AR500 LEVEL III+ BODY ARMOR VS. 5.56MM AMMO

after several years of testing ammo in various forms of ballistic gel I wanted to try something different the proliferation of body armor and the numerous tests showing their effectiveness is of interest to me and hopefully to you as well if you serve in the military or law enforcement body armor has likely found a place in your protective kit and also where body armor is legal to purchase for civilians in an effort to learn more about this concept and share the information with you for this review I purchased a plate from AR 500 armor comm we're going to test four types of 5.56 millimeter ammo against an ASC level 3 + plate this plate is 10 inches by 12 inches and while available in the curved option to better fit against your chest I chose the non curved version for this test AR 500 armor is coated with packs cons fall and fragmentation protective coating the ballistic plate core is stress fracture resistant and weighs only 8 pounds the timber 12 plate offers adequate protection for your vitals which include the heart lungs and their surrounding blood vessels in addition to the relatively lightweight ballistic plate core is only 26 hundredths of an inch thick this view shows the AR 500 plate next to one of my Mike Gibson 12-inch plates that is three eighths of an inch thick this plate is rated level 3 plus in a stand alone and also multi-hit capable this threat rating is designed to defeat 5.56 millimeter in 193 Full Metal Jacket 5.56 millimeter m855 ss109 62-grain green tip both of those up to 3,100 feet per second in 7.62 by 51 ma T Full Metal Jacket ball ammo up to 3,000 feet per second and also a pea black tip ammo up to 2,800 feet per second the test rifle is a Bushmaster ar-15 with a 16 inch barrel one two nine twist I considered using a 20 inch barrel for this video but I'm keeping in mind the extreme popularity of 16 inch models plus their prominence in the military and law enforcement I'll give you a verage velocities from this rifle for each round which are measured 20 feet from the muzzle will take one shot per type of round with the shots from 50 feet anchor2 the back the plate we have a huge block of clear ballistics gel I don't think we'll need it hope we don't need it but it's about 22 inches in length so if anything does happen to pass through we will be able to capture the fragments first up is the XM 190 355 grain Full Metal Jacket which is sited on the threat level rating for this plate this is military surplus with a Lake City production date of 2004 I have a pretty good inventory of this ammo and use it for range sessions quite often and I'm not opposed to loading for home defense the 5 shot average was 2937 feet per second with a high of 3079 and low of 2008 61 that was a nice impact not so much even a divot just barely scratched it I could probably tag my AR 500 steel plates at the same distance same ammo probably get more of a crater than I did here I mean it's just a scratch let's back up flip it over see what we have on the back until it's even it's shot nothing can't tell anything about an impact on the front side that's impressive let's get set up for the second shot our second round is also cited on the three plus threat level the 62-grain m855 or ss109 but more commonly known as the green tip locked into a lead sled I have found this cartridge to be amazingly accurate from this rifle printing half-inch groups at 50 yards five shot average velocity is 2009 75 feet per second with the high of 3030 and low of 2009 49 pre-typed variation from high to low and as you're probably aware there was an attempt to ban the green tip in early 2015 and that threat probably won't completely go away anytime soon wow what a shocker sarcasm the ammo that some entities want to ban did not pass through smaller splatter pattern on dispersion probably a little bit more of a crater it's still a very solid stop let's flip it over look at the huge point of impact we have on the back and again nothing I think this is going to be a pattern next is a 5.56 low that some of you may have heard of the mark or mk318 this is a 62 grain sost otm or open tip match that was designed for the US military objectives for this round include greater accuracy and penetration in particular for urban warfare conditions the slot has a 2010 production date and I've noted an objective velocity of 29 25 feet per second from a 14 inch barrel my father shot average from the 16 inch barrel was 2903 feet per second the high was 29 17 Lowe was 2886 and I achieved both of those twice at a glance the three 1/8 that's the first time by the way I've ever done anything with this ammo 3 1/8 has the I guess the least impressive scratch or crater and even call with that compared to the previous two shots but there was a lot more fragmenting with that particular bullet I noticed a couple of pieces on the table let's flip this over for what is going to be more redundancy because we are three for free and not showing any type of impact on the back of the plate last shot coming up our final shot is with one of these 5.56 tap ammo 62-grain barrier blind targeted for the tactical law enforcement community it is designed to defeat barriers such as glass and metal while still maintaining good penetration and weight retention it looks like a typical soft point but I have to think that the bullet construction given its objective is a little more stout advertised velocity from a 16 inch barrel is 2910 feet per second my 5 shot average was 28 14 a high of 2886 and lower 2777 and then there were four horsy tap barrier blind first time I've done anything with this mo and characteristics compared to the three milspec loads quite similar so I would guess that this is a good barrier penetrator with regard to glass mild steel and so forth that is what it's designed to do so four four four old stops and we're going to be four four four with regard to any noticeable dimpling of the steel on the back of the plate as we browse through some close-ups that could pass for nasa photos of the moon in spite of close-range impacts with a variety of barrier penetrating 5.56 millimeter ammo nothing came close to producing so much as a crater effect our ad that is for the Mike Gibson AR 500 plate I showed earlier in the video this variety of ammo at 50 feet won't pass through that either but it will certainly crater the steel that is a testimony to the strength of this lightweight product and the composites used to manufacture it as for how many attempts with any of this ammo might reach the plate that's not something I plan to attempt in these instances of single shots the ballistic gel block that we used for support live to see another day wearing this product for protection could increase your odds of doing so as well thanks for watching

Channel: tnoutdoors9

Views: 89,985

Rating: 4.9436178 out of 5

Keywords: AR500, body armor, AR500.com, class 3+, class III+, 5.56mm, XM193, M193, M855, SS109, Green Tip, NATO, FMJ, MK318, SOST, 55, 62, gr, grain, Hornady, TAP, barrier blind, 8125N, test, review, demonstration, AR15, AR-15, Bushmaster, Sony, camcorder, 60p, ammo, ammunition, bullet, penetration, protection, ballistic, threat, PAXCON, 3+, III+, AR500-III+10x12ASC;, 5.56×45mm NATO, law enforcement, military, HDR-CX900

Id: N3TsZbX5BwI

Length: 8min 17sec (497 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 03 2015