Bullet proof vest

P

paulmac

Joined
Feb 6, 2007
Messages
143
Likes
1
Feedback: 0 / 0 / 0
For home self defense, any thoughts?
I know they're not cheap.
I know you won't always have time to put it on.
I know different models offer different degrees of protection.
I 'm just thinking it would be nice to keep one hanging in the bedroom for late night searches. That is, if you do have time to slip it on.
Anyone have one?
Anyone else like to get one?
 
It would be a "nice to have" but for the money they cost, there are many other things I would like to have first..

BTW, I have seen military surplus Kevlar in a couple of surplus stores for pretty good prices...
 
I have one a company I did a few jobs for let me keep. It's been in my closet ever since. Just one more thing to take up space. I kept it for the "neat factor", but it really has no practical use in home defense. Unless, of course, you're under siege.

Seriously. Are you going to get up after hearing a noise in the house, grab your gun, strap on your bullet proof vest, then go investigate? Maybe some folks would, if they had the time. Not me, though.
 
paulmac said:
For home self defense, any thoughts?
I know they're not cheap.
I know you won't always have time to put it on.
I know different models offer different degrees of protection.
I 'm just thinking it would be nice to keep one hanging in the bedroom for late night searches. That is, if you do have time to slip it on.
Anyone have one?
Anyone else like to get one?
Click to expand...

Good ones are damn expensive (~$1K for pistol rounds only).

They are damn uncomfortable.

The ones that would protect against rifle rounds are MUCH more expensive and MUCH more uncomfortable!

I own one and only use it for work. I can't wait to take it off after I'm done working! It is that uncomfortable.

It would be the last thing I'd think of reaching for in a home defense situation.

They really don't deteriorate if they are kept unused in a controlled environment, out of the sunlight, etc. This is true for Kevlar, not for some other fabrics that may well deteriorate just by "existing" (most didn't work well to begin with).

If I seriously was worried each night about home invasions, I'd invest my money in moving out, and fast! Not in bullet-proof vests!

YMMV
 
LenS said:
Good ones are damn expensive (~$1K for pistol rounds only).
Click to expand...

Len 3 years ago i purchased a IIIA for $460 brand new

i thing they just charge the Deptments twice as much ..cause they can.

STILL it is a bad idea for home use (i think)

( i purchased it because i was working as a plain clothed armed couirer)
 
Last edited by a moderator:
We could buy cheap nes for less than $500.00. But no one in my department would buy them. We stayed with the top brands. They are expensive and are custom fit to each user. The off the rack ones did not suit our needs.
 
You might just want to google the vest...and see what it CAN be purchased for...You MIGHT be surprised! might!
I know of a WPD who did and WOOOW it was about $ 400-600 over what the dept. payed!
For what ever it is worth....
 
I bought mine about 4 years ago, brand new Monarch, all Kevlar Level II with plate. At the suggestion of another officer, I got it off eBay for ~$200 delivered. Same exact item at local police supply store was ~$800 back then.
According to the mfr's website on sizing, the one I bought was the right size for me (disadvantage was no custom fitting) . . . of course now ~20# heavier it is a bit less suitable. [thinking]
 
another thing to think of

in the event of a home invasion in THIS state...say you do shoot the BG

cops come...confiscate your stuff...and wonder why as a civilian you NEED a bullet proof vest...high cap mags...hollow point ammunition etc etc

you can bet your ass in court it will get turned around that you had big plans of robbin a bank

just seems to be too much of a hassle money/time/legality wise to bother
 
blood hound said:
another thing to think of

in the event of a home invasion in THIS state...say you do shoot the BG

cops come...confiscate your stuff...and wonder why as a civilian you NEED a bullet proof vest...high cap mags...hollow point ammunition etc etc

you can bet your ass in court it will get turned around that you had big plans of robbin a bank

just seems to be too much of a hassle money/time/legality wise to bother
Click to expand...

Uhh yeah, sure. Then why wouldn't they just say that
anyways? If we extrapolate your logic a bit, basically any guy with a
gun and some ammo "had plans to rob a bank". I'm sure deval would
love to think that, but even in the crappy MA legal system that's not
approaching reality.

I think the bigger issue with vests is actually wearing the damn
things. They're heavy, hot, and cumbersome, at least for any of the
vests that provide real protection. IMO for a "home invasion" scenario
the money would be better spent on an alarm system or creating a
"panic room".

-Mike
 
mike...what i was trying to get at was how a responsible citizen who was only trying to protect themselves can easily be turned into a monster due to what he had in his house

if you think that a lawyer wouldnt bring up the fact that no one besides leo needs a vest then i think maybe youre a bit dillusional

i was trying to convey how the media would spin its web of falsehoods that usually stem from such an incident
 
blood hound said:
i was trying to convey how the media would spin its web of falsehoods that usually stem from such an incident
Click to expand...

Yeah, but you know as well as I do, they can do that with -anything-. The
fact that we own guns is enough as it is. And anyone who is a collector,
that might put them on "unstable media footing" too. For most of us, a
"bulletproof vest" is not going to change the "bad media picture"
all that drastically, if you start to think about the amount of
"politically offensive" gear that a lot of us have. A "bulletproof
vest" would just be a cherry on the political incorrectness sundae.

And yes, lawyers (more specifically, a DA or Prosecutor) will say shit... let
them. They will also say things like "why did mr so and so feel the need to
have a gun" etc. That will all have to be dealt with. You can live in
fear of what some lawyer will say, or you can come up with a constructive
way to fight it. (with good counsel, which you'll need in such an event
anyways.) There will be far bigger issues to deal with other than what gun
you used or whether or not you were wearing a vest.

I guess what I'm getting at is if any of us are going to crap our pants
in fear over what the "media" is going to say about us, then we might
as well not even bother with owning guns, if it's that much of a
risk. Yeah, the guy who shoots the BG with grandpas inhereited
duck gun (and its the only gun he owns) might get off a little easier in the public perception realm, but self defense cases are about -facts- and not
just public perception. I don't even think Mas Ayoob even makes glue for
sniffing that is -that- potent. [laugh]

Edit: FWIW, Ayoob fumes aren't completey unwarranted... but I would
say that a "vest" is pretty low on the list, say, compared to Gary Fadden's
incident involving the shooting of some meathead biker with a registered
machinegun.

http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t39127.html


-Mike
 
Last edited:
blueleader said:
there's no such thing as a "bullet proof" vest!

blueleader over and out
Click to expand...

Hence the quotes.... While most of us would call it Body Armor, or
a Ballistic Vest, the media would revert to its hollywood BS like "dum dum
bullets" and the like, and would resort to calling a 5 shot revolver an "M16
Machinegun" if they could get away with it.

-Mike
 
The only thing you could rapidly employ for a home defense situation would be a plate carrier. It goes on much like a sandwich board. With plates, they are heavy, but can be put on in fairly short order. However, imagine with all the scenarios that can happen in the middle of the night - the last thing you should try and train for is adding a plate carrier to your home defense.

That being said, one could consider a plate carrier for home defense in a total social meltdown, (as was stated if you're under seige). Shop carefully - there's a lot of snake oil out there. If you can afford it, Dragon Skin seems to be the best...

In the meantime, the best body armor you can buy is training for proper shot placement and planning for all possible scenarios of home defense. Buy a really bright light to give you first shot advantage and train with it. Remember, we're talking about 2am, pitch black, fog of sleep. Your first shots will be important - even with hearing shut down under stress, a handgun or shotgun going off in a 10-foot room will rock your world - you miss, you die - armor or not.....
 
Most departments have the benefit of state and federal grant funding for their purchases.

In most case cases, the departments aren't buying them. The individual officer is buying it out of his own funds. Only vests that met certain guidelines were eligable. Nothing made from Zylon was acceptable. In most cases they paid little or nothing for their vest. In any case decent vests aren't cheap.

The best source of vest information can be found here...
http://www.nlectc.org/testing

I've seen the vest sold on EBay but they all seem to be Second Change which went under after lossing a multi million dollar lawsuit over failed vests using the Zylon material.
 
Last edited:
They filed for bankrupcy in around 2004 after the Zylon disaster. What remains now is a very small part of the original company Davis started way back when. They have a very small dealer network and most places don't seem to carry them. I wouldn't touch them after they walked away from the problems with the Zylon vests. They offered a one or two hundred dollar rebate certificate on a new SC vest. One of my officers just paid over nine hundred for a vest and after a year they told him "sorry, don't trust it". They did nothing to rectify the problems. They were sued by most of the states to get full recovery, or at the very least a better deal then they were offering. None of my people would touch them after that. Too bad as they were pretty much the founders of the industry.
 
Sorry. Didn't mean to say they weren't a bad product. I remember them way back when, and even had one... My PD eventually switched to American and were happy with that.

Of course, we never paid for our own vests. I"m sorry to hear that happens around here. [frown]
 
My first vest was a Second Chance. They were a good product in the beginning. I guess they just couldn't afford to recover from the massive loses after the disaster. I got my last vest a year before I retired. I should have taken it with me. It was a Safariland Raid type vest. Not concealable at all. But it have pouces for magazine and radio storage. That cost over twelve hundred with the added options. Most was paid for by our grant funds.

On a different note, our club our club collected a lot of older vests which will be imterfaced on plywood panels and used for bullet baffles on the indoor range. The thought is to prevent any high shots from hitting high enough to go over the backstop/
 
Last edited:
paulmac said:
For home self defense, any thoughts?
I 'm just thinking it would be nice to keep one hanging in the bedroom for late night searches.
Click to expand...

Here is the problem. You put on your armor, get your weapon and go out searching? This sounds like hunting to the uninitiated. A prosecutor will have a field day with this. Skip the vest, invest in a good security system, cell phone, defensive pistol, and shotgun. When you have an "unwanted guest", round up the family, call the police, and stay put. The 5-0 will keep you on the phone while they send out a car. If you are threatened at that point, use your gun--the entire event will be recorded on the phone, and it quite possibly may save you a major legal headache later on.
 
LenS said:
Good ones are damn expensive (~$1K for pistol rounds only).

They are damn uncomfortable.

The ones that would protect against rifle rounds are MUCH more expensive and MUCH more uncomfortable!

I own one and only use it for work. I can't wait to take it off after I'm done working! It is that uncomfortable.

It would be the last thing I'd think of reaching for in a home defense situation.

They really don't deteriorate if they are kept unused in a controlled environment, out of the sunlight, etc. This is true for Kevlar, not for some other fabrics that may well deteriorate just by "existing" (most didn't work well to begin with).

If I seriously was worried each night about home invasions, I'd invest my money in moving out, and fast! Not in bullet-proof vests!

YMMV
Click to expand...


I have seen level 3 vests for far less than 1k. Maybe 800.
 

Similar threads

Silver Bullet Karma - Winner natf
3 4 5
Replies
128
Views
21K
natf
N
Proof of a Global Collapse???
Replies
0
Views
1K
JimGiven
J
Proof of a Global Collapse??? Part 2
Replies
1
Views
1K
OPM
O
SHTF Vest/L.B.V.
Replies
29
Views
7K
P2A
P2A
what level protection is PASGT vest?
Replies
9
Views
9K
andrew
andrew
Back
Top Bottom