Poor Man's Bullet Proof Vest

[nezumi]

(Sorry if this is in the wrong forum, please feel free to move it.)

I was doing some reading yesterday and came across a fascinating article here:
http://www.thehomegunsmith.com/pdf/Poor_Mans_Bullet_Proof_Vest.pdf

The article was originally published in 1993. It describes how to make a "poor man's bullet proof vest". Basically they take half an inch of heavy felt and smear it with sand and caulk.

Since I'm hardly an expert on the subject, but this seemed really, really weird, I had to ask, BS or no? I'm tempted to send the article to the Box of Truth guy to see if he'd be up for testing it, but I thought I'd share it with the smart people here for comments.

 

[ClickClickD'oh]

Do they also have an article on how to make a poor mans coffin?

Surely, you can make bullet resistant clothing out of common items. Heck the Chineese made themselves pretty bullet resistant to the .30 carbine just by wearing winter clothes... but I wouldn't trust my life to any of it.

 

[RLsnow]

well would you rather wear something that MIGHT work? or something that WONT work...

 

[kd7nqb]

I am willing to say that I wont try it, it seems that if this method was valid we would see cheaper versions of vests available on the market. The point it that Kevlar is expensive so if somebody knew how to build a cheaper vest that was not super heavy the would. Sounds like a cool project to play with one weekend and then take it to the range and see how it really performs.

 

[rdhood]

Sounds like a mission for the "Box o' Truth"

 

[plexreticle]

Poor mans fireproof suit:

Take a wool blanket. Soak it in gasoline and Karo syrup. Cut a hole in the center and wear like a pancho.

 

[Owen]

Poor mans fireproof suit:

Take a wool blanket. Soak it in gasoline and Karo syrup. Cut a hole in the center and wear like a pancho

It's True! No one that's used one has ever complained!

 

[RyanM]

Definitely send it to the Box o' Truth. Whether or not it actually works, shooting things is fun!

 

[Sunray]

"...half an inch of heavy felt and smear it with sand and caulk..." You'll have nice slab of dirty 1/2" thick felt that won't stop a sneer.

 

[Badkharma]

I once took my GMAT study books to the range after I took the exam. Surprisingly, 180grain .40 FMJ didn't make it but halfway through the book - and this is a soft-cover book filled with cheap paper about an inch and a half thick! I shot the book from 10 yards.

(the .223 was another story LOL)

So, at least from small calibre pistol fire, just drape yourself in GMAT study guides. I'm sure it will still hurt as all hell, but the bullet probably won't penetrate.

 

[GILROY]

Notice that no link is posted to the demo mpeg of the idea guy letting someone shoot him while wearing thee bright idea was posted. Some things I just don't take folks word for before I try one.

 

[Justin]

well would you rather wear something that MIGHT work? or something that WONT work...

If you need a Kevlar vest that badly, drop the money on a freakin' Kevlar vest.

Sheesh.

 

[ilbob]

Poor mans fireproof suit:

Take a wool blanket. Soak it in gasoline and Karo syrup. Cut a hole in the center and wear like a pancho.

Real poor man's fire proof suit. Soak wool blanket in water. Drape over body. Works a lot better than nothing.

I have fired 9mm, 22, 45, 38, and probably other stuff into phone books maybe an inch or so thick and the bullets did not penetrate.

There was a german fellow back in the early 1900s trying to peddle a felt suit of some sort as being bullet proof. Didn't get far. Generals back then balked at the price. Cannon fodder was cheaper.

 

[ConfuseUs]

Enough layers of thick, heavy felt could stop handgun bullets. The problem with the design is that the wearer would look like the Michelin Man, and nobody wants to wear a thick felt garment in warm weather.

It's a cheap to test the concept though: just buy enough felt to assemble a 1 ft square test panel (I'm thinking a pad of at least 4" thickness), seal it together, and shoot it w/ a handgun. I guess if it the bullet penetrates the test panel, add another inch of thickness and try it again. Once the thickness that most reliably stops bullets is reached, sit back, breathe deep, and visualize what someone wearing a vest that thick would look like toddling down the street.

I guess you could keep going until you reach a thickness that stops rifle rounds too.

 

[Wayne G.]

Do they also have an article on how to make a poor mans coffin?

ohhhh, that was good! I needed a good belly-laugh!

I clicked on this thread with squinted eyes thinking I'd surely see something about trauma plates and duct tape.

Good one guys.

 

[GunTech]

Even a kevlar vest is only bullet resistant, not bullet proof. Unless you get an NIJ Level IV, a rifle round will penetrate just about any 'bullet proof' vest.

 

[RyanM]

Just remembered, (rich) people used to use very thick vests made of many layers of silk, to try and stop bullets. Apparently, they actually did work. I think silk would probably be more expensive than kevlar for a given level of protection, though.

Anyway, it'd be interesting to see it tried, though it would most likely not stop anything more powerful than low power .22 LR from a pistol (which can be stopped by a quarter).

There's an idea, glue a bunch of quarters to the outside of the thing, and you'd have poor man's dragon skin! See if that improves performance.

 

[Cannonball888]

 

[Thain]

It was my understanding that in the days of flintlocks, the "many layers of silk" didn't so much stop the bullet from entering your fine aristocratic body as it kept the bullet from fragmenting or going into all sorts of nasty places inside your royal personage.

It was suppossed to make it easier for the doctor's to patch you up, and let you avoid death from post-surgical infection since the surgery wasn't as difficult.

Personally, I'm going to try to stick with my plan to never get shot... But if someone does decide to test the Poor Man's Bulletproof Vest.... Can I have your gun collection?

 

[CWL]

(rich) people used to use very thick vests made of many layers of silk, to try and stop bullets.

Are you sure it isn't defense against arrows? Mongols used to wear 3 layers of silk to catch and wrap around incoming arrows, didn't stop from penetrating, but you could pull the arrowhead out easier.

Muzzleloaded roundball doesn't fragment easily, If a heavy felt/leather buff coat won't stop a bullet, what makes anyone think that a few layers of silk material would catch bullet? As for infection, it was the dirty clothing fibers that got pushed into the body that caused infection and death -wouldn't matter if it was silk, wool or cotton.

 

[GunTech]

The first modern, concealable bullet resistant vests were made of coarse weave silk. It's the same theory as the modern kevlar vest, but they didn't have kevlar. These modern vest were made by Casimir Zeglen, a Polish priest living in Chicago around 1900. The vest sold for around $800 in 1914, and Archduke Franz Ferdinand was wearing one when he was assassinated. The bullet struck him in the neck, above the vest.

The Zeglen vest was 4 layers and about 1/8 of an inch thick, and yet able to stop the handgun bullets of the day. In a presage to the stunts of Rich Davis of Seciond Chance body armor, Zeglen gave a demonstration of his vest by wearing it while a marksman fired at the vest from 8 paces. No rounds penetrated.

(Don't you just love the History Channel?)

 

[sacp81170a]

Any truth to the rumors about gang bangers using pieces of puncture resistant tires(the kind with kevlar in them) to fashion crude ballistic vest for wear under their coats and whatnot? I've heard this repeated but could never verify the truth of it.

 

[nezumi]

I'm sure someone got that 'bright' idea. Whether it worked or not is a different question. Still, not a bad rumor to propagate in some circles...

(Boy, wouldn't it be convenient if the BGs stood still boasting about their bullet proof tires so you could shoot them?)

 

[sm]

I used to take my first Mother-In-Law out shopping...

Being an older returning student, I have a backpack and text books.
This is a lot easier to deal with, and no mouthing.

I used to have some 'Nam era Flak Jackets, I used when working in and around clay ranges...not half bad for for busting briar's out hunting.
I wish I still had some of these for similar uses now...

But I don't have a need for armor personally.
When I did, it was provided for and it was hot, heavy and I couldn't wait to remove it.

For me-

Software, not hardware.

 

[fireflyfather]

Cops in Thailand can't afford kevlar vests.....they use about 50-60 layers of silk to make big, bulky vests that will stop up to .357 mag.......and are heavy and hot as hell. Still, with the price of domestic silk in Thailand, it's still cheaper than imported vests. Looked kind of like a vest made out of 2x4's in terms of thickness.