Why do crossbows seem to be able to penetrate modern ballistic body armor so well?

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Why do crossbows seem to be able to penetrate modern ballistic body armor so well?

In: Engineering

2 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Ballistic body armor is made of woven fabric layers. It’s designed to stop ball ammunition, that deforms upon impact. Crossbow bolts are pointed. Stabbing weapons (crossbows included) aren’t the intent of the armor. It doesn’t do well with ice picks or certain knives, either.

Anonymous 0 Comments

It’s because of the material of the arrow vs a bullet. A bullet have more energy than an arrow, but the tip of the arrow is usually made a steel, while a bullet is made of lead with a copper layer on the outside. At lead the usually bullet that people shoot. The bullet proof vest is designed to deform the bullet and redistribue the force over a large area. But an arrow is made of a stronger metal that won’t deform, but instead will pierce the boby armour.

At least that’s what you get if you look at a body armour designed to stop a large pistol caliber. Here a video of a level IIIa body armour.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFUWkNOnxqU](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFUWkNOnxqU)

That said, there is stronger body armour able to stop a rifle round or even an armor piercing round. I doubt that a crossbow would be able to stop those, but I would depend on the strenght of the crossbow and the distance of the shoot.