Hard armor plates: Yes or no?

[southboy]

I'm looking for people's opinions on hard armor plates. About two years back I knew a lot of officers who wore these hard add-on plates in addition to their soft body armor. Said they liked them because they could stop knives and possibly rifle rounds.

Now most of the officers around me say to avoid them because the plates will richochet or fragment incoming rounds and deflect them toward your face. There must be some truth to this because Safariland has a new hard plate (IMPAC ST Trauma Plate) which is supposed to "trap the round, eliminating fragmentation typically found in hard armor." (here's the Safariland plate: http://www.qmuniforms.com/itemdy00.asp?T1=S48+654&Cat=New+Products ). If their selling point if that it doesn't deflect or fragment the round, this must have been a problem.

I currently have Safariland body armor and was thinking about getting this plate but the price is steep and I sure as heck don't want to buy one of these plates if they do more harm than good. Anyone out there have any experience or opinions on these hard plates?

[COASTIE01]

I love hard plates. There is nothing better than some ****** punching you and breaking his fist on your titanium trauma plate :D

[Merk911]

I love hard plates. There is nothing better than some ****** punching you and breaking his fist on your titanium trauma plate :D

My favorite was when I had a guy charge me, like a bull with his head down...found out real quick I had my plate in that day :)

[2209]

I don't mean this to be a dumb question...but here goes.

Does their 5" x 8" actually mean 5x8? You know how sometimes things are made to only fit a certain vest.

I wear an agency issued gator hawk vest and am curious if this would fit in mine.

[LeeRoy]

I think the hard trauma plates came out of vogue because of those concerns you listed. I wouldn't wear one becuase it "might" stop a rifle round. The trauma plate was created after instances where backside deformation from a bullet strike above the heart caused injury to the heart muscle.

Protection from knife attack (unlikely in the center of the chest), vehicle collision protection, and punch or head butt (I love those, wish I had seen that:) ) are just side benefits of the hard plates.

Don't confuse hard trauma plates with Level III and Level IV ballistic plates which are designed and rated to stop rifle rounds.

[VAFUZZ]

plus there is a big difference between hard "titanium" and hard" ceramic"
the latter is very good at catching the round and the first does have the ricochet problem im trying to find the video of the ricochet from fbi test video. very scary stuff

[1146]

I have a titanium plate wrapped in spectra in the front with a steel plate behind it. Those 2 plates added with my IIIa vest and it will stop a 7.62(only in that spot) but most importantly the force will be round will be stopped the force will be spread and it just make my chest look cool!!! Anyway most of the guys in my dept. have a soft plate outer with a steel or titanium plate under it. You can get both a kevlar and a steel plate for around $50 if you get a titanium plate like mine you can get both for $100.

[schmidtap]

biggest thing to remember, is if you do put in a hard trama plate, PLACE IT BEHIND THE SOFT PLATE, I wore my Striechers vest this way, had a lever II vest with a Second Chance hard trama plate added to it. Thank god I never had to find out if it work. It also made my wife feel good, if there was a dought that I had on my vest, all I had to do was tape the trama plate and she'd know, not that she didn't trust me or anything. Never Left house with firearm and no vest.

[KenW.]

I cut a pieces of .063" 1/4 hard stainless steel and placed one in each vest pocket for knife protection. It certainly won't stop any bullet, but nothing else will get through.

[AggiePhil]

So do LEOs not wear the ceramic ballistic plates that the military uses? They're wrapped in a special fabric and designed to shatter internally when a bullet hits it, dissipating the energy throughout the plate.

[Pedro56]

I use the soft trauma plate, like you said and someone said above, the possibility of a ricochet is there. As far as rifle rounds go, we were told that they wouldn't stop one.

[KenW.]

So do LEOs not wear the ceramic ballistic plates that the military uses?

Not usually. Special folks like SWAT may, but it's too heavy and inflexible for everyday patrol use. Concealable armor carriers do normally have the pockets to accept additional plates.

[southboy]

To the person who asked about the 5"x8" plate size--my Safariland body armor came with a 5"x8" soft trauma pak and it appears to be exactly 5x8 inches. Guess their hard armor plate would be the same size.

LeeRoy, you said the hard paltes were used to stop "backside deformation from a bullet strike above the heart caused injury to the heart muscle." Do the soft trauma paks that can be inserted above body armor do the same thing? I assume it would help just because of the extra thickness.

[bwolf]

All our gear is issued and not too shabby...

Soft trauma pak (for energy dispersion) in front of a titanium plate (5x8) all of which is in front of a safariland ZeroG level IIIA vest. The ladies do feel safe over it and the guys like to punch it haha. Oh, forgot to add, you can't forget that Underarmor t-shirt underneath it all!!

On a more serious note, anyone have problems with heat rash (on the back)? What to do? :confused:

I won't mention anything about "cruiser gut" and vests... :rolleyes:

[1146]

[QUOTE=bwolf]On a more serious note, anyone have problems with heat rash (on the back)? What to do? :confused:QUOTE]

Baby powder

[Dog Off Leash]

Not usually. Special folks like SWAT may, but it's too heavy and inflexible for everyday patrol use. Concealable armor carriers do normally have the pockets to accept additional plates.

I know patrolmen who have a separate ceramic plate carrier in the trunk with their patrol rifles for those "Man with a rifle" calls. They just toss it on over their duty vests.