Defeating Body Armor

First Published: Sep 19, 2025

*checks the news*

For no particular reason: let’s talk about defeating body armor.

There are two main options to defeat body armor, go through it or go around it.

Body armor is rated. Different ratings are designed to work against different calibers of ammunition and against amounts of impacts. This means to “go through it” you either have to have a higher caliber round than the rating of the body armor, or willing to continue to shoot until you have broken the plates enough that it would allow penetration.

Since most people option for level 4 ceramic plates that means their armor is able to stop 7.62 rounds. For those don’t know guns that is a AK-47 round. These plates are capable of stopping multiple rounds.

When I was in the Army the general advise was after 3 rounds of 7.62, pray a fourth or fifth isn’t coming.

So this leaves us with “go around” for defeating body armor.

Body armor is designed to cover the most vital organs. The plate carrier guarding the chest and a helmet guarding the brain.

Most professionals will rock a helmet. Cosplaytriots normally rock a ball cap. Looking tacticool is more important than being tactical to them.

While headshots are cool in video games, for your average shooter they are not practical. It is a small hit box and less than an inch can be the difference between which one of you goes in a box.

That is why we train shooters to aim “center mass”. Aim for the chest.

But there is a large ass piece of ceramic and Kevlar in the way.

The solution: find a new center mass.

We are able to do this, because people are notoriously bad at sizing their body armor. Even professionals.

Body armor is heavy and uncomfortable so people tend to size down their armor. It’s lighter, easier to move in and allows you to not tire out as easy. But it doesn’t cover everything it should.

It leaves open space around the lower stomach / pelvis, sides and collar bone.

So they leaves us three new “largish” areas to aim.

A hit box is an X,Y axis and we want the largest, most lethal one

When aiming imagine the old X, Y axis problems you learned in school. In shooting anywhere in the X,Y is a hit, but not all hits are equal.

As humans most of our vital bits are pretty well congregated in the middle. The further out you go the less vital a part is to maintain life. A cut on the finger is a lot less likely to kill you than a stab wound to the chest.

So when we aim on the X,Y we aim for point 0,0

So let’s break down the three new hit box’s.

The collar bone:

Plates normally protect the chest a few inches below the collar bone. This means we have just below the collar bone to the neck to aim. It is a decent X,Y ratio with some vital areas. But there is more wounding space than killing space.

It is also an area that has sudden jerky movements. When people turn it starts at the head, then the collar bone / shoulder areas, working its way down the body.

This is your last choice shot.

Next is side:

Most plate carriers only cover the chest and back. This leaves the side open except for a small layer of Kevlar, maybe a soft plate.

The military changed that with the addition of side plates. But they are bulky, heavy and annoying as hell to wear. Most service members won’t wear them unless ordered to.

Cosplaytriots don’t wear them. Again tacticool vibes over function.

The side shot has a larger Y axis than X axis. So this makes shots that pull to the left or right (a common pull for shooters) an easy miss. But the lethal zones on the side are massive. Every lethal zone on the chest can be accessed by the side. This means if you do get a hit, high chance of ending the fight.

But the smaller hit box makes this option 2.

Last we have the pelvis.

Most plates are going to stop right at or just below someone’s bellybutton. This leaves a nice space between someone’s bellybutton to their pelvis, to the upper part of their legs.

This is a nice size X,Y hit box. It has a larger X meaning side pulls are not a big issue. The Y axis is a little smaller than X but it is a pretty solid chunk.

The pelvis has more fluid movements than the upper ox, rotating in one big motion. Bigger movements easier to hit.

The bellybutton to pelvis area has a good bit of lethal options. It contains the bowels (large and small intestine), reproductive organs, a lot of blood vessels and bones that allow bipedal movement. You can’t walk you can’t fight.

Shots to the pelvis are fight enders. This is your main target to “get around” body armor.

All that said, rounds going down range and on target are better than waiting for the perfect shot.

Cover making it so you can’t get a side of pelvis shot? Shooting them in the plate or even missing gets their attention, it shakes them up so they get their head down and you can work toward the fight ending shot. And best of all, it has a chance of killing them and ending the fight.

A poor placed shot is better than no shot.

Remember, stay vigilant, stay safe, and I love you all 🤟