Will soft body armor stop an arrow?

[Andrew Wiggin]

Aramid based ballistic armor is designed to stop bullets, not cutting or stabbing attacks. Still, bullet resistant vests are pretty tough. What do you think? Can a Level IIA vest stop an arrow fired from a 55 lb compound bow? Don't cheat. Make your prediction before you watch the test.


Link to test

[NoSecondBest]

I know of a couple of cops stabbed right through their vests. Might even be more interesting if they'd used mechanical broadheads.

[Andrew Wiggin]

I can try that next time, but I think that would have an even lower chance of getting through. I do want to try a two blade cut on contact design and a heavier draw weight. Maybe aluminum shaft, too.

[precision_shooter]

No, an arrow should be able to penetrate a IIA vest...

Now on to the video.

Your comments at the end are correct. 55lb draw is not very much for today's bows. Try it with a 65-70lb draw or a crossbow with 150lb draw. Results would be a lot more penetration and a probable fatal wound for the vest wearer.

[AllenJ]

Agree with Shooter, the arrow should penetrate.

[Double Naught Spy]

Failed here...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IM7Bz2vXtY (go to end)

And here with crossbow...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nLRymWv-CA

[NoSecondBest]

You'll get better penetration with the aluminum arrows than you will with carbon arrows. That's obvious when shooting into bales made of any material.

[Andrew Wiggin]

The lighter field point poked through a bit more than the heavier one. Not sure if that was due to geometry or velocity. If like to try again with other arrow heads and aluminum arrows.

[NoSecondBest]

It's the total weight of the arrow, not just the tip. Carbon arrows are very light and simply don't retain the momentum of the heavier aluminum arrows. I'm not picking on carbon, I use them myself. However, for penetration the aluminum will go in further in foam, straw, deer, etc.

[Andrew Wiggin]

The distance wasn't very far. Wouldn't a carbon fiber arrow have a higher "muzzle" velocity?

[NoSecondBest]

Carbon arrows are faster since they are lighter. However, it's not all about speed. It's mass along with speed that gives penetration. Most of the bow sites have posts on this subject and you'll see where they keep talking about kinetic energy. It's a trade off between speed and penetration. A flatter shooting arrow for deer hunting corrects a lot of sins in misjudging the distance and hitting high or low. The loss is it lacks as much penetration. I've shot through lots of deer with a recurve bow at 170fps using aluminum and fiberglass arrows. A good compound at even 55lbs can easily shoot a carbon arrow over 300fps. My Hoyt shoots 330fps over the chronograph but doesn't penetrate as deeply into a bale as my recurve does.

[Andrew Wiggin]

Velocity is the foremost factor in armor presentation for bullets. Don't know if the physics work differently for arrows.

[745SW]

Having been an archer I think Easton aluminum XX75 arrows even with regular target tips might compromise a vest. The XX75 shaft is very durable and anodized finish doesn't wear off even for many classes/seasons of use.

[Andrew Wiggin]

I'll probably retest with other arrowhead designs and with aluminum shaft, but I think the higher velocity has the better chance of getting through.

[ballardw]

Look for a "bodkin" point. The style designed to penetrate armor back when it was made from iron and steel and guys were riding horses to war.

Also from the same period the shaft construction matters as, though possibly not as much hitting soft armor than plate. Historically armor piercing arrows were sometimes made "footed" with hardwood near the tip to resist shock and lighter wood for flight characteristics.

[bungiex88]

Nope unless it was designed as stab resistant

[Andrew Wiggin]

Did you watch the test?

[NoSecondBest]

I'll probably retest with other arrowhead designs and with aluminum shaft, but I think the higher velocity has the better chance of getting through.

I have tested arrows for penetration many, many times and have always found the heavier arrows penetrated further into any medium I ever tested. Many others have found the same results. Just a suggestion: use the same bow, the same arrow heads, and carbon vs. aluminum as the only difference and see for yourself. I've been shooting archery for sixty-one years and have shots many, many deer and hundreds of thousands of practice arrows with every type of bow imaginable. That being said, nothing is better than personal experience. Go for it!

[Andrew Wiggin]

Arrows and bullets are obviously very different but a heavier bullet tends to potentate more deeply in tissue while a faster bullet tends to have a better chance of penetrating armor.

[NoSecondBest]

Arrows and bullets are obviously very different but a heavier bullet tends to potentate more deeply in tissue while a faster bullet tends to have a better chance of penetrating armor.

Two things here: you're not using tissue as a test medium and secondly, kinetic energy is what drives an arrow. Haven't you ever noticed that most of the portable bags used as targets are filled with fiberglass screening and the arrows stop very quickly? Ballistic vests use the same principle for stopping a bullet. This threads going no where fast without testing. I've shot almost eighty deer with the bow and I can tell you that heavier arrows penetrate deer better than light ones. Same with targets. Shoot an aluminum arrow into a foam target made for carbon arrows and you'll need help pulling it back out. Not a lot of sense "guessing" about this, do some tests and report back.

[Andrew Wiggin]

I enjoy making predictions and discussing the theory behind it. I usually learn a lot in these discussions.


Also, I just noticed that my stoopid phone typed "potentate" instead of "penetrate".

[Gunplummer]

I use to collect old bows and picked up a lot of old equipment with it. I used to sell the fiberglass (Heavy) arrows to a guy that hunted Africa. He told me it was for heavy penetration, and he used 2 bladed steel heads. Anybody remember the old arrow vrs. 30-06 through the block of butter ad?

[precision_shooter]

I remember, way back when during my Hunters Safety class, watching a video showing an arrow vs 30-06. Had a 1 gal coffee can filled with sand. Standing behind the coffee can was a small mirror. First the 30-06 was fired and had a heck of an impact on the can, tossing sand everywhere, but did not penetrate through the can and mirror was still intact. Then they shot the arrow, it penetrated all the way through the can and shattered the mirror behind it...

It's an example of slicing through a medium (Arrow), vs displacing the medium to force it's way through (30-06).

Bullets, no matter how pointy, do not slice through any medium, they forcefully move the medium around the bullet and the kinetic energy busts a whole through...

[Andrew Wiggin]

It's also a demonstration of sectional density.

[skizzums]

generally, with soft body armor, very ligght and very fast are best at defating it. at least with handguns. take 9mm for example, although a 147gr bullet has the best penetration in gel, the only ones that go through vests are the 80-90gr bullets at high velocity, even though they penetrate the least through ballistics gel. i would assume that a lightweight field point, hardned and tapered would do the best. a bodkin maybe a good choice as well.