Shooting Yourself to Test a Vest

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years ago I had a video that included Richard Davis shooting him self with full power loads,and he purposely shot the vest in a spot that had been shot before.I believe his words were'to dispel the myth of mulitiple hits'.
I recall he then let someone shoot him with a .308 rifle at about 15 feet.!
not me,brother. !
 
I believe that was his father who shot him with the 308 on the deck of a boat. The vest was a combo life preserver (no pun:) ) and bullet proof vest.
 
So Richard Davis is stupid, a candidate for a Darwin award, and needs to be removed from the gene pool, eh?

So how many of you guys have invented something that has saved dozens of peace officer's lives?

Thought so... :scrutiny:
 
Pshaw! .308 ! Big deal!
 

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So Richard Davis is stupid, a candidate for a Darwin award, and needs to be removed from the gene pool, eh?

So how many of you guys have invented something that has saved dozens of peace officer's lives?
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He may have been a good inventer, but shooting yourself, no matter what you may be wearing, is stupid. There's no way to argue against that. This is why somebody else invented ballistics gelatin.
 
He may have been a good inventer, but shooting yourself, no matter what you may be wearing, is stupid. There's no way to argue against that. This is why somebody else invented ballistics gelatin.
Click to expand...


Ballistic gel, while a good indication still lacks true real world results.
Mr Davis invented something that has saved countless lives and believed in it enough to prove it worked. Not many people will stand behind a product the way he has.
 
So Richard Davis is stupid, a candidate for a Darwin award, and needs to be removed from the gene pool, eh?

So how many of you guys have invented something that has saved dozens of peace officer's lives?

Thought so...
Click to expand...

Contrary to his hype, he didn't invent flexible, or concealable body armor. He wasn't the first to use kevlar. He was preceded in 1975 by Richard A. Armellino, the founder of American Body Armor marketed an all Kevlar vest called the K-15. He was preceded by countless people who made vests of various materials.

Of course, Davis' Second Chance also continued to market zylon vests and continued to claim they were safe after multiple failures resulting in injury and death of officers.
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=108131&highlight=second+chance+zylon
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=55452&highlight=second+chance+zylon
 
...yeah, waste hundreds of $$ on a "jackass" stunt that ruins the vest you wear & trust every day. great. explain that to the LT. or the wife when you complain about needing new DOJ/NIJ soft armor... Super. I shot mine to test it. NIJ stats weren't enough. I had to go all Frank Sanatra and do it MY WAY....
 
Life is about taking reasonable risk irovided the reward is sufficiently high.

You put yourself at some risk driving...the further you drive or the thicker the traffic you drive through the greater your chances, but most people will choose to drive further for a better paying job.

If your job is developing or selling bullet proof vests, then yes, one your scientific tests have show you that you are 99.9999% sure it will work and the purpose of said test is to allow you to sell it or improve existing sales, that's a reasonable risk

Buying a vest and shooting yourself just to 'double check that you didn't get a lemon' is stupid
 
If you want to test a vest, do so professionally, and that doesn't mean on yourself, or on any other living being. Is this type thread really appropriate here at THR?

THR is about perpetuating lawful, common sense ownership and use of firearms. This thread in no way, shape or form fits that concept.

Doc2005
 
Here's another one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8GBl1XlRtc

I remember reading about a pair of real winners in one of the "Darwin Awards" books; one of them bought a second-hand vest and wanted to test it to see if he got his money's worth, so he put it on and asked his friend to shoot him. Said friend did... IN THE FACE. I wonder if you can get a refund if there's blood all over a vest?
 
Double Naught Spy said:
Contrary to his hype, he didn't invent flexible, or concealable body armor. He wasn't the first to use kevlar. He was preceded in 1975 by Richard A. Armellino, the founder of American Body Armor marketed an all Kevlar vest called the K-15. He was preceded by countless people who made vests of various materials.
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Davis admits he didn't invent the bullet proof vest. He prefers the comparison someone made of him to Henry Ford. He mass produced it and made it readily available.
 
I hope people know that vests (even well made ones) do fail. It is a statistical certainty. All vests have a V-50 mark. The velocity where the vest has a 50% chance of stopping the round.

It is sheer stupidity to shoot yourself wearing a vest.

Either
a) the round being shot is so underpowered it gives you no indication of the effectiveness of the vest (aka a publicity stunt)
b) the round is powerful enough to test the vest in which case you have a % chance of a life threatening wound.

Stupid.
NOBODY tests vest by wearing them. They are tested randomly to ensure the lot meets the criteria the vest is designed to protect.

Even if you DID test a vest by shooting it once shot the vest is useless. Now is the next vest going to stop the same round? Only way to be 100% certain is to shoot it? What about the next vest? Repeat until you encounter the one that doesn't stop it and get carried by 6.
 
THR is about perpetuating lawful, common sense ownership and use of firearms. This thread in no way, shape or form fits that concept.
Click to expand...

Actually, it seems to me that THR is primarily about whining, nitpicking, passing judgment, and offering bad advice on topics about which you know nothing at all. In that vein, this thread is entirely THR.

Either this place has changed or I have, but I've had about a gutfull of all the nonsense.
 
Gun writer Duane Thomas did it c. the mid 1990s and produced a video of same. I had thought Paladin Press carried it at one time (as well as a short book called The Truth about Handguns), but it seems to be out of print. IIRC, the bullet did not penetrate the vest, but it stunned and bruised him quite badly.
 
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The local sheriff's department I went to work for in 1980 bought vests for some of their patrol officers shortly before I went to work there. The dept at that time did not have a large budget so the vests were issued to the few officers who promised to wear them. In 1980 not everyone believed in the need to wear a vest. One of the deputies a Lt. I am told wrapped his vest around a tree and shot it with a .44mag to see if it would work. The department only found out about this because he wore it to work and showed it to his shift to prove to them that the vests worked. Someone had the good sense to inform on him.
 
The important thing to remember people, is that if you should choose to test your personally-owned vest by shooting yourself...

...please have the courtesy to make sure next-of-kind post the video to Youtube.
 
i would not buy a vest that from a company where the ceo/pres/ owner was not willing to be shot with it on.
 
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