Why You Need Level IV Body Armor For SHTF | LVL III & IV vs M193 & M855

We often discuss the necessity of body armor during an SHDF scenario, but we need to talk about why that body armor should be level 4 rated. Level 4 rated body armor will stop up to a 30-06 armor piercing round, which is great because most intermediate cartridges you're going to run into during an SHDF scenario don't even come close to that kind of power. However, there are some things you need to figure out when it comes to what it is you need for your personal protection, and level 4 plates are more expensive. Here we have a Mira Safety Tactical level 4 ceramic plate. This is a 10x12 inch plate with a shooter's cut and a single curve in it. It's a mixture of ceramic and polyethylene, which allows it to be rated for level 4 protection while also only weighing 5.9 pounds. So, this is a really nice plate, but it runs about $250. Now, I am affiliated with Mira Safety, and I have a link in the description as well as in the pinned comment for this product, and if you use the code MAGIC10, you can get 10% off, so that helps you out a little bit there. But, like I said, these plates are still pretty expensive compared to the other options you have out there, which include steel plates. This is a level 3 plate, which should stop up to a 308. However, it will not stop 30-06 armor piercing rounds, and it will generally not stop 5.56x45 NATO. Why, you ask? Because 5.56x45 NATO runs extremely fast. So, today we're actually going to shoot both of these plates with two of the most common intermediate cartridges you're going to find during an SHTF scenario, and that is 5.56x45 NATO M193, which is a 55-grain projectile, and 5.56x45 NATO M855, which is a 62-grain steel cord projectile. Both of these can defeat armor in many ways, and especially because of their speed, they're actually very good at it. However, level 4 plates should stop it easily. Level 3 may or may not. Now, we're going to be using a 20-inch AR-15 that you see right here, because a 20-inch barrel gets that full velocity potential out of the rounds in order to make sure that these plates work properly, or whether or not they fail. And we're going to shoot at about 10 yards to give it a little bit of distance, and because steel plates are known to spall, aka basically throw shrapnel around once a round makes contact, I'm going to be about 10 yards away to make sure that I don't have any of those issues. Now, we'll get everything set up, and we're going to shoot each plate with one of each of those rounds, M193 and M855, and then at the end, we're also going to just have a little bit more fun, because that's what we like to do here, and we're going to shoot each of these plates with a .460 Smith & Wesson 360 grain hard cast lead barrel load out of a 20-inch barrel rifle, which I just think would be a good time, and because it is the highest velocity pistol caliber round out there, why not find out if these can defeat at least the most powerful pistol caliber there is. So, let's go ahead and get everything set up. We'll shoot each of the plates. We'll start with the mirror safety plate first, and then we'll just see how these perform and give you some ideas as to why you might want to add level 4 ceramic plates into your inventory. All right, so the first one we're going to shoot is the M193, which is the 55 grain projectile traveling at over 3,000 feet per second, which is why it's so good at penetrating armor. We're going to hit the level 4 ceramic plate from mirror safety first, and we're going to see how the M193 does, and then we'll move on to the M855 on the same plate. So, first up, M193 out of a 20-inch barreled AR-15. All right, so as you can see, direct center hit, and it is definitely beat up in there, and you can see that there's pieces of ceramic and stuff all over the wood right here in front of it, but it definitely did the job, and I'll show you the back face deformation once I shoot it with the M855 as well. That way, you can see that it did not penetrate, but you can also see what to expect if something like this does actually hit you because it's probably going to hurt. Okay, so now we're going to hit it with the M855, 5.56x45 NATO, but this is the 62 grain that has the steel core, which some people like to call a penetrator, but either way, this shouldn't penetrate as well as M193, but we're going to test it anyway because like I said, those two cartridges are the most likely you'll run into during an SHDF scenario. So, M855 coming in hot, 20-inch barreled AR-15. Okay, so I was trying to get the next round really close to that center of impact, and I hit the sandbag. That 62 grain projectile jumped up off the sand and went right through the jug up here at the top and exited out the back. So, this ammunition is hot stuff, and it's coming in like it means business. So, I'll go ahead and shoot again and actually hit the plate this time to give you some idea of what this thing will actually do or what it will stop, I guess. Okay, let's try that again. M855, don't worry, there's plenty of that to go around, and let's actually hit the plate this time. So, you guys know I'm an amateur, no big deal, right? That time we got a hit. All right, so I didn't hit the sandbag this time, and we got a direct hit right above the initial impact here. Now, that M855 62 grain stuff is definitely spitting out quite a bit of this ceramic at this point, but you have to understand that once you lose integrity of a ceramic plate, it does start to break down faster. They're not as multi-hit rated as steel plates. However, let's try not to get shot more than once if possible, correct? So, let's go ahead and take this off. All right, and here is the plate. Now, you can see exactly where I hit it. So, we have those two impacts right there, M193 on the bottom, M855 on top, and then no exit at all. Both of those would be right here on the label. Now, there is quite a bit of backface deformation, so we'll go ahead and turn this so you can kind of see that. That's a pretty decent sized bulge. You're not going to feel good after being hit by any kind of cartridge in the chest while wearing this plate. However, it probably will save your life, and it definitely will prevent anything from actually penetrating your body. So, the Mira Safety Tactical Level 4 ceramic plate did what it was supposed to do. It stopped two of the most common cartridges you're going to run into during SHTF, and of course, there's many others that people will likely be carrying. However, most of those aren't as likely to defeat armor as these two exact cartridges would be able to. So, if it can stop these, you're doing very well for yourself in the sense of protection. And like I said, 5.9 pounds, you really can't go wrong, and it should stop up to 30-06 M2 armor-piercing rounds. That being said, let's move on to the Level 3 steel plate just to see what the difference of potential is in the sense of what it's capable of stopping, and give you some ideas about what you might want to invest in for yourself. Okay, so now we're on to Level 3 steel plate, which should stop up to .308, but is definitely not ready to stop .556 by .45 NATO. So, we're going to start with the M193, the .55 grain hot, fast projectile, see if we can penetrate this plate, or if it can handle it, and then we'll do the M855 afterwards. So, one shot of M193 coming right up. Dead center hit. Let's go check it out. Okay, so this was a dead center shot from 10 yards out of a 20-inch barreled AR-15, and that M193 screamed right through that steel plate. Like, no joke, it went right through. So, we'll hit it with the M855 just to see how it holds up against that, but before I take this off and show you what the back of the plate looks like, just understand that it did indeed penetrate, and the M855 will likely penetrate as well, but let's find out real quick before we take this apart. Okay, so that M193 went right through it. So, we're going to go and hit it with the M855 now just to see if there's any performance difference there, but so far we have defeated the using M193 55 grain ball ammo, which out of a 5.56 AR-15 is a very likely cartridge to encounter during this HTF, so just keep that in mind, but we'll do the M855 right here right now and just see how that goes. All right, so we got a good hit. Didn't hit the sand this time. Let's see what happened. All right, so we got another good hit right here, right towards the center, but far enough away from that first impact that I don't think it had any reason to interfere with the performance of this area right here on the steel, and from the looks of it, this was actually stopped by the level 3 plate. So, M855 62 grain, which some people like to label as like light armor piercing, isn't very armor piercing compared to that M193 now, is it? It's all about speed, of course, but let's take this apart so you can kind of see what the back of the plate looks like, and then you can understand exactly how it performed against both of those cartridges. Okay, so as you can see, here's the front of the plate, and you can just see that hole right there from that M193, but here's where the M855 hit, and it actually stopped the round. M193 right here, not so much. Now, let's look at the back. You can see where that M193 penetrated. That M855 did not. However, M193, which a lot of people consider to be range ammo out of a 20-inch barreled AR-15, turns into something else, a little more dangerous, you might say. So, yes, level 3 plates can stop a lot of rounds, .308, 7.62x39, and apparently some of them can even stop 5.56 M855 62 grain steel core rounds. However, that M193 went right through, and now you have to ask yourself, do you want to bet your life on that? Do you want to bet your life on the fact that somebody won't have M193 loaded in their AR-15 when you encounter that during an SHTF scenario? So, let's go ahead and just kind of discuss some of our findings here, and then let's shoot these plates with something a little bit bigger and more interesting. Okay, so based on the data, the mirror tactical level 4 ceramic plate did as it was advertised to do. It stopped two different 5.56 NATO rounds from penetrating M855 and M193. Now, the level 3 plate did more than what it was advertised to do as well, because it did stop that M855 from penetrating. However, you can see that the M193 went right through it, and that should tell you that that might not be something you want to rely on during SHTF, especially because that's the type of ammo a lot of people stockpile. Not to mention the fact that this is much heavier than this plate from Mira Safety. This comes in at 5.9 pounds, and this steel plate in a 10x12, because this is actually an 11x14, but in a 10x12 is going to weigh you anywhere between 8 and 10 pounds, depending on the manufacturer. So understand, if you're going to invest in armor, and you're going to actually wear it, it's worth the extra money to get something that will actually protect you from the things that are going to be coming at you during an SHTF scenario. And at 250 bucks, these plates aren't super expensive. That's per plate. However, there are other options out there that are much more expensive, but they are also lighter and give you different multi-curve shooter cuts and everything else related to what you might be looking for. So make sure you do your research and find what works for you. But this is hard to beat in the sense of budget. And don't forget, you can have the links down below in the description as well as in the pinned comment where you use the code MAGIC10 and it gets you 10% off. So that saves you 25 bucks, which might help you out a little bit there. Either way, I wanted to bring this to your attention to let everyone know why level four plates are basically a necessary evil. You need to spend the extra money and get them because standard range ammo from a 5.56 with the right barrel length or within the right distance is going to penetrate those cheaper steel plates that maybe make you feel good about having some type of armor. But at the end of the day, it's not going to protect you from some of the most common threats that are out there. And this is a steel plate that I used to run in my kit because I couldn't afford ceramic plates at the time. But I worked my way up and eventually upgraded. So there's ways for you to eventually do that. And if this is all you can afford for right now, maybe that's still worth having because it gives you some level of protection, especially as you saw here with that M855. Now to make things more interesting. The fastest velocity handgun caliber there is is 460 Smith & Wesson. And you know what gets it even faster? A 20 inch barrel rifle. So I'm going to actually shoot both of these plates with 460 Smith & Wesson right now out of a 20 inch rifle. Now I'm using a bear load. So it's actually a very heavy grain projectile 360 grains, but it runs a little bit slower than some of the other loads that are out there at around 1900 feet per second. Either way, it's supposed to penetrate a bear skull, right? So let's see what it does to this armor just for fun, because I figured we want to do something a little more, you know, relaxed at the end of the video. Alright, so just for a good time, let's go ahead and shoot the Mira Safety Level 4 ceramic plate with a 460 Smith & Wesson bear killer. So this is a 360 grain projectile coming out at about 1850 feet per second. And it looks like this, which is extremely impressive if you ask me. Let's go ahead and shoot it and just find out what happens. Got my Thompson Center Katadyn Pro Hunter right here. It's a single shot 20 inch barrel. I've got a Leupold scope on here. Let's find out. Okay. Okay, so the impact of that was pretty impressive. Like I said, this stuff is meant to stop a grizzly bear in its tracks, and I have no doubt that it probably will, but I might be a little impressed here. Let's find out. Alright, as you can see, it tore the entire jug apart all over the place just from the sheer force and energy that that was putting out. So let's see how the plate itself did, though. Alright, this is insane. Okay, so I don't know if you can see this or not, but here is the entry right here, this giant cavity. I mean, there's your two 5.56 rounds, and then that's the 460 that just went berserk there. And what I'm seeing is a huge backface deformation, but I don't think we actually have penetration. Now, it's possible the round escaped right up here, but this could also just be everything pulling apart just due to the sheer force of energy. But it is possible the projectile escaped here, so I'm not 100% sure. But right where the impact occurred, which is right here, you have a huge backface deformation. So I might try to get in here and find out if that projectile is trapped in here or if it escaped. But if it's trapped in here, I'll be really impressed, because that's a seriously hot, heavy round meant to stop a giant predator in its tracks, and this plate might have just stopped it. Now, what I will say is that I had no idea how that was going to perform, but I wanted to at least give it a try. So I think that was fun. Let's see if I can find the projectile, and then we'll just kind of take it from there. All right, everybody. So I did find some of the projectile, and I'll go ahead and show you there exactly what I found. Now, tore this apart looking for it, and here's what I came up with. So it is possible that maybe a little bit of shrapnel from the round is what came out of the top of the plate here, which is what you see right here. But I honestly feel like that's from the back face deformation pulling the material apart from how much energy was actually dispersed in there. Because as you can see, really it's just pulling everything towards the back of the plate, and that's a pretty big significant portion of the projectile. As you can see on the back there, that's a .45 caliber. But wow, I mean, that was huge for this to be able to stop that kind of a round. So I did find this in the plate. Let's go ahead and shoot the steel plate with a .460 now, because why not? All right, so same .460 Smith & Wesson round coming in hot on the steel level three plate now. Let's just see what happens. Like I said, this is more for fun, but it's also good to know, because why not, right? It happened again. Now, there's a reason why I was hiding behind a 55-gallon drum while shooting at a steel plate with that kind of a round, because I will tell you right now that there was some ricochet shrapnel happening in my vicinity. However, that being said, this level three steel plate right here, wow, it stopped that round. So this thing can handle quite a beating, even if it doesn't take care of some of the more intermediate cartridges. It can apparently take care of a .460 Smith & Wesson barrel load. So I'll go ahead and show you that up close here. I mean, that is quite an impact. I mean, look at that. Huge deformation, but it did not penetrate. It left a big mark, and that would definitely break your ribs, possibly kill you, but it definitely wouldn't penetrate your body. And I'm really impressed with that, to be honest with you. I mean, wow, that is huge. But at the same time, right next to it is that hole from a good old 55 grain M193, which I would not advise shooting a grizzly bear with. So let's talk about what we found out here today and just kind of wrap things up. All right, hopefully this video gave you some things to think about. Obviously, both plates stopped every threat except for the M193, which defeated the level three steel plate. The more affordable budget option, a lot heavier, but I mean, it did pretty good. The fact that it stopped the M855 and the .460 Smith & Wesson barrel load, it's pretty impressive in all honesty. However, if you're preparing for SHTF and you're really worried about civil unrest or things happening here domestically, the idea that you're not going to find yourself facing M193 ammo at any point in time is very naive because it's basically what most people stockpile and have on hand. It's range ammo for most of your AR-15 platforms, and yet out of the right length barrel and at the right distance, it pierced through this metal plate without any issue at all. However, the Mira Safety Level 4 ceramic plate stopped all of those threats, including the .460 barrel load, and looks like it still has a little bit of life left. However, the thing you have to keep in mind is stay within your budget. If you can't afford a ceramic plate yet, don't be afraid to get yourself some steel plates in the meantime. As many downsides as there are with steel plates, including spall and everything else related to what they can do when they're very close to your face and get hit by a projectile, at the end of the day, protection is protection, and if you feel you need it, don't limit yourself just because you can't necessarily afford the best of the crop right now. What you really want is something, right? So, I wanted to show you both of these options to give you something to consider and let you know that, yes, Level 4 plates really do what they say they will do, and if you want these, now you know where to get them. Hopefully this gave you some information to work with. Hopefully this was entertaining for you. If you have anything else for me at all, leave comments below or go to magicprepper.com, and that's going to be it for Magic Prepper.