Nice pistol, poor head-knocker...
Better than a Savage .32! Bigger bullet too, though it does not shoot as many times. The Savage had the politically correct magazine capacity of 10 rounds almost a century before the concept of 10 round mags became popular.
I have been studying the history of armor for the last couple of centuries. Armor never really quite died out, though it came close, and has seen a resurgence of popularity in my life time. Kevlar and other materials have brought new life to an old idea.
Supposedly, the Mongols wore a silk under tunic beneath their mail for the same purpose that you describe. An arrow would penetrate the mail, and force its way into the flesh for a short distance, but could be easily removed, as the silk would not be pierced, but would fold around the arrow head. Not sure that I believe this ever happened more than rarely, probably silk was the most comfortable fabric between skin and metal links.
Also supposedly, ArchDuke Franz Ferdinand was wearing a silk armor vest on the day he was assassinated. Probably good protection against low velocity lead revolver bullets, but not the full metal patch bullets of the auto pistols which had come into use by then.
Reports of 1930's era gangsters using "bulletproof" vests abound. Some were apparently stolen from police stations. I must admit to total ignorance of this level of armor technology. I assume that they were segmented plate types. Chain mail might work well against edged weapons, but I don't think it would be too effective against bullets. I could be wrong, though. I have read reports of some British officers going into the trenches with hand me down chain mail underneath their uniforms. I doubt that provided much ballistic protection, but might have been good protection in the hand to hand combat of the trenches.
The broomhandle Mauser supposedly developed a good reputation for penetrating body armor. Some body had to be wearing armor for this reputation to develop.
Enough talk for now, I have to clean my Series 70 .38 Super.