OR #4

HEY its me and I'm back without any real vengeance to speak of. But boy oh boy do I have a spiffy new post about a neat article I read, by golly.

This week, I have an interesting topic. I was sitting around in my house, pondering or playing guitar or something AND THEN IT HIT ME. After I was done crying (haha, laugh) I asked myself, hey, could an arrow shot from a bow pierce bullet-resistant body armor? As is the usual case with me, don't ask, just listen. There isn't a method to my madness, but you never know if the knowledge in this article could save your life when that crazy archer guy who lives around here goes hunting for you. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, I googled 'bow v body armor' and the FIRST HIT (oh I love it when the interwebs work... bloomin' beautiful series of tubes, it is...) was a thread on the Discover Channel's Mythbusters Page. The thread was entitled "Bow and Arrow vs Bullet Proof Vest" and was started by OsaMi99. Although the name is a little unnerving, I had to respect the man's curiousity. Why do I know it's a man? Because what sensible woman would be caught dead on a blog about weapons. ONLY GUYS DO THIS STUFF. WE'RE WEIRD. DON'T ASK. OR AKS. Now let me say this now, I am not the type of person to go in and read random blogs BUT I HAD TO this time. So i read the thread, and with my previous knowledge of this topic and other sources I have long since lost, I came to this conlusion: if the armor worn is standard soft body armor, then NO the arrow would not be stopped, and the person hit by the generic archer serial killer man's projectile would be wounded and probably die. What "bullet-proof" or bullet resistant armor is, is simply layer upon layer of tightly wound man-made fibers. The reason this cloth stops bullets is because when a bullet hits the vest, its going so fast that on impact, it cracks apart and smushes up as the fiber broaden the area hit by the bullet and thus dissappating the shock by dispersing it over a large area. The reason the bullet just slams into the vest instead of cutting through, is because most bullets, besides armor-piercing rounds (which pierce armor =O RLY?) simply try to smash their way into a target rather than the constant applied force of say, a knife stab, or combined with sharp, armor piercing head of an arrow. An arrow moves at MUCH slower speeds than a bullet, and has a sharp point which separates the fibers and therefore penetrates the vest. A knife stab is a similar kind of deal, but the pressure being applied is constant, so the knife simply slices through the vest. Remember, as these vests are made, they are cut with ordinary steel scissors and sewn together with steel needles, so it makes sense that a sharp knife with force behind it will pierce body armor, as well as a steel arrowhead. FYI, most modern broadhead arrow heads are made of steel or like metals. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL!! There IS a way to stop an arrow with bullet resistant armor! If there are ceramic inserts or standard ballistics plate inserts, (basically a sheet of steel or carbon fiber) that will stop an arrow or a knife stab. Yet another way to stop arrows and knives is to have chain mail sewn into the soft body armor, although this still leaves some room for error in the form of oversized needles -- AKA dirks. Unless of course the chain mail is close enough together and the vest is thick enough. This process of intertwining chain mail with soft ballistics armor isn't quite standard, but its far from unusual in prison guard and riot police roles.

WOW this was a nerdy post. Especially because I said w.o.w. btw I hate that game, for the record.