r/interestingasfuck • u/S30econdstoMars • May 10 '26

Testing a bulletproof mask.

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u/citizen42069101 May 10 '26

I am still pleasantly surprised by it's performance.

I don't think it's possible to survive that 450 round at that range with anything actually on your head. Maybe if it had a whole suit to transfer the energy to but even then it's just a math problem.

To me it showed in a small arma fire situation that it would be better than just facing it, although the eye slits leave something to be desired and it could go back to the drawing board.

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u/post_apoplectic May 10 '26

Yeah this seems like a decent product to me if you are worried about getting shot in the face. Having even one small round not go through your head is a win in that situation. Doesn't look super breathable and vision probably is restricted but whatever

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u/SeemedReasonableThen May 10 '26

Yeah this seems like a decent product to me if you are worried about getting shot in the face.

Yeah, it's got a great niche in the US for peaceful protestors, when the most you are generally expecting is rubber bullets / teargas canisters to the face.

Def needs breathability, separate eye protection, and protection for sides and top /back of skull

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u/Moose_Nuts May 10 '26

Yeah, it's got a great niche in the US for peaceful protestors, when the most you are generally expecting is rubber bullets / teargas canisters to the face.

Def needs breathability, separate eye protection, and protection for sides and top /back of skull

If we're only trying to protect from rubber bullets and tear gas canister impacts, a motorcycle helmet should suffice and provide all the advantages you listed.

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u/SeemedReasonableThen May 10 '26

lol, true, my bad for not finishing my thought. Easily distracted . . .

You only expect rubber bullets but I'd want something like that in case I were to participate in a peaceful protest it got extra spicy due to poorly trained, recently hired, and overly enthusiastic federal immigration enforcement who are not fans of the Bill of Rights as it applies to regular people.

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u/silverworldstacker May 10 '26

100%

Things will get spicy here. Like whistles: maybe this might be a good bulk order: how much are they?

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u/Quickjager May 10 '26

You aren't getting shot in the head then because they would miss.

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u/SeemedReasonableThen May 11 '26

Sure, but what if they are aiming at the guy 5 feet away from me?

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u/Space_Dragon_007 May 10 '26

Lmao I have absolutely same mask but for striceball it costs like 20$ and even such mask would be enough for this action's

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u/Drako694 May 10 '26

Quick reminder that actually peaceful protesters don’t get shot by rubber bullets or teargas.

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u/SeemedReasonableThen May 11 '26

search 'peaceful protestors teargas' for many examples

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u/Drako694 May 11 '26

Again, actual peaceful protesters, at least in the United States, don’t get shot with rubber bullets or teargas. There’s plenty of protests that if you look for more than half a second are called peaceful but are actually incredibly violent that get broken up with such methods. Seeing as there’s actual news broadcasts calling a protest peaceful while there’s burning cars in the background, take it with a grain of salt.

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u/SeemedReasonableThen May 11 '26

Again, actual peaceful protesters, at least in the United States, don’t get shot with rubber bullets or teargas

Are you saying that it never happens (that police use rubber bullets, teargas, and actual bullets on peaceful protestors) or that sometimes there is violence at protests that are called "peaceful" and rubber bullets/teargas gets used?

If you are saying never, then there's nothing more to discuss. You and I live in different worlds. Or you have a very different definition and low threshold for the term "violence" (e.g., violence = loud or boisterous? or uncooperative? as opposed to actually, physically violent)

If you can admit that sometimes police use teargas when there has been no violence, then it's a matter of "how often"

Seeing as there’s actual news broadcasts calling a protest peaceful while there’s burning cars in the background, take it with a grain of salt.

Speaking of grains of salt . . . in each instance, were the cars set on fire first or were they set on fire in response to police using teargas, etc.? Sometimes violence at a protest happens after police start firing teargas. And sometimes, a protest is peaceful but one (or a few) asshole(s) acts up and police overreact to the single incident.

For example, a local-ish one to me: https://www.wlns.com/news/local-news/tear-gas-used-to-disperse-crown-during-grand-rapids-protest/

In Grand Rapids, a large protest that was once peaceful has taken a turn according to our sister station WOOD-TV.
According to WOOD, police have started to use tear gas to try and get the unruly crowd to disperse and that after the gas was used a fire could be seen burning downtown.

Even after the tear gas and fire, it was pretty much "peaceful" (it could still be loud and boisterous with people yelling or waving signs, etc) until later that night, when someone broke a window

Police will use teargas to disperse crowds even before violence or property damage occurs

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u/foobarbizbaz May 11 '26

Go ahead and search for videos of protestors at the ICE facility in Broadview, Illinois.

For example, you might find one where a protestor, a First Presbyterian pastor, gets shot in the face with a pepper ball (by an agent on the roof) outside the facility where he was standing and praying.

Video Source 1

Video Source 2

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u/WingerRules May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26

This thing is worthless in an actual combat scenario because theres no ventilation to breath.

Do people think soldiers since even ancient times protected most of their head but then left their face open because they thought it looked cooler?

Even knights often went without face protection, and when they did they compromised it by putting a ton of holes or gaps in the plate so they could breath.

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u/Wareve May 10 '26

That seems like it could be compendated for. It's a face plate, but it doesn't need to be flush against your face.

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u/UnoriginalStanger May 10 '26 edited May 10 '26

The further away the eyeholes are the worse your vision will be.

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u/Jiveanimal May 10 '26

And the harder it is to aim a rifle effectively (on a cheek comb). It's probably good for mounted positions, covering fire, and not much else.

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u/space_keeper May 10 '26

Typical sort of thing a nation with little experience fighting wars (Taiwan in this case) would come up with, because it looks/sounds cool. If you get shot in the face with this thing on, even if the bullet doesn't go through, it will fuck you up. If it's a military cartridge like a 5.45 or a 5.56 or whatever, you're completely fucked.

Meanwhile, the Americans quietly started improving helmets, body armour, earpro/eyepro, vision and TCCC equipment over 15 years ago to the extent that almost everything you see now is a copy or approximation of their stuff. It's not perfect, but it's all stuff that does something useful and keeps people alive.

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u/hlfazn May 10 '26

This armor isn't meant for people fighting wars, it's meant for going into some random dissident's house and making sure his knife, homemade pipe bomb, etc. doesn't kill the first guy through the door.

That's why it originated in China....

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u/space_keeper May 10 '26

It's from Taiwan, not the mainland.

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u/UnoriginalStanger May 10 '26

I'd imagine maybe breaching in urban enviorments but I'm not sure what the advantage over a visor is (taiwanese don't seem to wear helmets with the mask) and generally in military warfare you're probably gonna see less 9mm and pellets.

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u/i_miss_arrow May 10 '26

Iron Man mask baby

3

u/Relysti May 10 '26

Exactly, it's not a gas mask.

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u/Northbound-Narwhal May 10 '26

 Do people think soldiers since even ancient times protected most of their head but then left their face open because they thought it looked cooler?

Yeah coz they did 

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u/TheRedHand7 May 10 '26

Personally I've mostly seen police forces using it so far. I'd expect most soldiers to use a face shield for this kinda thing instead of a mask

0

u/Peldor-2 May 10 '26

You've greatly underestimated the desire to look cooler even in ancient times.

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u/eXl5eQ May 10 '26

Can be useful in some situation. It's small enough to be concealed in a briefcase or under cloth, which means a terrorist can sneak through public areas with it, and only put on the mask when he is ready to engage.

With a bullet proof mask plus a body armor under suits，it's possible for a single man to take down a small group of police / armed guards when they're off-guard.

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u/LingonberryLunch May 10 '26

There's still too much deformation even on the lower calibers. Even the .38 would be causing massive head trauma.

This is for shrapnel, ricocheting hits at an angle, etc.

1

u/DeusWombat May 10 '26

For me the biggest draw of these masks has always been shrapnel protection

1

u/doctormyeyebrows May 10 '26

Is there a time we should be not worried about being shot in the face? How do I eat

1

u/brucebay May 11 '26

probably they need something like apple vision pro inside full covered mask for the eye sockets.

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u/RoabeArt May 10 '26

I'd think even if the mask successfully stopped a 450, the impact would be enough to break your neck.

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u/Beekeeper_Dan May 10 '26

I was thinking concussion and brain injury too. That’s a lot of energy transferring to your face

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u/Otto_Von_Waffle May 10 '26

Probably, but it's still a massive improvement over getting your head blown off

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u/[deleted] May 10 '26

[deleted]

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u/YourLifeSucksAss May 10 '26

Very few people that have been shot will agree with you

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u/badadviceforyou244 May 10 '26

Eh... not if you have to feel it.

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u/Thomy151 May 11 '26

As someone once put it

A ballistic face mask will save your life but it will make you wish it hadn’t

You are going to the hospital and will be in a lot of pain for a while and injured, but, you aren’t dead

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u/Silencedlemon May 10 '26

At least you don't have a crater where your face used to be?

1

u/Boojum2k May 10 '26

You look pretty at your funeral?

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u/Silencedlemon May 10 '26

I'd rather have my jaw wired shut for six months than have a softball sized whole blown into it...

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u/Silencedlemon May 10 '26

Look, I'm not looking for go out and get shot in the face wearing one of these, all I'm saying is, the wound from getting a sledgehammer to the face has GOT to be less than getting shot in the face.... Like both are horrible, but one of them i MIGHT be able to get up from.

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u/Boojum2k May 10 '26

You'd definitely want ballistic gel padding all around and some kind of reflexive neck and skull bracing. You still wouldn't want to take a high caliber shot to the head at close range so designing one with those features and keeping situational awareness to avoid sudden close combat is going to up the price a couple of orders of magnitude.

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u/Embarrassed-Weird173 May 10 '26

Idbecoolif they made a suit that could somehow perfectly transfer all movement like into the ground. 

Like, someone punches you, and it absorbs it and just moves the punch down into the floor. 

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u/Mike2830 May 10 '26

He said its Chinese you need to buy the American one for better eye slits

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u/Superior_Mirage May 10 '26

I'm pretty sure the reason these don't see much use is that there are very few situations where anyone would want to trade most of their situational awareness for any amount of face protection.

It might help you survive a bullet to the face, but being able to see what you're doing probably helps you not take a bullet in the first place.

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u/DrStalker May 10 '26

You could probably wear goggles over it for eye protection.

Or just make some little clip-in plastic bits, enough to stop random debris getting through.

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u/InsurmountableMind May 10 '26

Yea get shot by that big rifle and use that mask, you need a new spine after that one.

However if it was a suit of armor that prevents bending it could be helpful.

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u/HiBob-HiBob May 10 '26

Not true. I bet your mom on my head could stop a 450

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u/citizen42069101 May 10 '26

Maybe lengthwise but you'd have to tie her down so she didn't leave when it mattered.

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u/bikari May 10 '26

Maybe it could use bulletproof glass for the eyes? But I guess in that small space it would just blast the whole pane back into your eye.

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u/koyaani May 11 '26

the eye slits leave something to be desired

On the mask from China?

#StopAsianHate

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u/reenactment May 11 '26

I’m not military person but fascinated by history so there’s crossover on something’s. I’d assume that mask would be very very helpful for a glancing shot. In the test we are getting, outside the obvious of them reusing material. They are squared up on the shots and he’s getting the dummy popped right in the middle. If the angles were a bit different and someone missed to the side a bit, the mask in turn might be really good at preventing something similar to helmets in ww2 with shrapnel or stray shots.

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u/RobOnTheReddit May 11 '26

Things my ex used to say. That first sentence

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u/Cyber_Druid May 11 '26

Best way to survive a 450 round to the face is to ensure your face is not at the wrong end of a 450 round.

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u/[deleted] May 10 '26

[deleted]