Plate carriers

[archangel]

Hi I'm looking for a plate carrier any recommendations I ordered one on Amazon should of read description and checked manufacturer they turned out to be an air soft plate carrier reviews say it will fit the standard plates but I want the real thing I am considering an ar500 system not a bad price point 200 for the carrier and plates any one run any other systems

[275RLTW]

What are you going to use it for? It's purpose will determine your selection.

[archangel]

Mainly for carrying mags and equipment but I want the option to put the plates in I have a few friends that use theirs when they go hunting they wear them with the plates in one friend had a stray bullet come flying out of nowhere and hit him in the arm it just grazed him but ever since then he always wears it under his jacket right now I'm just looking for the carrier not the plates

[Joe_K]

Check out the
SKDTAC STT
SKDTAC PIG
Shellback Tactical Banshee
Mayflower APC
Ares Armor Aspis
Ares Armor Derma
5.11 TacTec

That should get you started.

[archangel]

Thanks

[Monky]

I've been wanting to get some plates too.. need a new APC as well

[Roger Ronas]

Any recommendations for a big boy? I have a 56" chest and a 50" waist. 6'2" tall. Use is only for SHTF. Lightweight is nice but in a SHTF case stopping even a rifle cartridge would be nice too.

Thanks
Roger

[Joe_K]

Any recommendations for a big boy? I have a 56" chest and a 50" waist. 6'2" tall. Use is only for SHTF. Lightweight is nice but in a SHTF case stopping even a rifle cartridge would be nice too.

Thanks
Roger
Your vitals are what you want to protect. See what size plates will adequately cover that area front and back, and then find a carrier that will carry those size plates. I believe the Mayflower APC is availible in several size options. If you (or anyone for that matter) would like to take a look at my SKDTAC PIG let me know.
There's a shop in Centennial, Life and Liberty Gear that stocks a bunch of Plates and carriers, also Neves, and Bowers Tactical have a few different types.

[Roger Ronas]

Thanks for the info.

[archangel]

I'm pretty sure ar500 has different size options I think I'm just going to go with one of theirs 200$ comes with plates and a few pouches for mags and a holster for a pistol

[Joe_K]

You get what you pay for.

[dan512]

Talk to Mick Boy. He is selling some great gear for pretty decent prices.

[Mick-Boy]

To Echo what Molon Labe said; You get what you pay for.

For most people there is definitely a point of diminishing returns when buying armor carriers. The average guy just won't spend enough time wearing it to justify a Crye AVS or something similar. But I guarantee if you by some rubish nylon and do anything in it more than walk around the house, you'll wish you had bought something with a little better quality.

Regarding plate placement: This was posted by Panzerr over on Lightfighter. It's an excellent explanation of where your plates should sit and why.


Purpose

Body armor is meant to keep you in the fight. That is, armor is meant to protect your vital organs which, if hit, would immediately take you down and prevent you from putting rounds on target. The possibility of saving your life is a secondary benefit of body armor.

What to protect

With this purpose in mind we must understand those structures we need to protect which we can realistically protect while still maintaining a high degree of mobility. Our primary concern is the heart and the large blood vessels which sprout from the top of the heart: the superior vena cava, the arch of the aorta and the pulmonary trunk. I will refer to these vessels simple as “related vessels” from here on. A hit to the heart and its immediately related vessels will very quickly take you out of the fight and kill you within a minute or two.

Second in importance to the heart is the respiratory diaphragm, the muscle which, when contracting, allows you to decrease air pressure within your lungs and thus take in air. Destroy the diaphragm and you destroy one’s ability to breath.

Protecting the vertebral column goes without saying -we wish to protect as much of this as possible without sacrificing mobility for obvious reasons.

It is important to note that a hit to the lungs may prove to eventually be lethal but is not nearly as lethal as quickly as a hit to the heart and its immediately related blood vessels. The liver and kidneys, while highly vascular, are also not immediately incapacitating.

Front/chest plate

The top of your plate should be at the level of your suprasternal notch aka jugular notch. If you follow your sternum towards your head, the soft spot you reach at the top of it is the suprasternal notch. Your plate should ride at least level with the top of your sternum while standing.

The importance of positioning the plate at the top of the SN Notch is that you have a bundle of large blood vessels which rest on top of your heart and lie behind the manubrium (the uppermost portion of your sternum), most notably the aortic arch. The aortic arch receives blood from your left ventricle and will have the highest velocity of all the blood in you systemic circulatory system. Get hit here and you will be done. So, make sure your plate is riding higher, rather than lower because protecting your aortic arch is much more important than protecting your guts.

Also, as you can clearly see with the image below, a smaller plate allows for more comfort and mobility to the shooter will not necessarily mean you will leave immediately incapacitating areas unprotected -large plates will only cover a little more of your peripheral lung tissue and guts.

Reference image (anterior view)

Red is your heart and related blood vessels
Dark Grey/Yellow is a properly positioned plate
The sternum and clavicle are white with black outline

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l305/malonpm/Lightfighter/image.jpg1_zpswrmmvhwy.jpg

Positioning of rear/back plate

Find the most prominent bony eminence at the base of your neck. This is your vertebral eminence. Count down two bony spinouses (or measure down about an inch) and that should be above the level of the superior aspect of your sternum. Positioning at least this high will ensure your entire heart and its immediately related blood vessels are protected.

Reference image (posterior view)

The vertebral eminence is marked in the diagram below in blue.

http://i99.photobucket.com/albums/l305/malonpm/Lightfighter/image.jpg2_zpsvgv1u14u.jpg

Side plates and shoulder plates

Side plates are intended to protect the highly vascular elements of your abdomen. Side plates were introduced to prevent troops from bleeding out in the chopper on the way to the field hospital. Side plates are not necessarily intended to protect the heart, but if you wear them high up into your armpits you can protect some of the lower portion of your heart.

Protecting your heart from a shot to side is accomplished by shoulder plates, such as the ones manufactured by Crye Precision.

To sum it up

Here are general guidelines to follow at a bare minimum. As always, the more protection you can have without sacrificing mobility the better. This is just the bare bones.

Front plate: should be even with top of the sternum while standing, extend at least 1.5 inches past the bottom of your sternum and should cover the entirety of your nipples

Rear plate: should lie no lower than an inch below your vertebral prominence

Side plates: the higher they ride the better

[Joe_K]

http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/03/7bdf82968bc6f93d087ee5738d15579c.jpg
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/03/63abb2118970b603741b68d26b46f404.jpg
http://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/03/a1d0153812f193d65d17bb00e5919a99.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/03/aea57fe621eac9760c3ba1d7a2cad7d3.jpghttp://images.tapatalk-cdn.com/15/07/03/70c52f598aacf4f3281d56eb3f95431d.jpg

Here's a very cool looking PC from Chase Tactical.

Sent from my SM-G920T using Tapatalk

[kwando]

I tried a few today at Life and Liberty.

Shellback Banshee
Warrior assault DCS
Perroz design

I'm a fat guy and I run a belt so I want it to as minimal as possible. The perroz was by far the most comfortable! I liked how I can add the attachment for three extra mags with two clips and Velcro.

Now for a civilian what plates should one go with??

[lex137]

I like my mayflower apc it's nice cause it clips into my d3cr chest rig wish it had the velcro on it but whatever. Really comfortable even fully loaded. Need to buy a battle belt to go with it.

[beast556]

The wife and I went with the shellback banshee and ar500 plates. The banshee is super nice and is really adjustable. The plates are heavy but priced right.

[kwando]

I found the shellback's cummerbund wasn't long enough for me at stock configuration. Yes I'm fat!!

I guess I could get longer shock or pararcord and extend the cummerbund. I'll have to give them a try again tomorrow. I think I will invest in a good carrier and AR500 plates now and upgrade later

[lex137]

I always had the buy once cry once frame of mind when it comes to buying things, not saying you need the most expensive fancy pc/plates. I'd just rather pay a little more for what I want and not buy again later, good luck either way still trying to decide on plates steal/ ceramic or soft armor...

[Mick-Boy]

Some relevant info in this thread - https://www.ar-15.co/threads/60522-Suggestions-for-new-Plate-carrier

Regarding Hard plates: Thin, light and inexpensive. You get to pick two.

My boy Eggroll just posted this yesterday in a discussion on FB.


Ceramic plates work by dissipating incoming projectile KE, with a soft armor backing that distributes the energy over a larger surface area. The result is localized disruption of the plate material which will vary due to hit location, projectile type and incoming angle of fire. Because of this disruption, the hit location will provide degraded or nonexistent protection.
Ceramic plates are also encased in a thin wrap of spectra or KEVLAR fabric to act as an anti Spall lining for ceramic chip mitigation.

Materials include but are not limited to Boron carbide and alumina oxide resulting in per plate weights pushing 9 lbs per

Due to the ceramic nature of this material, drop impacts upon corners or edge oblique will have detrimental effect on plate structure. In short, don't Joe your shit

Steel, yeah, everyone thinks it's the Thor breastplate. While strong, and could be formed into thinner form factors than issue or standard composition ceramics, the risk of frag spalling is much higher. But use of this material is a presumed risk vs mission parameters.

UHMWPE plastic plates... yeah the magical mystical lightweight plate. It's a compositionally heavier form of milk jug plastic. Thermally more sensitive to the environment. Thus cannot be stored or expected to work reliably in environments exceeding 120F. Advantages... yeah lightweight, but it's still polyethylene and will not stop the range of rifle threat out there when compared against steel or ceramic.

Hybrids... much too doo has been made of these Hybrid armors that use Poly and ceramic. Performance appears to be better than Straight poly armor, but long term performance and opinions have yet to be promulgated to the community as to whether this will be a viable Avenue to pursue

In short, do your homework.

Swimmer cuts are named so to better illustrate the geometry for better range of motion at expense of coverage

SAPI profile is government issue form factor, and if your carrier is made for x-sized plate, then it will fit your plate

OEM profile cuts. Some vendors will offer plates cuts in proprietary form, like Velocity and their ULV steel plates

Make sure you get carriers that match your plate size and geometry

[Mick-Boy]

Also worth mentioning is the NIJ rating system. Your rifle plates are going to be rated as Level III (not to be confused with Level IIIA soft armor) or Level IV. Level II plates will be tested against 6 rds. The Level IV plates may be single hit or multi-hit rated (up to 6). They also might be stand alone or In Conjunction With, usually written as ICW, meaning for the rating to apply they need to be worn with a soft armor backer.

Per the NIJ testing protocol, a plate rated at Level III has to stop 147gr 7.62mm. Level IV has to defeat 166gr .30cal AP.

Your armor selection needs to be based on the threat. If your realistic threat level is high velocity rifle rounds, it might be worth level IV plates.

Notice 5.56 is not in the testing protocol. This is especially important given that AR500 steel isn't great against high velocity projectiles like M193 out of a 16in rifle. Once velocity goes north of 2900 FPS the round will ding the hell out of steel. Armor quality or otherwise.

If you're interested in this stuff look up Doc Gary Roberts posts on Lightfighter (he posts as DocGKR)

http://www.lightfighter.net/forum/helmets-and-body-armor

It might also be worth glancing through the NIJ stuff on their .gov website.

http://www.nij.gov/topics/technology/body-armor/pages/welcome.aspx

[zimagold]

Mick-Boy, Is there an industry rule of listed size versus actual coverage provided for plates? I notice some places list nominal only and others list an actual measurement as well that is 1/2 to 1 inch smaller.

Example: 10x12 on one site looks like its single-curve is 9.5x11.5 and its multi-curve model is 9.1x11.2. Never used plates and this would seem to complicate proper fitting if ordering online.

[Mick-Boy]

I'm unaware of any type of industry standard for plates. Actual ESAPI plates should be uniform. Likewise MBAV. In general though I haven't had an issue buying a like sized plate hanger (Small plates = small plate carrier, etc.).

[beast556]

I took the cummerbund off and went with the straps. I'm not running side plates so no need for it really it is much more comfortable with out the cummerbund at least for my body type.

We dont have dreams of running around saving the world(to fat&out of shape) so we went with the ar500 plates. They should serve us well if we have to defend our family. With the carrier fitted and snuged on you the extra weight isint to bad, it is just a bitch to sholder your rifle with that plate in the way. just my 2 cents.



I found the shellback's cummerbund wasn't long enough for me at stock configuration. Yes I'm fat!!I guess I could get longer shock or pararcord and extend the cummerbund. I'll have to give them a try again tomorrow. I think I will invest in a good carrier and AR500 plates now and upgrade later

[Great-Kazoo]

I took the cummerbund off and went with the straps. I'm not running side plates so no need for it really it is much more comfortable with out the cummerbund at least for my body type.

We dont have dreams of running around saving the world(to fat&out of shape) so we went with the ar500 plates. They should serve us well if we have to defend our family. With the carrier fitted and snuged on you the extra weight isint to bad, it is just a bitch to shoUlder your rifle with that plate in the way. just my 2 cents.

You wife & kids don't carry your weapons while on the veldt ?

[kwando]

Went and tried more plate carriers and changed my mind again.... Mayflower APC is the one.

what about the "shelf life" on ceramic plates? i know its rated at 5 years, and i know they are technically worthless after 5 years. Is anyone out there worried about their expired ceramic plates not being able to do the job?

[lex137]

Hey does yours apc have the velcro on the abdomens portion of the molle strap? I saw a history channel episode on armor and saw that some were compressed time may play a factor on those, I'm no expert I think they probably last longer the manufacture may be playing it safe...

[Mick-Boy]

I wouldn't be too worried about it. We just shot some ceramic plates from 2003 and they worked just fine.

[lex137]

Hey Mick will IIIa soft armor stop a ricochet from a rifle round? I have did a poor search and didn't really find a reliable source.

[Great-Kazoo]

Hey Mick will IIIa soft armor stop a ricochet from a rifle round? I have did a poor search and didn't really find a reliable source.

Ricochet towards you or from hitting you, as bouncing off the plate?

[lex137]

Stopping it from penetrating if I get hit by one.

[Mick-Boy]

Totally dependent on mass, velocity, and angle. If you check out the NIJ link you can see what a IIIA panel is rated for. I know it works well against most fragmentation but the answer for a rifle ricochet would have to be "it depends".

[YammyMonkey]

I have a Blue Force Gear Plate Minus and a couple of the TYR ceramic plates for a bad guy with a rifle set up for work. The shoulder pads help with the weight of the setup on the shoulders. I also slid a plate-shaped piece of one of those blue foam camping pads from Walmart behind the front plate because when I was trying to don it quickly I kept beating the hell out of my forehead and nose.

Overall a very simple setup (plates, 2 mags, med kit & TQs) for my LE needs, which are very different from Mick's.

[roberth]

SKD is having a sale.

http://www.skdtac.com/SearchResults.asp?Extensive_Search=Y&Search=2015Pre-Sale_PC&Submit.x=89&Submit.y=21

[Snowman78]

I am going to go with these for my plate carrier:

Level IV Hard Armor Platehttp://www.rmadefense.com/images/Level-IVSM.png (http://www.rmadefense.com/shop.asp#)


World's Strongest Plate!
10"x12"
Single-Curve
6.9 lbs
Ceramic/Polyethylene Composite
NIJ 0101.06 Certified
Delivery: 4 weeks or less

More Information (http://www.rmadefense.com/Level-IV.asp)Price: $350.00 Sale $204.99


http://www.rmadefense.com/shop.asp

[sellersm]

Is RMA civilian friendly?


Sent from my fat fingers using Tapatalk

[Snowman78]

Yes, according to there Facebook page!

[Snowman78]

I am going to go with these for my plate carrier:

Level IV Hard Armor Plate

http://www.rmadefense.com/images/Level-IVSM.png (http://www.rmadefense.com/shop.asp#)


World's Strongest Plate!
10"x12"
Single-Curve
6.9 lbs
Ceramic/Polyethylene Composite
NIJ 0101.06 Certified
Delivery: 4 weeks or less

More Information (http://www.rmadefense.com/Level-IV.asp)Price: $350.00 Sale $204.99


http://www.rmadefense.com/shop.asp

Well I just order a set, should be here in 4 to 5 weeks, I will let you guys know what I think of them!

[Snowman78]

Here is the P.C I went with:


http://www.lapolicegear.com/tg-xpc-exo-carrier.html

[Snowman78]

I got my plates yesterday, here is my set up. I am happy with it. Total weight is a little over 16 lbs with 2 full mags.
With both the soft and PC my total armor weight is right around 24 lbs.
Total cost is right around $465.00 (my soft armor was around $700.00.

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