Fact or Myth: .22 Rimfire & Vests
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Fact or Myth: .22 Rimfire & Vests
I've always heard that .22 rimfire would penetrate a vest when larger calibres would not. Yes? No?
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- Rimfire McNutjob
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Re: Fact or Myth: .22 Rimfire & Vests
I'm going with an uneducated no on that one. I guess I'm assuming Kevlar here but there are far more materials used in vests these days I believe. I had discussed Kevlar with a friend of mine who is a Textile Engineer and learned that it works its magic due to it's ridiculous tensile strength. I don't think they confer Textile Engineering degrees at Georgia Tech anymore, but they did back when I was there ... long ago. That strength can be overcome with enough energy in a concentrated enough point in the right material to overcome the advantage. But I don't think you'll find that in a .22 LR unless it's specifically designed to do so ... perhaps some kind of hardened core material with a special coating on the impact side in some truncated cone shape, etc?
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Re: Fact or Myth: .22 Rimfire & Vests
I've heard some .22 CF calibers will penetrate Kevlar, but never heard the same about .22RF.
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Re: Fact or Myth: .22 Rimfire & Vests
That's a Big Ole Nope! When a friend of mine was issued a new vest about 15 years ago he brought his old one out to my place for some experimenting. We started with a .22lr and ended with a .308 Winchester. The .22, 38 Spl, 9mm, 357 Mag, 44 Spl and 45 ACP were stopped by the vest. My heavy .44 Magnum loads
penetrated the front of the vest. The vest was wrapped around full 5 gal bucket of drywall joint compound that had frozen and was no longer useful but gave a good representation of the size of a torso. A 5.56 went through the front of the vest but lodged in the joint compound. A 7.62x39 FMJ went through the front and rear of the vest. When I shot the vest with my M1A the .308 FMJ not only went through both sides quite dramatically but also blew out the sides of the bucket that weren't covered by the vest.
Not scientific in any way but proved to us at least the fallacies that a .22 lr would penetrate a level III vest and a .44 Mag would not weren't true.
Wouldn't want to find out what works and what doesn't the hard way.
jb
penetrated the front of the vest. The vest was wrapped around full 5 gal bucket of drywall joint compound that had frozen and was no longer useful but gave a good representation of the size of a torso. A 5.56 went through the front of the vest but lodged in the joint compound. A 7.62x39 FMJ went through the front and rear of the vest. When I shot the vest with my M1A the .308 FMJ not only went through both sides quite dramatically but also blew out the sides of the bucket that weren't covered by the vest.
Not scientific in any way but proved to us at least the fallacies that a .22 lr would penetrate a level III vest and a .44 Mag would not weren't true.
Wouldn't want to find out what works and what doesn't the hard way.
jb
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Re: Fact or Myth: .22 Rimfire & Vests
Perhaps it was the old Nam era flak jackets before kevlar....
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Re: Fact or Myth: .22 Rimfire & Vests
I know 17 rem will go clean through a rail road plate that the ties are spiked to but a 50 BMG would not. I did it at 50 yards with my 17 and the tool room manager used his 50 single shot. Surface area and speed.
On another note, "bullet proof" glass used years ago was designed to stop pistol calibers not rifle velocity stuff. How do I know, I shot it. 1&1/4" thick stuff stopped all but smokin hot 44 mag FMJ bullets. I still have a hunk of it from when we did the county prosecutors offices. Had 1/2" Kevlar in the walls too. Yup I shot that too! It stopped most everything until we tried APs.
On another note, "bullet proof" glass used years ago was designed to stop pistol calibers not rifle velocity stuff. How do I know, I shot it. 1&1/4" thick stuff stopped all but smokin hot 44 mag FMJ bullets. I still have a hunk of it from when we did the county prosecutors offices. Had 1/2" Kevlar in the walls too. Yup I shot that too! It stopped most everything until we tried APs.
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Re: Fact or Myth: .22 Rimfire & Vests
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Last edited by Ray on Fri Apr 08, 2022 4:37 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Fact or Myth: .22 Rimfire & Vests
I think that is the key - the age of the vest and its material of construction. I remember an off-duty LEO who guarded the theater I worked at in college commented that his vest would stop a 12-gauge slug, but not a .22 LR. This was back over 30 years ago.
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Re: Fact or Myth: .22 Rimfire & Vests
Even some of the Flack vests from Nam would stop all but a few pistol rounds and .22 LR from rifles. I have tested Camo Flack vests and everything after, they stopped up to .44 mag but not 9mm from an MP-5. The newer systems will take multiple hits from 7.62 x 54 and 51.
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Re: Fact or Myth: .22 Rimfire & Vests
Re: Fact or Myth: .22 Rimfire & Vests
I've never heard of a vest that wouldn't stop a .22 LR. The first vest I had I bought new in 1976 by Second Chance. Compared to the soft armor I see in use today mine was like a Roman toga because of the side panels we had. The stuff I'm seeing now is like a speedo. I have been told a .22 Mag will go thru them as well as any other .22 centerfire.
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Re: Fact or Myth: .22 Rimfire & Vests
There was an article in Guns and Ammo(?) many years ago, likely over 20 years ago, about the then new helmets that CHP were issued for the motorcycle officers. They were two layers of Kevlar and naturally they were lighter than the heavy fiberglass ones. In the line of duty a couple had been shot in the head and it turned out to be .22 RF. They tested the helmets and found the RF would penetrate while 38 would not. Now remember that the new helmets were not sold as bullet proof! CHP then tested 3 layer and they were capable of withstanding RF. All older versions were pulled and 3 layer were issued.