HOW TO CHOOSE THE RIGHT BODY ARMOR People in the market for body armor may find themselves overwhelmed by the variety of choices on the market today. There is a lot of information to process for the prospective body armor buyer and you could spend months researching before knowing exactly what you are looking for. Sometimes a little guidance can shorten the amount of research time needed to make a good decision by giving you some simple criteria to begin your search.To get more news about buller proof vest, you can visit bulletproofboxs.com official website. There are three primary factors to consider when determining what armor is the best suited to your requirements: Weight, Threat Level, and Cost. The threat level is the most complex attribute of body armor to understand. The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) manages a certification program that can give buyers some idea of what to expect from their armor. The NIJ’s system breaks body armor into various threat levels, ranging from II to IV. Although the threat levels are numerical and give some indication of an armor’s ability to stop a higher ballistic threat, the NIJ’s ratings is actually more complicated than simply saying “level IV is better than level III”, because that statement overlooks other details. LEVEL II Level II armor is typically soft body armor, meaning it is composed of woven or fibrous materials such as Kevlar, Twaron, Dyneema, and others. Level II is designed to protect from 9x19MM FMJ traveling at 1175 feet per second and .357 Magnum Jacketed Soft Point traveling at 1400 feet per second. Level II is usually very flexible and comfortable to wear, at least relative to what one might consider “comfortable” when wearing soft body armor. Level II soft body armor can typically withstand multiple spaced hits but you should always verify multi-hit capability and threat specific stopping power with any model, level, or brand of armor! LEVEL IIIA Level IIIA is next in line. This rating is meant to stop .44 Magnum Jacketed Hollow Points traveling at 1400 feet per second. Like level II armor, level III-A is usually of the soft body armor variety but rigid armor plates can also be found with a III-A rating. These are sometimes referred to as ‘speed plates’, since they offer one of the lightest possible solutions while sacrificing some of the coverage area that you would normally find in soft armor rigs. As of this writing, there is an NIJ certification program for III-A soft body armor but not for III-A rigid plates LEVEL III Level III on the NIJ’s level system is where we enter the world of rifle plates, sometimes referred to as hard inserts. Level III plates are designed to stop six spaced hits of 7.62X51MM NATO (Full Metal Jacket) travelling at 2,750 feet per second. This is roughly equivalent to the common .308 Winchester hunting round. With all NIJ armor ratings, it is important to know and understand that a plate rated to stop a particular threat may not stop a bullet that is smaller caliber. In fact, there are situations where a bullet travelling slower might penetrate some armor types while the same bullet at a higher speed may not. Issues like this are what can make selecting armor more difficult but buying a product without fully understanding its true capabilities is even worse. While the 7.62x51MM NATO used in testing level III armor might generally be thought of as “bigger” than the 5.56MM round fired by AR-15’s and other rifles, there are varieties in the 5.56MM caliber which pose problems for some armor materials. For instance, the M855 “Green Tip” can penetrate pure polyethylene plates while the M193 variety can penetrate steel such as AR500. Bullet velocity plays a role in penetration but these are well known vulnerabilities. As a result, some manufacturers use a III designation to rate their plates. The NIJ does not recognize the III but most manufacturers use it to indicate protection from NIJ threat level III plus M855 and M193 threats. Although a III plate covers the majority of threats at a moderate weight and cost, making it a very attractive selection, you should beware the rating because some less scrupulous companies will use the “ ” designation in an attempt to increase the perceived protection level of a plate. Verify what threats a III plate is actually rated to stop with the manufacturer before purchasing.