Shooting Yourself to Test a Vest

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Aaryq

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Howdy, folks.
I've been seeing more and more shows on the Military Channel and the History Channel about armor and how people in the past and people still shoot themselves to prove that their bullet-resistant armor works. Does anyone know if they use really light loads or "whimpy" calibers? Does anyone have a figure about how many people tried to test their vests and were infected with a severe life-threatening lead poisoning?
 
lead poisoning is really not the issue...

i own an indoor shooting range... and my lead levels are 4x as high as a "normal" human being yet i don't have lead poisoning yet....
 
i'll let someone else do that job, thanks...

however...
i wouldn't imagine that using under-powered loads would tell you much. if you're trying to do a real test, you ought to be shooting the vest with loads you're likely to encounter in a real shooting situation.

i would think using a dummy would work well enough. and if they insist it needs to be a real person, again, i'll let someone else take that one, regardless what the pay is. my wife won't even let me apply to be a LEO, so she'd crap if i told her i was gonna let someone test fire at me with a vest on...
 
I believe most of this revolves around Richard Davis, founder of Second Chance body armor. He used to -- and maybe still does, for all I know -- demonstrate his products by shooting himself while wearing a vest. That I am aware of, he has done this with full power .357 and .45 ACP ammunition. He may have used others, but those are the two I know for sure.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5y44CdrBsfs&feature=related
 
I think the founder of Second Chance body armor would shoot himself quite regularly to prove they work. Don't think he ever had one pass through but they'd probably want to keep that quiet if it happened.
 
I know the guy from Second Chance wasn't using light loads when he tested his vest. Check out youtube I know I saw it there before.


Wow you guys type fast
 
Does anyone know if they use really light loads or "whimpy" calibers? Does anyone have a figure about how many people tried to test their vests and were infected with a severe life-threatening lead poisoning?
Click to expand...

The guy at second chance used a 300 gr hornaday 44 mag. factory load

lead would not even be an issue blunt organ damage would be. In fact I read some where the guy at second chance does not test any more because of repeated warnings from his doctor.
 
I've heard tell of an Army supply sergeant that, with a straight face, took old air mattress repair kits and handed them out to troops and especially second lieutenants when he gave them their flack vests telling them it was a patch kit for use on their vest if they ever got hit.
 
With my regards to lead poisoning, I meant the kind you get when some rather warm lead moves quickly through your body and breaks things up...the kind of lead poisoning that kills your...quickly.
 
Rich Davis of Second Chance was selling vests to cops before vests were widely accepted. Previous vests had been bulkier, heavier, and more rigid, so there was a lot of skepticism that his lighter, more flexible vests would stop handgun rounds.

His trick of shooting himself while wearing the vest was a brilliant marketing tactic to overcome that skepticism. He literally "stood behind" his product in use!

Personally, I wouldn't try it or recommend anyone else try it.
 
I believe the way the vest was developed was to calculate how far human tissue could be depressed before serious injury resulted. I recall the figure was about 40mm. That's a lot! Then they developed the vest to slow the bullet in that space. They never said it wouldn't hurt! And it does. I would think if you were going to do a video, you'd want a steel plate under the vest to distribute the load.
 
Second Chance has a great video (they sent me one free when I inquired about it). Runs something like 8 hours and is full of all sorts of cool stuff. It has Davis shooting himself the first time and many times after with many different handgun calibers, along with testimonials from police officer "saves". Well worth the phone call.


I got to meet Davis at one of the early Knob Creek shoots. He was walking around with a vest on for sale ($100 in tape across the front and back) and carrying a Suppressed MAC, which he shot in the subgun match with us. He's a real piece of work and funny guy.
 
I remember that the guy Knoxville from jackass once did an article on self protection or defense equipment and he puchased the cheapest vest he could find and borrowed a friends 38 and shot himself with it and the vest worked. I think he may have tased or peppersprayed himself also/You could probably find it if you google it. I think it was for "big brother" skating magazine probably back in the 90s. Pretty crazy.
 
Shooting yourself to prove your vest works is about as smart as lighting your house on fire to prove the smoke detectors work.
 
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