IIIA+ Body Armor Refuses to Fail Under a 3-Way Water Test

Name: IIIA+ Body Armor Refuses to Fail Under a 3-Way Water Test
Uploaded: 2025-08-06T14:03:38.518Z
Duration: 6 min 28 s
Channel: Ballistic Lab

Ballistic Lab

1 follower

Aug 6, 2025

When body armor gets wet or becomes saturated with sweat, often times panels lose their integrity. That's why we're putting our IIIA+ Vest though a backyard test in the desert near Sloan, Nevada. It's the Safe Life Defense way to always attempt to stop everything, even in the most unlikely situations. Watch as we shoot three ballistic panels, six times each with a 44 Magnum in a tight cluster group. While the first of these vests will remain dry an intact, the second will be slashed and submerged, and the third will only be submerged. Find out how our ballistic gel dummy fares under shots from both fifteen and two feet. And remember, you should frequently check your panels for signs of wear, and always reference official ballistic testing results.

So what actually happens to body armor when it gets wet? Well today, we're going to find out. Body armor saves thousands of lives every year and is an important tool for first responders and law enforcement. I'm Nick Grote, president of Safe Life Defense, a body armor manufacturer located in Las Vegas, Nevada. Today, we came out to the middle of the desert in Sloan to do some ballistic testing on some wet armor panels. We're doing a backyard test to see what will happen. We're going to shoot three ballistic panels six times with .44 Magnum. We're going to be using our 3A Plus to demonstrate. Vest A is going to be our control group. It's not going to be submerged in water at all. Vest B is going to be our slashed vest. That's going to allow the water to seep in and compromise the panel. Vest C, or Ballistic Panel C, is going to be our vest that is submerged in water with an airtight seal. All right, so let's get to it. So first, we're going to be shooting our control vest, A. That hasn't been submerged and is just as it would come out of the box. It's going to stop everything. So we got all our shots in, but on the last one, he fell down here. So we'll just check it out with where he lies. Here's all of our shots. We got one, two, three, four, five, six. All within an area that I can cover with my fist. And nothing. Nothing. We got a bit of back face signature on the back here, but as you can see, he's just fine. Nothing came through. So definitely a pass. So next up is Panel C. This is the panel that's been submerged for about 35 minutes and hasn't been compromised because it has a good water seal. It'll stop the six rounds of .44 Magnum, no problem. All right, so he didn't go over this time. Had to stop to make sure. But here are our six shots. We got one, two, three, four, five, six. All within a close area to one another. Not as close as the last one. But let's check out what happened. And as expected, we don't have anything passing through. We have some back face signature. And it was a bit wet, so we have some of the labeling that stuck to our dummy. But overall, he's good. Let's move on. We're going to do Vest B. That's the one that was slashed and was compromised with the water. So before we shoot panel number B, I do want to mention that this is just a backyard test. Always go off official Ballistic Lab testing. That's what really matters. Actually, personally, I haven't done this before. Normally, we do it by the lab. So I'm excited to see what actually happens. I'm excited to share it with you as well. Let's do it. Sorry, guys. We've already got a lot of water actually coming out. Didn't actually look at what happened, but we are going to find out. Our ballistic dummy took a tumble, came all the way over here to our comforter for the chronograph. Let's see what happened to him. So we've got all six shots. We've got 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. Again, in about an area that I could cover with my fist. And actually, surprisingly enough, it still stopped what it was supposed to. Not the results that I was expecting. Let's shoot him some more and see if he still exceeds expectations after another six rounds of .44 Magnum. So once again, our unnamed dummy fell to the ground. Let's pick him up. I, uh, I don't think anything went into him. He seems to be just fine. We couldn't get anything in .44 Magnum to pass through from about 15 feet. So let's try from about 2. Huh. Our vest refuses to fail. So normally when water seeps into a ballistic panel, or the water seal fails and excessive sweat gets in, the ballistic panels lose a lot of their integrity. I really wanted to show you guys how important it was to routinely check up on your panels and to make sure you don't stab it. You are definitely affecting the integrity of the vest when you're putting a knife through the first couple layers. No! I can't get this one to fail. I'm sorry I can't show you guys what we wanted to. I guess that's, uh, that's the Safe Life Defense way. We try and always stop everything, even in the most unlikely of situations.