Ok guys I recently accuired a set of plates and backers from someone who has no clue the worth value of this stuff. So needless to say im not in the hole very much. I am a civie non LE, the only reason I want plates is for a shtf type situation. I currently use a chest rig and battle belt at my local range. I am a firm believer in training like you will fight. So I want to get a set up that allows me to do so with out the added bulk. I recently had a thread asking about which carriers will hold my backers, as they appear to be a balcs or spear cut. Endur gave me several options and helped out alot. However it seems the eagle carriers are just a little to expensive for my taste. I am going to post pics of my plates below. Can anyone help me idintify these plates, are they level 3 or 4 are they standalone, do I need backers? I was looking at the banshee plate carrier, as it seems very low profile and really nice, and for the money I could buy the carrier as well as a new set of soft armor for the same price as purchasing the eagle ciras carrier to accept my spear/balcs cut soft armor. Please help me idintify these plates and let me know if I even need backers. All suggestions are greatly apreciated I plan on running my battle belt setup in conjunction with the PC, the chest rig will not be used over the PC I will attach needed mag puches to the carrier.
Looks like 1st gen esapi to me, if thats the case, not sure id trust em without getting them xrayed.
Where do I get something like that tested, these plates are a little larger the 10x12 so im not sure if they will even fit in the banshee.
ESAPI, Government issued plates.
Do you have the history of the plates as to where they came from? Most likely from someone in the Military…
I wouldn’t fret too much about using used plates, as long as you know the history of em, and the outer shell looks in very good shape. While the x ray idea is valid, I don’t think it is as important as many say, but that is just my experience.
So what kind of ballistic protection do these plates offer without the backers?
They look like the Espai APM2 lvl 3 plates 7.62 protection
If they are just standard sapi plates they are good for I believe It’s three spaced hits from m80 ball “308” and require backers. If they are newer esapi plates they are rated for 1 AP round(not to say it would not defeat several lesser threats). I don’t know for a fact weather or not they also require backers, but to be safe I would use them anyway. What’s the date of manufacture on the back?
06/06 I had read there was a recall and found that information on the internet and the serial number and lot number were not part of the effected batch. Thank goodness there. I plan on running these plates in a banshee pc I just purchased. I was just curious if I really needed to invest in a new set of backers. Or even ditch this whole set and start from scratch.