Just how effective is the Ballistic Helmet?

Have you ever wondered how a level IIIA ballistic helmet that are used by our military and law enforcemnt personnel would hold up against a full magazine of 9mm hollow points?

The helmet is resin composite design to be able to withstand a .44 magnum round, so a 9mm shouldn’t be a problem. But what if you were shooting the 9mm from an MP5 on full automatic? The folks from TwangnBang set out to see how it would do, they used a 9mm with hollow points.

Take a look at what happens below.

He duct tapes the helmet on the dummy, stands back, and fires several bursts into it. The helmet gets pretty well torn up, but it does actually stop almost all of the bullets from passing all the way through the helmet material. You would probably get some extreme migraines from this.

Other than that its still impressive!

Realistically, with that many rounds fired into one spot on the helmet, you’d be in some serious trouble if this were a real under fire situation. There were so many hits that a human would surely have been toast.

But with just one or two rounds from a 9mm? It looks like the ballistic helmet would indeed offer plenty of protection.

[su_heading size=”30″]Video Transcription[/su_heading]

Hey, thanks for tuning in to TWANGnBANG. My rubber dummy here is wearing a level 3A Ballistic Helmet from HiCom Security. It’s designed to stop a ballistic threat up to 44 Magnum, so it shouldn’t have a problem with one round of 9mm. But can it handle a full mag dump? That’s what I want to find out next on TWANGnBANG. [laughter] You’re goin’ down, man.

I’m actually having to do considerable windage here, so I’m gonna do my best to put just one right in the front here, and see what we get.

[BANG]

I’m gonna do that again.

[BANG]

There we go! That’s what I wanted.

Alright, let’s take a look at this. And this– this does not concern me, this is actually how it’s supposed to work. It’s actually like layers of soft armor under a resin shell– sandwiched between two different layers of resin shell, and that actually stopped the round, even though it went in right at the edge. That’s a direct hit, that’s what I wanted, and feeling with my fingers underneath, it’s– it actually did its job too. Even though these are smokin’ hot, solid copper rounds. So, let’s get this on the table.

Ok, you can see the shell is actually deformed and cracked, but– man it would’ve left a knot on your head, but you would’ve done just fine. Same thing with here, right on the edge, and it did its job. That hi-com security helmet caught those solid copper hollow points. Fantastic job.

Well, now let’s see if I can finish the mag in this thing. That’s gonna be tough to do, because it’s gonna be moving around as I hit it, but I wanna see what happens, anyway.

Well I broke a buckle. Shot the strap off here, so, I gotta improvise.

This is gonna look fun.
[Duct tape noises]

[sigh]
Well, this is gonna do at least a decent job of holding it in place. That’s gonna be a pretty small target, you can see I actually did some practice here.
I’m not gonna get all the rounds in here, it certainly would be easier to shoot from the back, but that’s un-sportsman-like, I’m not gonna do that. [laughter] let’s see what happens.

[Rapid-fire shooting]

[laughter]

I have to aim really high, so I have no idea how long that guy was down on the ground and I was just sendin’ it into dirt ‘cuz I can’t see the helmet. I’ve got that much Kentucky windage. I gotta review the footage. [laughter] [shot] [barking laughter] That’s hilarious! At least I didn’t waste that one round!

Ok actually, I got him in the face quite a bit. I got him a couple times, I got a nice little burst in here, but nothing came through. Even though that’s probably two or three rounds right in there. And in the back, it actually stopped rounds that came through his face. I’m gonna try this again, and this time I’m gonna have him facing backwards and I’ve got big tires on the back, that should keep him from falling over. [laughter] This is fun!

Well now yoiu get to see why I’m not a fan of full mag dumps, especially when I have to do so much kentucky windages I’ve gotta do with this. This is not mine, it’s probably set up better for a red dot sight, I wish I would’ve known, I would’ve brought one. But we’ll manage. I’m gonna do bursts this time, some controlled bursts, and make sure I stay on target.

[Series of bursts]

There we go! Oop. Malfunction.

[Series of bursts]

Obviously the back of the HiCom security helmet started off weakened from the shots it already took from the front, but the level 3A armor still did a great job of stopping rounds. You can actually see some of the bullets bouncing off or dropping out of the airmen(?) layers if you look closely enough. Of course, by the time the helmet is softened this much, the impact alone could be fatal, but I’m still impressed with what I’m seeing.

That’s it. And I feel pretty good about my marksmanship that time. I sent a few over top and a few underneath, but I got a lot in the helmet. Let’s go see if I got through. I probably did.

[laughter] Well! Eh, I definitely got through a lot, I just– Oh! What?! Oh my gosh, it’s hot! The armor is hot! And uh, let’s just get this off. Wow I actually– I don’t think I got through! Oh there’s a spot. Let’s go to the table and get a closer look. This is actually crazy impressive. I think I only got through one time.
[gasp] No way! [laughter] Here are two of the bullets, right here. They were just sitting right in here! I didn’t see them ‘cuz I’m too short. They’re filled with Airmen(?) fibers. Wait ’till you see these.

Okay you’re not gonna believe this: Well here are the two bullets. You can see they almost look like fullmetal jacket rounds, but they’re just– they grab the media and mashed in. But they were stopped, they didn’t go through the guy’s head. But I don’t know if you can hear it, there are multiple rounds inside here rattling around. That’s gonna take some work getting in here– Oh I can feel more.

Well, a gale is blowing on through here, you can see the multiple impacts, I got this good. You know, I missed him sometimes, but a lot of ’em just went running on right on underneath it. It pushed, even though I was hitting centrally, it folded up underneath like that, and came out through the center of his face. I did find a bunch of holes with Airmen(?) fiber on the other side of the rubber dummy’s face. So that’s– that definitely happened. But I was able to get five out of the helmet, and uh– that’s still pretty impressive. The helmet is in better shape than I thought, the rubber dummy is not in good enough shape, but uh, this helmet is not designed to take that many rounds in one spot. And uh, the back of your head would probably be mashed potatoes anyway just from the impacts, but that was really fun to find out.

If you wanna see more stuff like this, be sure to click right here to subscribe, follow me on facebook and instagram, you can see it right here, also check out my website at TwangNBang.net, I really appreciate you watching TWANGnBANG, and I hope to see you next time. Man I love this thing. [laughter] That is so much fun.

Source: TwangnBang Youtube, David Smith, HighCom Security


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