Steel vs Ceramic Ballistic Plates 

Never forget to put Mosin on full power mode before shooting.

Good video. Nice to see someone who isn't sponsored by an armor company talk about armor reasonably.

That would have been hilarious if it cracked when it fell.. "Steel wins!" 🤣

Best, wittiest, informative, interesting firearms channel, second to none! 😎

Nice Experiments! Can you do more test on spalling (I hope this is the correct spelling) by placing clay or ballistic gel around the plate? May to rolls of clay representing arms and a ball of clay hanging from the ceiling representing head? This would be nice.

You guys don’t miss! This isn’t the first video I’ve seen on ballistic plates testing / comparison, but it’s def one of the best. Something about how you guys present your videos and how you conduct the activities that just click with regular/simple guys like me. 👍🏼👍🏼

My wife has steel plates and I built a form and covered them with a 1/4” of epoxy. I tested it on an old steel plate I had and it swallows up the spalling great.

I think this is the best "study" video yet. Short funny intro, succinct commentary that gets to the point and the layout of the tests is almost clinical. Thumbs up!

Best intro I’ve see in awhile! Bravo.

A very important thing that was missed is "glancing shots". Ceramic will capture the round, steel will deflect. If you get hit at an upward glancing angle, that round is going to hit your neck or under-side of your head which = severe wounds if not death. I hear Polythylene is the way to go.

A great comparison of steel and ceramic ballistic plates with interesting results. Thank you for sharing!

(double thumbs up) Very informative and diplomatic approach to subject of steel vs composite subject! If there are more of these unbias videos it would be interesting to see what would happen with high velocity ammo and where applicable energy distribution/penertration/spall with backing/trauma-pad or assosiated soft armour fillers on appropriate PPE platforms.

This is the type of content I like the most. TY dudes.

Excellent video as always.

Great video and very intelligent analysis. Thanks for the mention. There is no perfect armor, every plate has it's advantages and disadvantages. We've always recommended owning as many types of armor as you can. Cheers.

I bought ceramic and never looked back. If you actually go out and train you know why. Mobility is everything. My old steel plates (AR500 series A, with 6x6 side plates) with "full build-up" of anti-spall weighed just over 24lbs. My medium size Hoplite level 4 SAPIs with 6x6 side plates come in at 18.5lbs. Trust me, that 5.5lbs makes a HUGE difference. If you're a hiker, you'll understand how just mere ounces of weight make a difference. Same concept applies here. Direction changes are faster and require less energy. Getting up from prone or kneeling is faster and requires less energy. There's less momentum to contend with. Over the course of a day all of that adds up and you'll be glad you spent the extra money on ceramic plates. But I guess you can't really appreciate the difference unless you've suffered the weight of steel plates lol

I always have watching your vídeos, keep doing this excellent work.

Great video as always

Always interesting. Ian and karl have done some "similar" tests on inrangetv as well. Your video and theirs are always instructive. I love you guys.i wish to be able to buy you a good drink soon in slovenia.

Great work 👍

Your carrier is just as important, plus the sleeves you can get for your steel to stop spalling. Great video

Another great video from you guys!

I have mentioned this a couple of times In the comments below. What you really need to do is test steel plates inside the carrier to actually test the true danger of spalling. What I have seen, as an individual who professionally has to rate and recommend PPE for my companies client to purchase, is that ceramic plate fans/companies only show the bare steel plate being hit on video then claiming the resulting spalling will kill the wearer. Which might be true if the wearer taped the bare plates, even with the coatings, directly to their chest. In actuality the plate and the carrier are actually a system working together to protect the wearer.

Very good presentation and extremely proud of the Greek manufacturer

Solid video well done!

Thank you for the information

This was a great video! Thanks for giving steel plates some credit. They're a great option for people who may not have the best access to such things. Or, who may not have options to replacement plates in the future, can't store them in ideal conditions, etc.

Those videos are indeed interesting, thank you !

Still happy with my AR-600 Steel Ops plate. With a wonderful spall coating.

for the fragmentation issue couldn't someone make a simple kevlar sleeve/cover to zip up around the plate?

Nice video, about what I expected from ceramic armor! I would Love to have that M76!

That ending LOOOL I appreciate the effort from him

Great vdo! I dig all your content! Keep it creative with funny dark humor like you already do! You are one of my favorite youbee toobee channel's to check out!

Very interesting, thanks sir.

Always good content

Thank you for caveating the shrapnel !

I love this channel... I came for the Ian interviews but I've stayed for Ziga.

Merci pour tes vidéos ❤️

Informative 👏🏾👍🏾👊🏾

Nyet! Steel is fine. Heavy, but thin too. Thanks for the share!!

Great vid.

Nice. Good video.

The box check for ricochet and spall is good, always pay attention to straight up as you noted, but also low left and right. As in toward the inside of the thighs. Same problems in those areas. As for ceramic (and to show the difference between steel), something like the test you did trying to move yourselves along on the skateboard via recoil might be helpful. The dispersion of energy between different grades of ceramic is quite substantial, and the total difference between steel and ceramic again is massive. Giving people a relative understanding of impact force beyond clay cavities can be pretty helpful, even if it seems like a gimpy way to do it.

Great video and a lot of information! Steel and ceramic are both good just some are better in certain areas

This video was super awesome and informative. In my opinion I would much rather wear either than nothing in a combat scenario.

Good video thanks

Thanks!

that intro made me give you already a thumbs up!

Neat video!

The power-up lever on the Mosin is a secret. . .

Love the Mosin power-up, that's immediately meme-worthy. :)

Awesome test my slav bro + I like your zastava

Yeaaaasss polenar tactics good channel

"Nothing is black or white" he says while standing next to a black plate and a white plate 😂

so what is actual weight difference on those 2 plates? I wonder if some over layer (like a wet suit -elastic) or the spall guard for steel would keep ceramic fragments captured in armor, pieces better than a void, that's why gravel,sand good barriers as long as they don't spill out

very cool, very useful

Love the cool scifi intro

In my experience (Afghanistan 06-07,08,2010) a hit to the plate is pretty rare most folks get hit in the head,neck,arms or shoulders. Also if you get hit more than once in the chest you're probably shot all to shit anyway.

Very great test video. For information, Ballistic test with 5.45 are very uncommon, and in a video of garandthumb, the bullet did not went thought a level 3a plate which is surprising. It can be useful to know these days...

Love to see more armor videos test 20" AR's with M193.

Paraphrasing the Riddle of Steel: "No one in this world can you trust. Not men, not plastic weapons, not ceramic vests. But this (steel), you can trust".

The intro was literally what steel plate people think will happen in a firefight I was one of those people, but also knew I'd probably take shots to other parts, so I at least had meds, until I got ceramics

Very well done video PT crew. The key point with anything regarding Body Armor is that if you're taking hits in the plate, you're already in a VERY bad position, and are now in survival mode. You are absolutely right in saying that anti-spall coatings can make or break a Steel Plate's protection capabilities, they need to be built up to both mitigate multiple hits' spall factors as much as sustaining the longevity of the Steel-- and there are many different proprietary coatings that various manufacturers and retailers use, some perform much better than others. There are also AR550 and AR600 Steel plates on the market that hold up even a little better against AP and other rounds on the top cusp or beyond NIJ rating standards.

Thank you for doing this video. Some people certainly needed this reality check.

So basically, wear the composite plate over top of the steel plate, in your carrier. Done👌🏻

I understood that reference! 00:10

Nice!

Finally, a video not sponsored by AR500 or Spartan.

Great video. If it’s already cold there, you guys gotta move. It’s still summer damnit.

Great experiment.🐸🍺🔪🔥

We do a science

Thank you Polenar--Learned something new that I cant pick which one to purchase now because either way ill get unalived 😂😅

Best eastern european youtube channel! 😍

Interesting!

You know the video is going to be good when it starts out with Mosin Pinky.

Good video. We once tested plate from aliexpress, it was made from some kind of polyethylene - stopped pistols and shotguns, but deformation was bad.

You all rock!

It sounded like you said "ceramic sharts" and I chuckled.

Just 10s into this video, I'm already laughing. 😆. Love the sword sound when he took out the gun.

I have a carrier with 12x15 plates front and back. Hefty but durable, also serves as a boat anchor lol

Thx for this video: informative and highly performed as usual! It would be interesting to see the comparison between most popular Russian army armour and most popular NATO armour.

If it isnt anti-spall put some kevlar sheets on the front face of the plate

I definitely like this style of video I just wish I could’ve seen the name of that body armor lol

I have a question : siamidis IV plate managed to stop 7.62 NATO or it failed ?

love it

I find it interesting!

I wish it was that cold in my state to see my breath atm. Awesome test though

I love you guy's, don't ever change. ❤️🇺🇸

up to 20 yrds XM193 ball (FMJ) shot from 20" will go trough lvlIII plate all day long

Good old powering up your rifle Zimbawie style

Nikita from BSG should take notes.

Keep it up you brimg fun to relavant issues. to me the take away is that steel plates are more reuseable than ceramic, unless you plan on duct taping it after your firefight. of course if it saved your life you probably will gladly just replace it 🙏

Tasty intro. Felt like a 12 year old again

Ceramic Ballistic is best plate, fight me Ziga

Shocked at the cavity in clay behind the steel plates with the larger rounds😳

I'd like to see some home made spall liner testing on that steel plate.

I like this

i think steel is still fine to get as long as you have a good fragmentation coating.

0:09 Volley fire brilliant lolz

Polenar, thank you for the video and the material comparison. It can bee seen that a development of a working and yet safe ballistic plate is a great scientific challenge. Btw what is the width of the ceramic composite plate?