quote:

Originally posted by maladat:


These days, they'd probably be worried about the armor piercing potential, too.

My understanding is that ceramic plates work by being harder than the bullet, so the bullet shatters on impact, but the also-common polymer plates work by "catching" the bullets and performance is velocity-dependent.

I suspect a 55 grain bullet going 4000+ fps out of a 30-06 would zip right through a polymer plate.

Of course, there are plenty of other ways to get a bullet going really fast.

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:

quote:

Originally posted by maladat:


These days, they'd probably be worried about the armor piercing potential, too.

My understanding is that ceramic plates work by being harder than the bullet, so the bullet shatters on impact, but the also-common polymer plates work by "catching" the bullets and performance is velocity-dependent.

I suspect a 55 grain bullet going 4000+ fps out of a 30-06 would zip right through a polymer plate.

Of course, there are plenty of other ways to get a bullet going really fast.

And you would be incorrect. Steel plates were prone to failure at higher velocities. Higher velocity rounds were a reason that ceramic plates were invented. That and weight. Even if you took a hit from one of these rounds up close, it is highly doubtful that a quality ceramic plate would give. Adding any distance and you loose a ton of stability on these types of rounds.