It actually hurts to look at that photo above. Well, it hurts me. That’s WarBird Protection owner Matt Davis putting his money where is mouth is. We knew WarBird for their ear and eye pro gear, but WarBird was showing off their new line of soft body armor at NRAAM.
They had a video of Matt shooting himself with a .44 Magnum revolver just a few days before NRAAM running on a loop on the back wall of the company’s booth. Seeing him then standing there, apparently unharmed was…jarring.
That’s the WarBird vest he wore in the video with the 250 grain .44 slug still embedded in it.
To be fair, Matt admitted that he had a 1-inch thick phone book under the vest so the concussion of the round didn’t break his sternum. He told us he’s got quite a bruise on his chest, but the body armor did stop the round and save his life.
Body armor runs in Davis’s DNA. Matt’s father actually invented soft body armor for police officers back in the early 1970’s. After repeatedly being turned down by departments, he figured the only way to show them that it really worked was to shoot himself while wearing his product.
Once he did that…go figure…he made the sale. He then continued traveling around, shooting himself in front of police departments and selling body armor all over the country.
Matt Launched WarBird earlier this year and along with the company’s eye and ear pro, they’re now making three grades Level II and IIIA body armor.
It comes in a range of thicknesses and sizes with carrier options if you choose, but the most impressive one to me was their Hoss vest. Despite having Level IIIA protection (any handgun caliber up to .44 Magnum) it’s incredibly thin and light weight. You could wear that under a shirt or sweater and it’s thin enough that no one will have any idea.
All of WarBird’s body armor is NIJ certified and made in the US. Check out all of WarBird’s gear here.
10 Responses
Was wondering about the composition as uhmwpe tends to have issues with contact (or close enough) shots but looks like everything from kevlar to hybrid blends with pricing going up as thickness/weight goes down so not at all a bad start. Would need to dust off the comparisons and standards for soft armor as I really only kept up with plates for the past decade but from the spec sheet it looks similar to a decade ago (including prices) so that is encouraging.
You certainly can get thin, light body armor, but the price will be broken ribs.
Having had broken ribs (broken, not just cracked), recovery can take a few months, and it freaking *hurts* just to breathe.
The worst part of every day was just getting out of bed…
If you are stopping a 3a+ with a level 2 vest sure. If it meets NIJ cert the chances of bone damage are very low even if thin (which is often more rigid depending on material). And sorry if I am an ass with this topic I spent the better part of 2 years having to deal with all manner of discussion, product review , multiple levels of fuddlore which admittedly was relevant in the 60’s to early 80’s. With that said thin kevlar was one of the culprits of excess energy transfer but that material in general was amazing for stopping contact shots that can get through the newer uhmwpe (something about weakening under heat) while the uhmwpe tends to take higher velocity pistol rounds way better (tokarov, high speed copper solids, non AP 5.7 etc). So I do wonder how the hybrid panels will split those differences.
Yeah…I just can’t buy products from a company where owner is a complete freakin’ iditot. Farnum’s law
You do realize that has been a standard gimmick since the 80’s right? Also one that most of not all of the relevant companies in this product space have done at some point. Now if he did a magnum contact shot with ultra thin pure uhmwpe yeah that would be all kinds of stupid but this isn’t particularly impressive or outlandish.
You do realize that makes it none-the-less moronic…right? But yeah…show me a video or advert from the 80s, or even the 90s, where a company did this. I’ll wait.
Sure if you are that lazy/contrarian:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=7S1ODS4mCAE&pp=ygUWODAncyBrZXZlbGFyIHZlc3QgdGVzdA%3D%3D
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IwBLL7Z3OvU&pp=ygUWODAncyBrZXZlbGFyIHZlc3QgdGVzdA%3D%3D
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=o5f1Fo4r4_I&pp=ygUWODAncyBrZXZlbGFyIHZlc3QgdGVzdA%3D%3D
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SEwqJJTfvo0&pp=ygUWODAncyBrZXZlbGFyIHZlc3QgdGVzdA%3D%3D
Keep in mind a lot more exist but are more promotional videos that are either archived by the company or paywalled by various .org’s but have a half assed YouTube search to cover a half assed request. As to the stupid part eh maybe but it works.
I apologize it goes back to the 70’s.https://chicago.suntimes.com/movies-and-tv/2022/12/7/23494631/2nd-chance-review-bulletproof-vest-documentary-second-chance-body-armor-richard-davis-zylon
Only ever had to review the 80’s and 90’s videos for various contract proposals (several companies never updated their material).
The article said his dad did it in the 70s to finally make some sales. It kind of makes sense because that’s what his dad did. I still don’t care for it though.
Meh I saw so much of it (5 out of 7 bids) that I really don’t think of it as odd anymore. Especially seeing similar stuff from the 1920’s now that I really look back. If anything this is underselling the product as the ones I saw didn’t have anything between the vest and the person besides a tee shirt.