard) found here.  Any armor that reliably stopped M193 would typically be marketed as Level III+ instead of Level III, precisely because it stopped M193 in addition to .308...even if it's a low-tier III+ that can't stop M855.

For what it's worth, regular Level III is a really bad idea in ConUS anyway.  You really, really want to be able to stop at least M855 and 7.62x39 MSC at the very least, and those are more important than stopping .308 in the vast majority of settings (everything except long-distance rural engagements).

Ah, my mistake. I was looking at RF1 and thinking it was the same as III.

SKD pig will accept that big and allow 4 mag holders across the front instead of the 3 for smaller people.

Yeah, it's a pretty confusing mess.  RF1 and RF2 are new NIJ standards officially extending Level III to standardize various meanings of what the industry has been colloquially calling "Level III+".

And get multi curve for the front at least.

Zero to dick in less than  3 sentences.

I'm huge, and according to the BMI chart, I died a couple years ago. So for me, no.  I have SAPI large plates, and they don't cover an awful lot, but at least the cover most of the important stuff.  I'm 6'5" and about 330,  my chest is about 60".  I also have a very long torso.


I am in a GrayGhost Gear minimalist carrier, but the straps are pretty much out of free space.

A lot of people seem to like the single-curve Hesco L210 Special Threat plates as a budget option for stopping common intermediate cartridge rounds, but this is pretty much the only single-curve recommendation I ever see.  People who have tried both mostly seem to agree that the multi-curve stuff is still more comfortable, but it depends on chest shape too.  The most common complaint seems to be that it kind of separates from the chest a bit at the top, due to being single-curve...which I imagine also negates its thinness advantage compared to Level III+ plates.  If you're built like some anemic Antifa string-bean with a totally flat torso from clavicle to belly-button, maybe single-curve might not be so bad?  I think someone the OP's size would definitely want multi-curve though.

i see lots of plate carriers looking like this.

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Wow, @PatrickHangry !!
That is a boatload of useful info!!

Now that I’ve got a good idea of what to look for, do we have preferred vendors I should be shopping?
And are counterfeit plates/carriers are concern?

I have this bookmarked that was kind of helpful.

https://www.highcomarmor.com/rifle-armor-plate-cuts-and-how-they-make-a-difference-to-the-operator/

There are a lot of questionable-quality, questionable-provenance plates from China that say "STRIKE FACE" on them, but I'm not sure if counterfeit branded plates are a thing or not.

Sometimes you can buy direct from manufacturer.  For instance, the Crye JPC 1.0 (integrated kangaroo pouches) and 2.0 (more configurable) seem to be the most popular choice around here for lightweight/minimalist carriers, and Crye's lesser-known SPC distributes the weight more comfortably and avoids soaking too much water when it rains.  You can order any of their stuff directly from them to avoid counterfeits.  As a side note, their Crye LVS is some of the best and most concealable soft armor you can get for pistol threats, if middle-of-the-workday sneak pistol attacks are something on your radar (it's expensive though).

Hesco is more of a premium plate brand (despite losing NIJ certification for their 3610), RMA is more "quality on a budget," and Tencate's more popular offerings seem to focus on solid Special Threat armors.  You can buy RMA stuff directly from them, and you can buy a couple Hesco offerings from TRex-Arms.  I'm not familiar with their reputation, but in my research I noticed that Saber Solutions has a pretty wide selection of other Hesco and Tencate products (known for special threat armors) and good charts showing protection levels from various special threat rounds.

All of the plates listed in this subreddit post are pretty popular and reputable for their respective price/curvature/weight/protection points, and it lists some of the "special threat" calibers each set can take (non-exhaustively).  RMA has some other offerings that aren't listed, and another popular choice for semi-rich people would be the Hesco U210 Special Threat plates (like multi-curve L210's for roughly 4x the money, with more protection against harder ammo like M855A1).  Typical advice is to avoid Chinese armor like the plague, because China is asshoe, and Youtubers hawking Chinese products might be paid shills.  It's hard to argue with the Militech and Botach Battle Steel results from Buffman's videos though, and he seems like a pretty stand-up guy who consistently tests anything he can get his hands on.

No.