Message from @MrBlack
Discord ID: 660417297747410947
That’s true
Need to order some level 4 plates. I don’t want AR500. Ceramic is preferred. Any suggestions?
Honestly for the prov con. IV plates are a waste of money man. Your best bang for your buck is to go III+. The only real advantage the IV has over the III+ is that it can take a .50 cal hit, but the impact would kill you, so its pointless.
I’ll look into that. Any good plates in mind?
From personal experience, AR500 are the best on the market. I have used them for years. I actually used them back in the day before they were called AR500 and it was just two guys making plates in their garage.
I would also advise steel over ceramic. There are almost no pros to the SAPI/ceramic/hybrid plates other than slightly less weight, which personally you really never notice.
Yeah the weights not the issue. My main concern is with spalling
The Ar500 has a build up coating now that stops that.
Ceramics have a ton of issues, that make me wonder why anyone even uses it.
I think a lot of people like using ceramics because you see them get NIJ testing done a lot of the time
And weight
Which personally isn’t an issue for me. Maybe If your a high speed and wearing kit all the time
Well AR500 is one of the most tested products on the market. Mainly the reason why most people go ceramic, especially the Military is price.
The difference in weight between the steel and ceramic is less than 3lbs per plate.
Yeah AR500 is decently priced for the protection it provides
They also have some good cheap deals. Like their Lvl III plates you can get for as low as $65 per plate.
That’s super cheap
Yeah and they are rated up to 7.62x39. You can bouch Ak rounds off those things all day long.
bounce
The major issue I have with ceramic is that you never know if the plate you are wearing has been compromised or not.
Yeah micro fractures are a thing
Yeah and that makes the armor useless. It can happen from any little bump or drop(and US military logistics are NOT gentle) and you can'ted tell unless you Xray the plate.
I have been shot in the steel, multiple times, just put the plate in a new carrier and kept on using it.
That’s probably the worst thing about getting shot in the plates. Damage to the carrier.
Personally unless it fucks up the carrier bad it’s probably still good to use.
No the worst thing is the impact, and then dealing with cracked ribs. But yeah with the steel plates, your carrier is gonna probably suffer the most damage.
I meant aside from medical complications
A lot of people get flail chest
No once your carrier is compromised you should replace it. The sheer weight alone will cause any minor damage to escalate quickly.
I got a nice video of flail. I’ll have to find it somewhere. Maybe if the stitching wasn’t up to par. But I haven’t seen anything on it so what do I know
Well that is SOP. If you get damage to your gear you replace the gear. especially salt water.
Won’t let me send the video but there’s a photo in off topic of it
Yeah I have seen it.
It’s a pretty popular video
But yeah I would go with a good set of steel III+ armor for the price. The steel just has so many more pros to it.
III+ looks good on paper. I’m going to look into it a bit more
Well with steel you get limitless shelf life, where as with the others you only get 5 years. The Ar500 steel gets you a lower profile, a full set of four plates combined have a lower profile than just one ceramic/SAPI plate, so you aren't walking around like the marshmallow man. And the III+ are rated up to .30-06 AP, so unless someone is potting at you with a fucking barrett you are pretty much a juggernaut.
Botach has a level 4 PE/Ceramic composite plate for $100 per plate. 5.5lbs per plate.
I was just looking at the ar500 site an hour ago. Glad to hear some real world opinions.