Would pistol calibers in a rifle penetrate body armor?

[bhhacker]

I was drifting off to sleep last night and of course..this is when i always get weird questions that pop into my head...


would level II or IIIA stop a 357 or 44 rifle? I know that the IIIA can do that from a pistol, but i wasnt able to find this info on the net.

also, if thats the case, are the 9,.40, 45 rifles going to be able to be stopped with normal body armor or would you need those trauma plates?

 

[rangerruck]

762 Toke round will do it; but not sure on the level 4 stuff...

 

[JShirley]

Manufacturers list what rounds each level vest will stop. Level 3 stops 7.62x25mm.

 

[Float Pilot]

Other things like the angle of impact, the softness of the body part (belly or shoulder blade) behind the kevlar, and the bullet type all make a big difference.

I can tell you from personal experience that while a projectile may not penetrate a soft vest, the impact of certain calibers is enough that you sure do not feel like doing anything for awhile.

 

[NG VI]

I think a .357 or .44 Magnum rifle isn't quite the same animal as a 9mm, .40, or .45 rifle, mainly because they can be loaded quite a bit hotter than the auto calibers, and the auto calibers don't really gain all that much velocity from a rifle barrel.

 

[briansmithwins]

Not many body armors are so marginal that a (compared to rifle) slow, fat slug a few hundred fps faster than if fired thru a pistol is going to give them trouble.

Engineers design body armor and by nature they are a conservative lot. They want their armor to be effective to its rated standard when it's 10 years old, been exposed to sweat and other chemicals, wet, and after it's been stored in the trunk of a car in the Arizona summer when the cop was off duty. As a consequence, stuff like body armor is over designed for the listed threat range. BSW

BSW

 

[noob_shooter]

are there steel core/armor piercing hand gun rounds?

 

[Zerodefect]

I've seen 9mm steel core designed to pierce soft body armor better than regular 9mm, it deosn't work though. Pretty sure it's not supposed to be in the hands of citezens of the USSA.

 

[winchester '97]

It has alot more to do with bullet type than caliber. Two examples: the FN 5.7mm round, tiny, yet defeats body armor with the right bullet, and the russian 9x39mm, a subsonic round that is reported to be very effective on body armor, again with the right bullet.

 

[JShirley]

are there steel core/armor piercing hand gun rounds

Federally controlled. The (ostensible) reason all 7.62x39mm steel core ammunition was ruled illegal was because a handful of 7.62x39 AR pistols were made. Of course, AK handguns have been more common lately...

 

[noob_shooter]

but people can make steel core .223 pistols too right?

 

[JShirley]

The last time I checked, there was a federal exemption for .223 ammunition (you meant ammo, right?).

 

[rangerruck]

above dudes are right; level 3 may stop a 762.25 bullet, but I would not wanna be the guy standing inside it, when it took one of those , especially if fired from a carbine type weapon.

 

[JShirley]

If it hits the plate, pretty sure there won't be much impact transferred. But when the fire returns...especially since it will probably be 5.56x45mm...it'll be worse for the guy firing the 7.62x25mm.

 

[ijosef]

Fortunately I've never been shot, but from those that have, wearing a ballistic vest just stops the bullet from entering your body. You still get most of the impact, which can be like getting slugged in the ribs with a baseball bat.

I found the Box 'O Truth's article on testing the level IIIA ballistic material pretty interesting. I wish they would've tried the 7.62x25mm Tokarev on it, as well as hand cannons like the .460 and .500 S&W Magnums.

 

[berettashotgun]

Where does this stuff come from?
On a NASA forum you would get laughed off for asking "STAR TREK" questions.
A vest never-EVER!!!!! stops a headshot.
Or a crotch/big 'ole artery shot.

 

[benEzra]

but people can make steel core .223 pistols too right?

The last time I checked, there was a federal exemption for .223 ammunition (you meant ammo, right?).

There is an exemption for 62gr SS109/M855, I think, which is lead-core with a teeny itty bitty steel cap over the core. The military and BATFE classify that as non-AP, as armor penetration is actually inferior to standard lead-core M193 55gr ball at close range.

True steel-core .223 would be as tightly controlled as black-tip tungsten-core AP, I think.

are there steel core/armor piercing hand gun rounds?

There are, but they're controlled by Federal law, and that is true whether the caliber is .357 or 5.7x28.

Here are some armor-piercing military/LEO-only THV rounds. These are made from very hard metals that retain their shape under impact, and the small tip concentrates the load and punches through steel or Kevlar with relative ease, while still offering surprisingly good terminal ballistics due to the speedbrake shape. Only *.gov can get those, though.

http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk/THV.htm

 

[missouri dave]

I have no doubt that belt mountain punch bullets in .44 from a levergun will indeed pierce a vest.

 

[Hatterasguy]

The 7.62x25 Tok round will penetrate a lot more than most pistol calibers. I remember watching a test and it did better than the .45ACP, and .44 Magnum.


Another plus is they are dirt cheap so you can afford to shoot them.

 

[rangerruck]

If you ever see an older vest, say from the 90's and earlier, they all used to have ( in the higher level jackets) a little tag in them that said ' tokarev approved' which told you that vest was made to stop the Tok round.
So you can see the little round is pretty potent...

 

[noob_shooter]

another question.............. wouldn't a bullet be better at penetrating armor if it had a broadhead (razor sharp) like bullet. I don't see how that wouldn't work.

 

[NG VI]

If you could make a broadhead-style bullet, I'm guessing it would. Getting it to feed would be interesting.

 

[rangerruck]

they have been made in the past, mostly they are used only by foreign type, hi speed low drag units. And we used to make some flechette type rounds over here for a while, but I think nothing really became of them, wide use.
Germans use a nailgun type thingy, that also works under water, that fires a nailtype round, with some barbs on it, IIRW.