Body armour

I recently acquired one of these as a form of minimal body armour protection. It is evidently GI un-issued Flak vest. Obvioulsly this vest wont stop 7.62 ammo but is it safe to assume that it would stop .45acp or other slower moving pistol cartridges? Or is this vest only good for shrapnel type protection or possibly 00buckshot?

Im hoping Towerclimber can weigh in on this because eveidently this is the style of Flak vest that was issued during the eighties or possibly the early nineties.

I was issued one also and they are not rated to stop any type of firearm . they are meant just for secondary projectiles and debris. I have a vest that is a class 111 rated up to .357 mag. You can pick these up pretty cheap . The newer ones have a place for a ballistic plate in front and back. These are more expensive. Be advised these may be illegal in some states.

Dan, that sucker isn't even good for buckshot. it's made for shrapnel.
I would advise that you
spend the money on good ballistic armor and get the inserts that you feel comfortable wearing.
chicken vests are pretty useless in force on force engagements.
In otherwords...what 2how said

also, you can pick up the vest that Jan advised and sew extra pockets for plates into it, as long as you sew them double stitched and don't get down into the kevlar fiber under the outside shell. that way you get the ballistic protection without the extra price.
I will also say you have to make the pockets fit exactly so that the plates don't shift when you move.

thanks, I pretty much knew what i had but was just hoping maybe it would do something more than its supposed too. If they are so useless did you guys even wear yours?

It was part of the uniform so we had to wear it. But mostly for PT lol.

2HOW wrote:It was part of the uniform so we had to wear it. But mostly for PT lol.

Thats a good idea, that is how i will use it...a training aid

we DID use them to sit on, during blackhawk rides if we made them regularly..otherwise we incorporated them into our web gear and just threw the LBE on like a shirt.
they DO add extra weight for training runs. other than that? they're extra pockets (un-needed in this day and age of assault vests.)
get a decent set of armor and don't skimp! it's actually the ONE good idea that warfighters came up with, IMO.

thanks guys for the responses, I wasnt before but now Im officially in the market for some good body armour. I may be checking back in with some possibilities of purchase to get opinions.