Body armour

headwards

Active member
Whats up forum, interested in your firing style with body armour.
When using body armour do you prop the rifle butt on your chest plate, or try to slide the plate down a little at the front, slip the rifle off into your shoulder and lean your head on a cack angle to use the sights, or is your armour gucci enough to have some kind of recess to put the rifle butt in?
Or is there some other trick I dont know?
 
Haha thats awesome I just cracked up in the middle of a lecture. armour doesnt stop 7.62 most of the time from what I understand, and it makes it hard to shoot accurately. Oh well i suppose the boys in charge have weighed it up and decided its worth it.
It will definately stop the arrows and spears in the islands at least haha.
 
Last edited:
Now we collect money for military charities and we have a lot of kit that we display. Amongst all of this I have a full fighting kit for the British Army including the body armour. I have found this kit easy to wear and well designed and have worn while collecting money to show of what our troops are wearing. Yes I agree it might not stop a 7.62 round at close range but it will stop a lot of stuff that would either have killed you our caused you a lot of grief. I must say that I wish we had this stuff when I was action many, many years ago.
 
Ive no doubt it is very good at stopping shrapnel and the like (the more modern armour anyway) it covers a really good amount of your body. Some of the teaching that comes with it worries me though- such as standing square on when firing, not going to the ground etc. Its a kind of fatalistic attitude which goes along the lines of 'well im going to get shot so instead of trying to avoid that by hiding the bulk of my width I will hope to get hit in the chest and pray'.
I wonder why the plates simply werent curved around the body to fit in with firing side on- it would have more chance of the round glancing off on an angle.
Most people here have probably explored this in depth so sorry in advance for causing eye rolling and fist clenching haha. I would just rather ask here and get an answer then ask staff and get told to **** off to ocs if i want to get all clever.
 
There have been reports of members of the British Army being hit by a RPG and getting away with it. One RM threw him self on a grenade that dropped in the trench and he threw him self on it and came away with out scratch, mind you he got the GM for that. As far as standing up and taking a chance on getting hit, well you do that any way with or with out body armour. It will stop bullets but much will depend on the velocity of the bullet at the time it hits you. I agree that nothing is perfect and never will be but when I look at the casualty rate in Afghanistan to some of the conflicts that I took part in then the results of the body armour take on more meaning. This is one of the reasons that more men are living but you have a higher level of amputees where they have lost limbs not covered in the body armour
 
I read that story about jumping on the grenade and walking away unscathed. Its amazing really the concussion alone is supposed to kill within a couple of metres. I read that he did have a backpack as well which may have helped with absorbing the shock wave.

I am sure that body armour plays a large part in the survival rate of wounded, but those statistics would also account for the excellent helicopter crews and medical treatments available.

It would be interesting to hear some professional opinions on how body armour affects shooting accuracy as well as mobility. Being sweltering hot, having aching shoulders and a plate messing with your shooting style would definately have an effect on alertness, instinctual shooting and getting lazy- especially over an extended period of time.

In summary I cant imagine a worse place to be running around with body armour and a helmet then the desert so the troops must think its worth it- even if it doesn't stop bullets.
 
I have noticed that my old Regiment still does not wear the helmets most of the time, but having worn the current Armoured vest I must say it is very well designed and does not hinder the use of weapons or movement. Also when you think 100 lb load is the norm in my old Regiment then an extra few pounds on an armoured vest is not much extra. With the helmets as they only cover the top few inches of head the lads are happy to risk this for the extra comfort.
 
100 pounds+ is the norm for patrolling in your old regiment? Dam haha. Well you must have been bloody fit.
Body armour definately still takes some getting used to though.
 
Again I have the latest Composite armoured helmet and they are not that heavy but in temperatures 40 c plus can help cook your brain [if you have one]. Very few people ever wind up with a bullet in there top part of their nogging as most times they will shoot for the body and some one running around makes the head shot very unlikely.
Still a direct hit on a helmet with a 7.62 at fairly close range will still go through the helmet.
 
Haha thats awesome I just cracked up in the middle of a lecture. armour doesnt stop 7.62 most of the time from what I understand, and it makes it hard to shoot accurately. Oh well i suppose the boys in charge have weighed it up and decided its worth it.
It will definately stop the arrows and spears in the islands at least haha.
It must be remembered that the issue of body armor is not only stopping a bullet, but also displacing 500 to 1000 foot pounds of bullet energy in such a manner that it won’t crush the upper torso and liquefy the innards of the wearer. Developments in ceramics have made it possible to stop 7.62 mm. The only drawback to ceramics are that they are rigid, which restricts mobility, are still relatively heavy (between 4 and 10 pounds per plate), and their method of dispersing energy from a round is by shattering, which makes each plate a one-shot deal.
 
in my oppinion you have a simple choice, blow a lot of money on great armor that is 'weapon friendly' or use the logic that armor may not be your best choice. depends on the opposition i suppose.
 
Back
Top