Any recommendations for body armor type and best deal around?

[kukusya]

RTS Tactical Body Armor Level IV Ceramic Active Shooter Kit

 

[tkdguy]

RTS Tactical Body Armor Level IV Ceramic Active Shooter Kit

Thanks a lot for working this up. Have you purchased from them and what do you think of their product? Or if others have an opinion on their product? I am 5'7 and weight is 158 pounds and can fit into a men's 15.5 x 32 dress bubblegum and usually purchase either a men's medium or large jacket. Usually go with large because I want the extra room but with an armor plate systems should I go with a medium or large??? Thanks.

 

[kukusya]

Thanks a lot for working this up. Have you purchased from them and what do you think of their product? Or if others have an opinion on their product? I am 5'7 and weight is 158 pounds and can fit into a men's 15.5 x 32 dress bubblegum and usually purchase either a men's medium or large jacket. Usually go with large because I want the extra room but with an armor plate systems should I go with a medium or large??? Thanks.

Hi,
First off all I don't have any affiliation with this company. I found out about them last week while watching Rex videos

IMPO they make a good product. Its not 2000$ MiL/FBI/DEA specs set. But I believe it will serve your needs. As I know plates are certified, and vest made from basic materials. I ordered their ultimate tactical bundle last week, and I will definitely order level 4 later this year. It's really easy to communicate with them through Facebook or email. And about size that vest made one size fits all. So you shouldn't have a problem to adjust it for yourself.

And don't forget to order side plates too. It wouldn't be sucks carry level 4 on front and back and get wounded by 22 on side.

Sorry for grammar, English my 2nd language.

 

[CamoDeafie]

My concern with the affordable sets is mainly the quality of the carriers and plates. At $300 for level 4 pair of plates and a carrier, that indicates a cheap carrier for sure, and maybe lower quality, more fragile ceramic plates than should be..? Even allowing for something similar to the Hesco $130 plates, that still leaves under $100 for the carrier. I would like to see an in depth review and comparison of the carrier to what can be found from USGI sources.

Even Condor's plate carriers are more than $40 a piece brand new.

 

[tkdguy]

My concern with the affordable sets is mainly the quality of the carriers and plates. At $300 for level 4 pair of plates and a carrier, that indicates a cheap carrier for sure, and maybe lower quality, more fragile ceramic plates than should be..? Even allowing for something similar to the Hesco $130 plates, that still leaves under $100 for the carrier. I would like to see an in depth review and comparison of the carrier to what can be found from USGI sources.

Even Condor's plate carriers are more than $40 a piece brand new.

Any recommendations for brand and type? This is a for an end of the world event; not every day nor occupational carry. Thanks.

 

[CamoDeafie]

Any recommendations for brand and type? This is a for an end of the world event; not every day nor occupational carry. Thanks.

It depends is the best I can answer

However the following list of brands for carriers are known to be good.

-Eagle Industries (lots of USMC gear from them, can be affordable, sometimes not)

-London Bridge Trading Co, both LBT and LBX tags, the LBX tags usually are either civilian sales or "airsoft" gear, but the LBT tagged items can be very pricy as they are collectible, because of a connection to the USN SEALS and Spec War groups

-Blackhawk! Industries- even though most of their current equipment are now imported, they can still be of good quality

-Tactical Tailor- decent mid range equipment

-Specialty Defense Systems/Specialty Plastics/BaE Systems- USGI Army/AF/USMC contract/issue gear, best known for MOLLE equipment such as Interceptor Body Armor, but they do have some other lines

-Perroz Designs- custom plate carriers, may be pricey depends on options

-Haley Designs- custom stuff, also pricey but good

-Crye Precision- best known for their MultiCam pattern, has a line of gear, sometimes stupid expensive

-Diamondback Tactical/DBT- good mid range to economical gear, I have an older plate carrier from them. Their newer ones allows the use of cummerbunds

-Paraclete- theres some drama with them and a certain community that I don't know the particulars of; popular and expensive are the items described as "Pre-MSA Paraclete". Decent to good gear otherwise, they make some equipment that has been copied by other companies

Following brands are to be avoided, or taken as disposable, got to be careful..

-Condor- granted QC seems to have improved a bit recently, BUT its still nowhere the level of many of the above brands.
-Voodoo Tactical- worse than Condor if its possible. Lots of easily blown out seams and bad tolerances in my experience, and I am not even a tactical trainer or airsofter

-VISM- toss up. Some looks OK. Others looks shoddily built.
-Rothco/Fox Outdoors- the Wal mart of low end, low quality copies of old gear. Be VERY careful with their stuff, easily can tell how bad quality is.

-no brand- really gotta be careful here, it can be good custom gear from some unknown maker, or it can be a halloween costume gear
There are great threads over at Lightfighter related to body armor and plates in general.. as well as a huge thread from either M4Carbine forums or Survivalist forum related to the types of armor offered.

 

[CamoDeafie]

Forgot one very important thing

When buying used plates, make sure they don't have either a "NSN contract" or "Property of U.S."/"U.S." stamps. These, generally limited to SAPI and ESAPI plates are declared Government Property, serialized and tracked.... technically they are not to be surplused, sold to civilians or otherwise made available on the open market. A problem is that a lot of these plates found their way onto ebay and similar auction sites... the DOD have gone after people for possessing stolen government property.

My main complain with that... the Pentagon's 1033 program gives/donates body armor along with other military equipment to LEOs and Police Departments... but they don't seem to specify how the departments are to return the armor, dispose of them, or replace them after a set period of time (5 years for soft armor, whatever for hard armor, but usually if damaged).. so it is possible to find ESAPI/SAPI plates through police equipment sales but legally and technically... civilians are not supposed to have such items (police is civilian no matter how the politicians wish it were not so )


Edit; another thing I disagree with, the limitation of equipment sales to US Citizens... in theory, the citizens should absolutely have access to the same field/infantry/like equipment as the military under the aegis of the 2nd Amendment, to satisfy the militia equipment requirements (a well regulated meaning well equipped and trained in the lexicon of the time)

 

[CamoDeafie]

I got mine and I don't know how they keep the price so low but it was definitely high quality!

How to keep prices low? very easy. Offshore manufacturing of the carrier. I have some questions for your set... Are they NIJ certified; made in the US, or imported from overseas, what is the country of manufacture on the labels, if any?