by Woodsbum
For those that have been keeping up with my posts, this will come as no real surprise. New readers might think that I am a bit goofy and in need of professional help above what Dr. Jack Daniels can provide. Either way, I did it again. I ran across a great deal on ballistic Level IIIA deltoid protectors so I picked them up.
The only color that was available was black, but you can get an idea of what they look like from the picture above.What these bad boys do is add ballistic protection to your deltoid region. This might not seem like a big deal to some people, but having that added pistol protection is a potential life saver if you actually need your armor. With your auxillary, subclavian, and brachial arteries all easily accessed by a bullet entering that area I feel that the money spent on this is a great investment.
So you can get an idea of what these look like when attached to a carrier, here is a picture for reference. The attachments I am referencing are the part that cover the upper arm/shoulder region. The collar bone/clavial region and throat attachment piece is also not included. This does give you a good idea of the various pieces you can buy, however.
What really struck me as the negligible weight of these ballistic protectors. They only add less than a pound to your gear, for the pair. I also like the fact that they will help protect you against potential shoulder strikes with blunt or cutting weapons. They are not designed for such attacks, but common sense tells you that a semi rigid structure that is 1/4 thick will be hard to cut through and will help against blunt force trauma.Either way, I was really happy to find these little guys. They were on clearance from Tactical Assault Gear for about $70 shipped. Unfortunately for anyone wanting to pick up a pair like I did, they are now out of stock and discontinued. A web search did show many for sale on Ebay as well as other sources.
If you run across a set of these, I highly recommend them as a great addition to your body armor kit. The weight is nothing compared to the protection you receive from them.