How long do ballistic vests last

A vest may not appear to be expired to the casual observer, or even to the person who is wearing it most frequently. Your product may look pristine on the outside, but on the inside it could be warped, cracked, or bent from use. To put it bluntly, using an old, worn-out vest could lead to serious bodily injury by a bullet.

At worst, such bodily harm could result in death. We recommend that you have your body armor checked regularly for signs of both external and internal damage by an expert in your field. In the case that your gear has, in fact, degraded, it is encouraged that you replace your armor with a more recently-manufactured model. The key thing to remember here is that you may need to replace your vest even before it has truly expired—it all depends on your individual circumstances. All of our soft armor products are manufactured at a Florida facility, and we pride ourselves on using the highest-quality materials in our development process.

Body Armor Direct vests are certified by the National Institute of Justice, meaning that all of our products have been sent to an independent, government-approved laboratory and have been tested to ensure they meet the standard requirements for government use. When the wearer gains or loses weight, it can decrease the lifespan of the body armor.

Someone who loses a large amount of weight will put excess stress on the ballistic panels because they will be able to move around inside of the carrier rather than press snuggly against the body. If someone gains weight, it could cause their vest to crease and damage the ballistic panels. It is important for you to wear a vest that fits you well and make adjustments when needed to ensure that the body armor works as well as it possibly can.

Taking the time to be sure that your vest is well maintained, stored properly, and the carrier is replaced when needed, will allow the body armor to last for a very long time. At the first sign of damage or wear, a replacement vest should be purchased. Search: Search. This would allow moisture in, weakening the ballistic package.

Do not iron your vest. You need to make sure that your vest is properly stored, usually in a place that allows you to lay it completely flat. Too often, people opt to hang them up or place them in a drawer. Did you know that the amount of time you wear the vest can also affect its lifespan? If you wear it every day, the lifespan of the bulletproof vests diminishes. If a person loses a significant amount of weight, it can place stress on the ballistic panels.

These panels are designed to fit snuggly up against the body. If a person increases in weight, the vest could crease and the ballistic panels could become damaged.

A bulletproof vest carrier can also become damaged. Therefore, regular inspections of the carrier must also be done to make sure that they fit well. When the carrier is damaged, it decreases the lifespan of bulletproof vests and drastically reduces its protection level. To ensure the lifespan of body armor, you must maintain it, properly store it and replace the carrier when called for. Do this, and the bulletproof vests will last for an extended period of time.

Follow the instructions on how to care for your ballistic armor as well and it should last longer. According to a tenacious rumor throughout the police community, bulletproof manufacturers reinforce spots the NIJ shoots at before certifying the vests. Wear yours today and you can go home tonight!

If you have any comments or a question please do not hesitate to leave a quick message in the comments section at the bottom of this page. If shot or a partner is shot while wearing a vest go to the emergency room and be examined for blunt force trauma. Take the vest to the hospital regardless of trail of evidence to ensure the doctor s can determine the potential types of injuries to bones, organs, and tissues. My pal G Lang, an extremely qualified ballistics analyst, says that every single time you are struck in the gullet proof vest, your ribs get cracked.

Not TRUE at all. There is a new Kryon Terminator suit that can stop several 9mm machine gun rounds at bery close range. Of course other factors come into play including the cross sectional area of the bullet. Thanks for your comment! We wanted to state that small and very fast rounds e. I have no personal experience being shot with or without a vest, but my best guess would be that if somebody was hit by a. Even a rifle round with two or three times as much energy as a.

Level III, or preferably higher. Of course there may be massive bruising, broken ribs, etc. Certain velocities may indeed penetrate armor of certain ratings, but heavier rounds bring more blunt force trauma. The more mass a round has, the more blunt force trauma. In particular if it is moving quickly like a.

A gn. So no, a 9mm of any kind is not a threat to body armor of any rating, even old school IIa armor. Most modern soft armor is not rated to stop a. The 5. It will run at around 2, fps, thus the reputation for punching through body armor. It is a rather weak round, and the penetration after passing through soft body armor is questionable. Neither are going to be fun, and both could kill you even with armor, but the. Rifle rounds will punch through soft armor with no problem.

One can easily fire. These rounds have sufficient velocity that soft armor does not offer much protection. No in general terms the author is correct. You are adding in a third component energy and making the blind assumption that a heavier bullet traveling slower will have more energy just because its heavier. Even if loaded to the same chamber pressures.

That is not always or even the majority of the time correct. It is very well proven that of a given bullet construction impact vel is the most deciding factor in armor penetration. Further many bullets of same caliber have more energy when they are lighter versus their heavier brethren. Beyond that loads are developed for bullet perf not max vel for a given bullet.

They may also change bullet construction or a combo of both. Point being heavier in pistol ammo rarely means more energy. Lets even look at an extreme and then a closer one.. We can use the luckygunner test results as they were all done with the same gun and testing protocol. All data is from a 3. So we can see its not even close.

The reason for some of this is at a given bullet caliber of a given construction for a bullet to get heavier it must get longer. That longer bullet has more surface area along the body and thus more barrel friction plus there are other factors that effect equal vel for weight increase.

This is not some freak comparison either we can look at others even in the same product manf and line of ammo. As can be seen even with the exact same bullet design general pressure loading from same manf the lighter faster bullet has more energy.

Now you may bring up sectional density as a key indicator of bullet penetration depth along with energy. This only really translates for same caliber FMJ with the hightech bullet construction of today you have bullets with more energy penetrate far less and other bullets that are lighter penetrate deeper.

Some penetrate far deeper than some gr. Fact is of a given bullet diameter and frontal cross section area the surface area of the nose of the bullet the velocity of the bullet is the difference in one penetrating a given level of ballistic protection or not. BTW the 50 gr civil defense load has penetrated i. Now of course if you take those same bullets of the same designs and run the heavier one very close to the exact same vel yes it will penetrate at a slightly lower vel.

But its no where near the ratio of the difference in weight as a percentage. Further its now well shown that heavier bullets of same caliber and cartridge does not mean a higher muzzle energy. A common confusion is when you try to transfer long range impact energy of high power rifle rounds to handguns.

In the case of rifle round retained energy is also a factor of ballistic coefficient or more correctly the drag co curve.