Originally Posted by
Naphtali
A few brief thoughts to add. My background is an MD with an intern year in trauma surgery. Have done tons of 2-3 day carbine + pistol courses (several shoothouse heavy), several one-on-one with active duty deltas and another with active duty SEAL team six at a Larry Vickers course. Wore armor for them all, so I saw what worked and didn't in terms of civilian home defense needs (including wearing it for 8 hours straight in hot weather), got good feedback from the SF guys, and talked about their gear / gear in general with a lot with the experts. I train on my own 600 rounds per month with rifle / pistol always wearing the different types of armor below (drills learned from these courses, both basic fundamentals and also more complex combat-oriented / on the move etc.).
1) If you carry a gun, you're equally likely to need armor as you are the gun. So I don't get the "you don't need armor, but you should definitely concealed carry in public" crowd. Unless you're in a gunfight with a non-human (attacking animal), then if you need the gun, you need the armor too. Lots of gunfights have ended with dead / disabled on both sides.
2) Concealed armor comes in 2 flavors. With a pistol (non-rifle) plate and without any plate.
a) Without a plate is the most concealable, as it's just a IIIa soft panel. It will save your life, but you'll spend a few weeks in the hospital recovering from your rib / sternal fractures and your collapsed lung(s) / pericardial effusion. Soft IIIa armor = the bullet + the panel will penetrate 1.75" into your body -- that's the NIJ standard. You'll be out of the fight but alive (probably).
b) With a pistol plate is thicker, though this is what I wear almost everywhere I carry, as I can conceal it well under regular clothing. I look like a "bigger guy" with a thicker torso, but not like I'm wearing armor. The huge advantage is that if a non-rifle round hits your plate, then you remain basically uninjured. Vastly superior to IIIa soft panels, where you will suffer a terrible but non-fatal injury with each hit. I wear 11" x 14" front and rear Point Blank Speed Plates, and I had Propper custom tailor 2 carriers + soft panels. It's light enough and breathes well enough that I forget that I'm wearing it as I run errands around town all day. Walking 3 miles with the dog is hotter, but easily doable in 100 degree weather with a good Under Armor base layer.
3) Non-concealed armor comes in 2 flavors. Both are viable for home defense, as you're not trying to conceal anything and, if possible, would be carrying a long gun anyway.
a) Rifle plates + a MOLLE (or equivalent) carrier that holds whatever you want (extra mags etc.). Rifle plates tend to be HEAVY AND THICK. The extra thickness of the plate often makes it hard / impossible to properly shoulder a long gun, even with a shooter's cut plate - no easy way around this - have to learn to shoot differently. Weight is the biggest downside, though getting better as newer materials are invented.
i) Ceramic plates... Boron carbide ceramic plates are the latest generation / lightest and currently worn by deltas, but SUPER expensive, and all ceramic plates are supposed to undergo a yearly x-ray to look for cracks. If you drop a ceramic plate / it gets hit hard by accident, you're supposed to get an x-ray before resuming wear. Impossible for most civilians. How lucky do you feel / how much risk are you willing to live with is the big question if you go ceramic without x-ray machine access + a "plate radiologist" to interpret the film.
ii) Steel plates will main or kill you as bullet fragments ricochet into your arms and legs and head / neck after the initial plate impact. You'll just die slower than if your torso had been hit. Or you can get lucky and the spall can miss, but that's lucky. Never use these, and they weigh a ton anyway.
iii) Other non-ceramic and non-steel plates exist (I have several Level III from Armored Mobility, Inc). Many different manufacturers, but most will NOT stop M855 (green tip), which is super common in the U.S. Make sure yours will, if you choose this route. These are typically VERY HEAVY AND THICKER vs. ceramic, but they don't require x-rays, and you can drop them without nearly the worry.
iv) Level IV plates are good vs armor piercing ammo, though that doesn't really exist outside of the military / agencies. The crack head in your house isn't going to have AP ammo, if he brought his rifle along, so Level III is enough.
b) A MOLLE carrier + a non-rifle plate (e.g. Point Blank speed plates). This is what I have if I had to take a long gun outside in a disaster etc. If I'm already open carrying a long gun, then society has collapsed at least temporarily, so exposed armor is no concern for me. This does nothing to stop a rifle round, but you'll be fine with dozens of pistol / shotgun hits to the armor (have tested 3 hits of both 9mm ball and HP ammo in the exact same place of the Speed Plates without penetration of the plate). This is MUCH lighter, and I had a back injury a few years ago that I'm still cautious about with wearing heavier armor. You need a way to carry extra mags / medical equipment / misc gear, and a ton of weight on your belt SUCKS compared to on your shoulders, so the carrier is the best place for most of your gear weight.
Long story short, I'd wear a concealable vest when you concealed carry (with a tourniquet in your pocket), and if you can afford it and make it work concealability-wise, pistol plates in it. Next most important is rifle plates or at least a MOLLE carrier with some pistol armor at home, so you can have your long gun with extra mags on your body.
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