Body Armor?

[Green Eye Tactical]

How many days per year do you wear steel plated armor in public?

I'm not sure what you're driving at here. If the metric for owning Personal Protective Equipment is whether you wear it on a daily basis, then we should start emptying out our gun safes and listing yard sales.

Now to directly answer your question, when I was wearing concealed steel armor in public for work- it was on a daily basis. Currently, I only strap on my vest when I'm teaching courses that require it.

 

[duckknot]

Steel?

Like AR-500? You have got to be kidding.

What are you buying this for? Odds are you will never wear it in real life.

I wear my steel all the time....especially on our nightly walks! Acts as a great weight vest and if someone wants to dance....then we can dance!

sent from wait...where am I!?

 

[Pilgrim]

Steel?

Like AR-500? You have got to be kidding.

What are you buying this for? Odds are you will never wear it in real life.

Nope not kidding. Just entertaining the idea.

Don't ever plan on wearing daily but I like options. Will likely sit with the rest of my supplies for "what if".

If you don't agree that's fine. Won't change my mind...

 

[Renegade]

I'm not sure what you're driving at here.

Because if we do not know the problem he is trying to solve, we cannot give him good advice on what to get.

If the metric for owning Personal Protective Equipment is whether you wear it on a daily basis, then we should start emptying out our gun safes and listing yard sales.

I do wear a gun on a daily basis.

 

[Renegade]

Don't ever plan on wearing daily but I like options. Will likely sit with the rest of my supplies for "what if".

Gotcha. In that case something like a plate carrier would work well as concealment will probably not be an issue under "what if" scenarios. And it does not seem you will be hiking miles in it or needing to wear it on a daily basis.

 

[Green Eye Tactical]

Originally Posted by Green Eye Tactical
I'm not sure what you're driving at here.



Because if we do not know the problem he is trying to solve, we cannot give him good advice on what to get.


I get that. However, you posed the question to me as if to debate the viability of wearing steel plate on a daily basis, BTDT. If you were posing it to him, you might ask him what his intended use was, what his threat environment is, what capacity he operates in, and/or what climate he intends to use it.

Originally Posted by Green Eye Tactical
If the metric for owning Personal Protective Equipment is whether you wear it on a daily basis, then we should start emptying out our gun safes and listing yard sales.



I do wear a gun on a daily basis.

Might be semantics here, but I wasn't talking about guns. I don't think this thread is about guns. And guns don't fall into the category of PPE.

Also- I probably failed horribly at multi quoting here. edit- yep, shot not a 5

 

[Renegade]

I get that. However, you posed the question to me as if to debate the viability of wearing steel plate on a daily basis, BTDT. If you were posing it to him, you might ask him what his intended use was, what his threat environment is, what

capacity he operates in, and/or what climate he intends to use it

I did ask him, post#35.

"What are you buying this for? Odds are you will never wear it in real life."

 

[Green Eye Tactical]

I did ask him, post#35.

"What are you buying this for? Odds are you will never wear it in real life."

Fair enough on that point.

 

[Renegade]

Fair enough on that point.

No harm no foul, all opinions welcome.

 

[HKaltwasser]

I have vests for my whole family. I agree with Roger on this deal and is the same reason I have them. Make sure you have an anti spalling coating or soft amour worn under neath the armor.

My full vest in my closet, takes me all of 20+/- seconds to put on.

 

[bones_708]

My full vest in my closet, takes me all of 20+/- seconds to put on.

I don't believe any of the comments about time are directly about just the time it takes to put armor on. It's about getting to the armor, getting it on, getting back to an area, all while under fire because if you weren't under fire then why would you think you need armor? If you have time then great. If you stage several sets around your house then amazing. But if you're like most people and just throw it in a closet then it's unlikely to be useful in the most likely of the the extremely rare possibilities when you might be able to use armor.

 

[breakingcontact]

Did we figure out steel vs ceramic?

 

[Green Eye Tactical]

Ceramic performs better, there is a reason the military uses it. However, it is more expensive, difficult to conceal (if that's your purpose), and near impossible for civilians to maintain

 

[breakingcontact]

Ceramic performs better, there is a reason the military uses it. However, it is more expensive, difficult to conceal (if that's your purpose), and near impossible for civilians to maintain

Maintain? In what terms?

Ive read how you have to be careful with the ceramic and they have a "shelf life". It would spend 99% of its life sitting around my house.

 

[Green Eye Tactical]

Maintain? In what terms?

Ive read how you have to be careful with the ceramic and they have a "shelf life". It would spend 99% of its life sitting around my house.

I mentioned why in the article I linked earlier. It needs to be x-rayed regularly to inspect for cracks. Ours used to get checked 4-5 times a year.

 

[breakingcontact]

I mentioned why in the article I linked earlier. It needs to be x-rayed regularly to inspect for cracks. Ours used to get checked 4-5 times a year.

Right I've read about that. I have been considering it from a civilian vs mil perspective.

Military stuff often may be "better" but it is often supported heavily by a supply/support chain. Also it is often deployed as a system or in a different context.

Ill try and go back and read the article today.

Ive read most steel armor doesn't stop XM193 556

 

[Younggun]

I mentioned why in the article I linked earlier. It needs to be x-rayed regularly to inspect for cracks. Ours used to get checked 4-5 times a year.

Really?

I wore my plates through a full deployment, as well as many others.

I don't recall any X-Rays ever being performed. That was in a pretty rough environment and being treated as most military equipment is.

 

[Green Eye Tactical]

Really?

I wore my plates through a full deployment, as well as many others.

I don't recall any X-Rays ever being performed. That was in a pretty rough environment and being treated as most military equipment is.

Your unit was screwing up then. When I was in the regular Army in the 82nd, every company turned them into supply for inspection as part of the predeployment checklist. When I moved over to special operations, we had technicians come to us and inspect them before every deployment and before every alert cycle.

 

[breakingcontact]

Really?

I wore my plates through a full deployment, as well as many others.

I don't recall any X-Rays ever being performed. That was in a pretty rough environment and being treated as most military equipment is.

Never dealt with armor in the military. From what I heard guys would roll them over a hard flat surface and listen for cracks/crunches. That was about it. Maybe supply sent them somewhere to get xrayed? Probably not. Probably just got sent more.

Perhaps Active Duty or high speed units do it differently.

 

[Younggun]

Never dealt with armor in the military. From what I heard guys would roll them over a hard flat surface and listen for cracks/crunches. That was about it. Maybe supply sent them somewhere to get xrayed? Probably not. Probably just got sent more.

Perhaps Active Duty or high speed units do it differently.

Pretty much this.

We were told how to inspect them ourselves, but no turn in during deployment unless a problem was found.