Vest Threat Levels/ Personal Experiences
Hi all,
Just thought I'd contribute my little bit of knowledge/ experience with concealable vests.
1. Level II is better than IIA, but only by a very slight margin.
2. For most applications, barring SWAT, CRT, other tactical officers situations, a II is the perfect blend of concealabiltiy/ comfort. This is the level of vest that I wear on duty, and have done so for almost 3 years now. An extended vest will have full side protection, while a contour vest will not. You have to pick which you want more. Comfort or protection. I chose comfort over protection, due to that fact that some of my duties include patrol on a bike/ prolonged outdoor heat exposure.
3. If you purchase a vest, make sure to get a Shock Plate, and also a Soft Trauma Plate. The shock plate will give you added protection from ballistic rounds, and most will be able to absorb up to a 50 degree angle of hit, plus will also provide you with some measure of stab protection in the area of the hard plate. The Soft Trauma Plate will also give added ballistic protection, and will give you protection for blunt forch trauma. It helps to disperse a direct hit to make it easier to withstand the force on the sternum/ internal organs that it is designed to cover.
4. Place the Shock Plate in the carrier sleeve closest to the vest, and then the Soft Trauma Plate on top of the Shock plate, closest to the outside of the vest. This will help to eliminte the possibility of a richochet from a bullet hit going towards the throat area. There have been documented cases of officers dying from a richochet off of their vest's hard plate.
5. Get a vest that is NIJ 0101.04 certified if possible. This is the most recent set of ballistic vest certifications.
6. Get a vest that will stop the particular bullet that you will be carrying in your gun, in the event that you lose control of your weapon and have it turned against you. Once again, II stops the vast majority of bullet types/weights.
7. Stay safe!
For more detailed information, visit.....
http://www.galls.com. They have excellent explanations of the threat levels and certifications for vests. I personally have the galls Lite Contour Level 2. 199.95 when I purchased it 3 years ago.
Hope this helps/ helped.
Jon