Body armor-a tv observation

[Mega Twin]

On all the television shows when some one wearing a vest gets shot with supposedly a 9mm
it knocks them to the ground and gives the appearance they were shot dead until they rip their shirt open to expose the bullet lodged in the vest. They then have to be taken to the hospital with bruised ribs at the most.
Now I've seen videos of the Second Chance vest CEO shooting himself with up to a 44mag
with seemingly no effect.
Just an observation from myself.

 

[contender]

Well, I can say I don't want to be shot with anything,, even if I'm wearing a vest, with the plates.

But I CAN say,, my very good friend,, a NC HP officer was shot in the chest July 3rd, at point blank range with a .44 Mag. He was wearing his vest,,, it saved his life,, AND,,, he was able to return fire & kill the guy attempting to murder him.
There is a picture from his Dash Camera, showing the guy with the .44 mag drawn, and if I had to guess,,, just before he pulled the trigger. You can see officer Dunlap starting his draw, so he can return fire.
Due to the investigation, I am patiently waiting to talk to Jeff about all this until it's all settled down.

 

[Tom in Ohio]

Hollywood doesn’t understand basic physics. The force a bullet imparts to a target is less (due to air resistance) than the force of recoil. Of course, that force is concentrated on a smaller area, but it isn’t enough to knock you over.

I remember reading an article years back in a police magazine about an officer who was shot at near point blank range with a shotgun slug. He was on a front porch and was shot by a guy from inside the house who shot him through a picture window. His vest stopped the slug, and he reported not remembering being shot. He said the next thing he knew, he was in a kneeling position. He realized what happened, rolled off the porch and retreated to his cruiser. His right arm was temporarily paralyzed, so he returned fire with his left hand.

I also remember reading reports about officers in gun fights who didn’t even know their vests had stopped bullets until afterwards.

 

[Hvymax]

Adrenaline is an amazing thing! I can't imagine a center mass solar plexus hit not bringing someone to their knees with anything over 380.

 

[MHtractorguy]

Check out Demolition ranch on you tube. He shoots some crazy stuff.
He shoots a lot of ballistic vests.
No tricky camera stuff, just solid hits.

 

[Dan in MI]

About three minutes, but there are five or six videos of Richard shooting himself once they get there.

 

[Dave P.]

I've never been shot by anything other than a BB gun so don't really know.
What I do know after being hit by hundreds of hockey pucks, maybe thousands over the years is being shot by a handgun is not going to knock you
down from impact force. A puck off a hard shot has about 120-130 ft.lbs of energy and it does nothing as far as moving your body when hit,
Won't even move a leg or arm from impact. Now depending on where you get hit you may react to the pain and it may do some real damage.
I could see a bullet to the vest, say over a rib bone at 400-700 ft. lbs might break the bone and a large caliber handgun would have to hurt like hell anywhere. Suspect with adrenalin flowing in a fight for your life you'd pretty well ignore it but it's gonna leave a mark!

 

[Dave P.]

Just watched that video...wonder if he had powder burns on his left hand ?

 

[Jack Ryan]

On all the television shows when some one wearing a vest gets shot with supposedly a 9mm
it knocks them to the ground and gives the appearance they were shot dead until they rip their shirt open to expose the bullet lodged in the vest. They then have to be taken to the hospital with bruised ribs at the most.
Now I've seen videos of the Second Chance vest CEO shooting himself with up to a 44mag
with seemingly no effect.
Just an observation from myself.

I remember about 40 years ago a Sheriff getting shot from a car window while making a traffic stop. One foot away with a 45 acp. He was wearing a vest and survived to kill his attacker but he was in the hospital a long time and lost his spleen from it.

 

[kmoore]

You just can't compare TV shows or movie's to real life.. Some maybe more accurate in some details than others. It's all for entertainment or what the director says to do because it looks cool. I recently watched the latest John Wick movie and right up front I don't care for them. My son wanted to watch it. I laughed watching John Wick raise his arm and the Kevlar in his jacket bounced the bullets right off. I watched a Mission Impossible movie last night and bullets were sticking out of the Kevlar after the actor was shot. My first thoughts some will believe that's how it works. What ever.

 

[DeletedMember275]

I remember watching a video years ago, where the guy was testing various body armor. His final test was to film himself being shot multiple times by a .308 battle rifle at very close range (10 feet sticks in my mind), while wearing what I remember as 'Dragon Scale' hard plate body armor. While standing on one foot. He didn't even wobble when hit.

 

[kmoore]

With Kevlar, each impact lessens the stopping ability. Think of a net many times deep(thick). As the bullet strikes, it rips layer after layer until stopped. Ripped layers are weakened, the next impact will/might go further(deeper) then the 1st. For a time, some makers of Kevlar vests added a shot plate made of steel to be worn center of mass over the chest. If a single person on here as that plate, toss it. It was found that impacting bullets could and did bounce into the wearer's face/head. They were replaced with additional layers of Kevlar to place into the plate pocket.
Of course, there are different types of ballistic body armor. I have no idea how others work.

 

[Wvfarrier]

I took a 9mm nato to the plate carrier (ceramic) from 10 yards and let me tell you. It SUCKED. It did not knock me down or even stagger me but it hurt like blazes and stopped me in my tracks for a moment. Granted I am not a big guy....6' and 185#.