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I was about to buy a concealable III-A gold shield vest some months ago, but then i happened upon this post that explains how contact-range shots are not reliably stopped by "polyethelene laminate soft armor":
Soft Body Armor - M4Carbine.net Forums
Gold Flex is mentioned by name; is this similar to Gold Shield? From what i can get in the documents, they seem to be made of the same thing.
GoldFlex and Twaron are made from the same fiber, an aromatic amide, which is sold by duPont under the familiar trade name Kevlar. These are very high temperature materials that cannot melt - they're thermosets, not thermoplastics.
Contrast those aramid-based vests with polyethylene-based materials, most based on the Honeywell trademarked Spectra fiber. This UHMW polyethylene is much stronger and lighter than aramid, but it's a thermoplastic, melting at a low 150°C. That's why SpectraShield could (in principle, anyway) fail in a contact-shot scenario. I'm not so sure. Not every pistol belches fire like a .357, and it's the heat from the muzzle flash that's the danger, not the impact.
Where weight and volume are critical, SpectraShield is a clear winner. If high reliability trumps all other considerations, then aramid might be the best choice. Personally, I couldn't afford a SpectraShield vest.