I am a 18 yeaR LEO (currently a detective) in So Cal, and recently decided to put together an active shooter vest. I have a lot of shooting and armorer experience. Based on threat reasons I will not bore you with, I wanted it to be a hard plate vest. I have Colt 6920 for duty use, and take active shooter/terrorist threats seriously. If the call comes in, I will go. I found a vest carrier that would take my dept issued level IIIA soft armor, with hard plates pockets over those. I chose a set of 10x12 plates that were advertised as titanium level III stand alone. They were made by International Armor. The online vendor I was buying them from was a different company, but I looked at International Armor's website and they seemed "reputable", although I had no prior experience with their products. I bought the plates.
A short while later, I showed the plates to a guy I know who works for Kelly Space and Technology. He does r&d on armor, and I've seen stuff he built that will stop .50 BMG. He has a test facility and can shoot stuff for testing. I showed him my vest and he sadly informed me that my plates were not titanium. One of their materials specialists confirmed it. Thus began a big fight with the vendor. They did not want to refund my money and referred me to International Armor. I was furious and told them that they had taken my money, not IA. The conversation did not go well. I finally did call IA and talked to a sales guy. His final explanation was that they initially called the plates titanium, even though they weren't,and that "the name just kinda stuck, so we kept it for martketing". Holy @%*#! He also alluded to the plates being marketed to alot of overseas government military contracts. We finally worked out an agreement where I would return the plates to the vendor, and he would reimburse them. He tried to upgrade me at his cost to other plates, but I told him I did not trust anything they put out.
Before returning the plates, my friend and I shot them with some 147gr 7.62 NATO rounds. They were listed as level III stand alone, multi hit capability. The first round flattened and tore up the plates pretty well, but the the plate stopped it. Second round went right through. I sent the plates back and got credited. The staff at the vendor were much more agreeable than when I initially talked to them, but I had calmed down alot myself. One lesson I had learned was that if it seems to good a deal to be true...buyer beware. Especially if you really plan on taking the gear into harm's way.
Just wanted to inform other users that may be looking at armor.
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