Polyirethane is the way to go. Smash with hammer and still g2g. But u gonna pay $ for em. Shot stop has vids of this.

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They also float but they are not as high of a rating as the ceramics.

Neither is steel.

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Shot Stop posted a vid of a few models of plates and they're being wacked with a hammer and a cinder block dropped on them.  Then they immediately shot them and they held up.

My Duritium PA was 1 model and it worked as advertised.  This model is rated 3+ and does not stop greens, as the manufacturer states it doesn't stop them.  However, if you add a trauma pad to this, then it will.   The Duritium are PE.

Yeah duritium is just a trademark label for PE. Never looked into whether it’s spectra or dyneema and which grade, but I don’t think it’s anything particularly new.

Not sure what the deal is with the + rating if it doesn’t stop M855, but the “+” nomenclature is very loose and for marketing anyway.
Something to note is that the Shotstop III+ is pretty thin for a UHMWPE plate. To be capable of stopping M855 it needs to be thicker, hence the idea of having a IIIA backer behind it to make up for the reduced UHMWPE layers on the Shotstop plate and therefore adds some weight and thickness to the overall setup. Kinda wasted effort imo.

Ceramics are tougher than people think. Not that you should deliberately be smacking them and dropping them or getting hit by a car while wearing them. Those plates are gonna be on you as a part of you, so treat yourself with care. Much like a car, you take care of it and it will take care of you for many many years.
Even if there’s a crack, a well made ceramic plate should be laminated with strong adhesives and thus the plate will hold together enough that there wont be much significance in performance degradation from a crack.
As for age, it shouldn’t matter so as long as they weren’t horribly abused and neglected. There are Vietnam chicken plates and 90s era ranger plates that stop their intended threats.

100% PE (UHMWPE) plates are not really the way to go. PE is not known to reliably perform well against stuff like M855, so you’d be playing with fire regardless if they’re marketed to stop it. However, certain PE plates may be applicable in certain circumstances or requirements with some caveats.

There’s not much reason to stick with steel these days. It’s a obsolete body armor material with risk and downsides outweighing the benefits. In any case, go for multicurve ceramic plates. The money you don’t spend on steel plates and rifles/accessories that only see the light of day a couple times a year helps invest in ceramics.


As for helmets, just stick to a reputable US manufacture such as Opscore/Gentex, Highcom, custom armor group, revision/galvion, whatever flavor of milsurp ACH/ECH helmet as long as it’s not compromised and you put a upgraded helmet liner than standard ones.

Nothing particularly wrong with using steel for weight/endurance training and use ceramic for range/“real” practical purposes, so as long as the training regime is conducted in such a way that it doesn’t destroy your knees on the long term. Training with heavier weights makes lighter equipment (ceramics)  feel even lighter and puts less of an impact on endurance.

For actual use as body armor, nah. That’s bad insurance.

So it’s just the matter of having actual modern armor than something that still puts your life at risk if it were to be employed for personal protection.

I don't think the steel plates put my life at risk when I throw them on if a burglar comes knocking, not unless he is using AP rounds or a 30-06. Certainly it is a much smaller risk than no armor at all.

Burglars don't usually come knocking, FYI.

I'd be amazed if you have the time, forethought or inclination to put body armor on when getting up to investigate a noise you may or may not have heard.

Or, do you sleep in your vest?   

Thats all I sleep in

Thats all I sleep in

Because you know, HPD wants retention for safety.......

You need to move to a safer neighborhood.

 

his neighbors need to move to a safer neighborhood

Thats all I sleep in