Good Rifle Plate options for LEO

[Rex G]

I've seen a couple officers with these. Quite a few have problems with the weight of the plates pulling the front of their vest down, and leaving quite a bit of real estate between the top of their hearts and base of the throats exposed. A plate in the back will counter balance, but I don't know anyone that used a back plate for very long due to discomfort. Our vest come with elastic cummerbunds but no one uses them due to poor design and discomfort. I'm not saying it won't work for you, but I'd keep a eye on vest fit throughout the day to make sure I wasn't losing coverage where I needed it.

Thanks for the heads-up. My front (concealed) vest panel tends to creep upward and choke me, so perhaps a bit of weight will help counter-act that. (This creeping-upward is not due to my belt pushing upward; I bought this "S" torso-length vest because my city-issued "L" length was being pushed upward into my neck by my belt.)

[Rex G]

My pre-owned Safariland/Pro-tech IMPAC-RT PLUS plate arrived. (My previous post was in error, regarding size; this one is actually 7"x9".) The weight does, indeed, as txdpd warned, pull the front panel of the (concealed) vest outward and downward, but, as I had hoped, it does so in a good way, only slightly, curing my P.A.C.A. concealed vest's tendency to ride-up and abrade my neck. Now, to hope the elastic straps maintain their integrity, though if not, they are easily replaced, as they are hook-and-loop at both ends, not sewn to the carrier.

I still plan to complete my set of externally-worn plates, which will be nice to have if there is time to take advantage of them.

Edited to add: The added weight and bulk of this IMPAC-RT plate will probably reduce the service life of my P.A.C.A. concealed front carrier, but it only has to last me a relatively short while, as my career is in its twilight.

[Default.mp3]

https://www.dfndrarmor.com/rifle-protection-2/


Doc or anyone...Thoughts??

Any particular plate out of the line up you're looking at? First two look like your typical UHMWPE plates that don't offer any rated protection against M855, while the second two appears to be rather thick hybrid plates. Nothing special as best I can tell from a cursory glance.

Here's a new item being marketed: http://store.atarmor.com/product_p/vs-ptbl.htm

Specs look good, good brand and good reseller. Not sure who the OEM is, though.

[ffhounddog]

From what I saw at the factory they were making plates in Virginia. I don't know if it's only certain plates they make and contract out others but they provided me great customer service when I got my last set of plates from them 7 years ago.

[Rex G]

My pre-owned Safariland/Pro-tech IMPAC-RT PLUS plate arrived. (My previous post was in error, regarding size; this one is actually 7"x9".) The weight does, indeed, as txdpd warned, pull the front panel of the (concealed) vest outward and downward, but, as I had hoped, it does so in a good way, only slightly, curing my P.A.C.A. concealed vest's tendency to ride-up and abrade my neck. Now, to hope the elastic straps maintain their integrity, though if not, they are easily replaced, as they are hook-and-loop at both ends, not sewn to the carrier.

I still plan to complete my set of externally-worn plates, which will be nice to have if there is time to take advantage of them.

Edited to add: The added weight and bulk of this IMPAC-RT plate will probably reduce the service life of my P.A.C.A. concealed front carrier, but it only has to last me a relatively short while, as my career is in its twilight.

I am still using this IMPAC-RT plate, nightly, in the plate pocket of my concealed P.A.C.A. IIIA vest. The vest, and its straps, are still supporting the weight of the plate. (The pocket can accept a slightly larger 8x10" plate.)

[Rex G]

Shortly before Harvey came to visit, I completed my hard plate set-up. The carrier is a Mayflower APC with IIIA that I had bought/completed months ago, with Velocity Systems IIIA panels in the cummerbund side pockets, and Stealth Armor Systems 10x12 Kevlar IIIA plate backers. The recent addition was a set of pre-owned, but unfielded, Velocity Systems multi-curved III/IV ICW ceramic plates. I had not worn the carrier minus the hard plates, due to uniform regulations; a uniformed officer here can only wear a "tactical" external carrier if it contain Level III or IV plates; lesser levels must be worn concealed, or in one of the trendy carriers that appear to be part of the uniform shirt.

If I counted correctly, I wore this set-up for twelve consecutive nights, with the worst of the storm being one long 26-hour work period. Somewhere, I read that one cannot expect to wear Level IV armor for more than a few hours at a time. Well, I did a bit better than that. I am not sure I could have done it with my concealed Point Blank IIIA vest with Protech IMPAC-RT 7x9" plate, as that plate becomes really uncomfortable a few hours into an 8-hour shift.

I believe I will keep wearing this plate set-up for the remainder of the hurricane emergency 12-hours shifts, and may well keep using it indefinitely when we return to working eights. If the weight is factored-out, it irritates me less than my concealed armor, and if my knees can continue to bear the weight OK, I might as well wear the improved level of protection. I will not win any foot pursuits, but I have never been a sprinter, anyway.

Thanks to Harvey, there was no time to gradually break-in my 55-year-old body, as we went to 12-hour shifts, with our down time being at a staging area, and the unexpected level of flooding kept me from going home for several days to get my concealed armor.