BulletSafe has recently launched a Kickstarter page for a bulletproof baseball cap, designed to function as a more ‘grey’ alternative to traditional ballistic helmets for Law Enforcement and civilians. The cap is a Flexfit, six-panel cap which includes a BulletSafe ballistic panel. Prototypes of the cap have been tested up to NIJ Level IIA standard, having stopped .40, 9mm, .22 LR, and .38 caliber rounds, and BulletSafe expects the full production model will meet those same standards.
www.kickstarter.com/projects/CalmTom/the-bulletsafe-bulletproof-baseball-cap
Tags: BulletSafe, Kickstarter
I’m just curious about back face deformation. Not saying the product is junk, but its my understanding that some hotter loads may not penetrate but cause enough deformation of the back face to cause other potentially fatal injuries. Definitely interested in further developments though.
Silly bad guys, your well placed shots are but mere strikes in my head from a baseball bat moving 1200 fps!!!
I’m sure everyone is lining up to say this is stupid because you can still die from a round it stops, but it’s about adding protection. There’s a mid-ground between being in a forcefield and being naked and that’s where MOST armor is. I think this is cool as hell! Now if we could just get Kuhl to make the Strand cap in this material…
It’s outstanding for frag protection, as are helmets, and as with helmets direct hits from rounds have high potential to give you a difficult life from that day forward.
Jon, OPT
You and I are playing the same song; I have to explain that to customers very frequently. Everyone feels their own way; I’d rather be alive and dealing with a TBI than the alternative.
I agree completely.
Ballistic helmets don’t have a high potential to give you a difficult life from taking a direct hit from a rifle caliber bullet. Their is scientific and real world evidence to back that. So the cap is capable of stopping a .40 from penetrating, but is it capable of preventing it from crushing your skull.
What helmet in common usage is designed to stop rifle rounds found on the modern battlefield? I am pretty sure none. Though I have seen them stop them or cause a ricochet. I doubt that would happen with this. Either way, a hit to the head is a hit to the head, it’s gonna suck, that was my point.
Jon, OPT
The Army’s Enhance Combat Helmet (ECH) is supposed to be rated to stop rounds up to 7.62 mm if I’m not mistaken. I was issued mine before deploying to Kuwait.
While I won’t disclose the actual threat it’s not any existing .30 that you’d encounter on the battlefield. If they told you it will stop a 7.62mm round, I’d ask them to show you the actual classified threat.
Your Ops-Core with a SLAAP plate will do it. Ow, my aching neck.
Hence my saying common usage.
How many 7.62 rounds did you have HEADed your way in Kuwait?
Ummmmmm…………..ya
ROTFLMAO! I SAID THE EXACT SAME THING!!!
I’m kinda wondering if a round hits it, would it just fly off? There’s almost no retention save the elastic head band.
Likely.
I’d imagine the idea is to give you an opportunity to react, as opposed to being instantaneously incapacitated.
Funny how people move with urgency and purpose when being shot at.
I will say it.
I thought this was stupid at first but I have done a 180.
Not going to sell my Ops Core anytime soon but this beats the hell out of NOTHING which is what you are left with on a surveillance or lo pro op. Seriously, not the worst thing I have seen recently. Just need to be sure it is used correctly. Don’t sub this for a helmet on a DA mission.
This. Exactly this. A thousand times this.
Turn it it backwards (Multicam adds stealth and ballistics) and it’s fine for DA work.
Sorry, had to say it.
As long as it says “BulletSafe” on the side, that’s not so gray man… like the idea, sorta, but I’ll take some convincing. Seen plenty of good arguments for/against it though.
It’s not even close to April Fool’s day.
As a medic, I cannot express how stupid of an idea this is. Skull fracture,epidural hematoma ect ect ect
Chances are, you will die,but however many dollars this “product” costs, less in your wallet.
I cannot believe how ANYONE thinks this is a good idea.
Clearly better to have a blunt force trauma, then massive lacerations, bone fragmentation, hemoraging, and shrapnel… And blunt force trauma. This is not made to replace a ballistic helmet, this is a product that allows extra protection in an environment where you are already only able to wear your silly Velcro hat. Count me in for one!
Me too !!
Craig…
Let’s see. …. bullet through brain
or
Cracked skull, bft, or concussion.
Let’s think this through. I’ve had a concussion before and I lived. I’ve cracked my skull before…..and lived. (I was hit in the back of the head with a baseball bat size piece of pipe .)
Bullet through brain. …I just might not live.
I’ll wear the hat !
Reinforce the front of the cap with AR500 steel.
Problem solved.
Having worked extensively with AR500 armor, I wouldn’t want to wear a cap lined with it.
SSD, can you expound on that comment regarding AR500? Is it due to metal inconsistencies/imperfections or spalling, or just the sheer weight?
I have heard mixed reviews and I’m curious to hear from someone with more than the average gun range commando’s casual experience with the product.
Weren’t we bitching on Saturday about designs in clothing lacking in subtlety? This isn’t meant to replace helmets entirely, but provide a stop gap when the better part of valor is required. Also worth noting this is just a proof of concept, ginormous logos etc. can be taken out of the final product.
Between the bulletproof cap, your bulletproof clipboard and your bulletproof blanket, I think you’d be set…
Get some for the kids with the bulletproof backpack!.
But can the user hang beer cans and tubes off of it?
And now, suddenly, I want one.
Feel free to pre-order my “Art of Dynamic Drinking” DVD. No returns/refunds.
What if they shot you in the face?….. What if they shot me in the face!?…….. Well that’s the risk we were willing to take.
Epic line drop!
We got no food, we got no jobs… our PETS’ HEADS ARE FALLING OFF!
I’m not too sure that this cap is all that much better than nothing at all, sure it will stop the bullet from penetrating but what is the force of the bullet impacting going to do to your skull? At least with helmets there’s a stand off distance between your skull and the helmet and not to mention whatever padding there is to help keep the helmet on your head. I’d hope that there’s some padding inside that helmet to help blunt some of the kinetic energy that’s going to transfer from the bullet being stopped, some of that non-Newtonian padding that’s going into motorcycle gear would probably be good.
If you tuck the tops of your ears under the cap like the douchbags do, that might give you the stand off distance that you desire…
The trick I feel is to use an UHMW poly plate as opposed to soft kevlar. If the plate is rigid it should transfer the force across the entire forehead, rathe than a deep depression dimple that kevlar soft armor would result in.
Given that many people are shot with cock guns in small calibers, I think it has potential.
Think I will pass on the whole bullet proof baseball hat. I do wonder which part of his Bullet Safe /A Division of PriveCo Inc/Vibrators.com/Adult Superstore/ Bachelorette.com – exactly which staff RnD’d this? The staff that is responsible for the dildo and sex toys or the staff that work’s the enema supplies?
Love this from the website
” PriveCo owns and operates a number of medium-small retail websites that sell items that are difficult to ask for in person. Inexpensive Bullet Proof Vests seemed like a good retail venture for the company”
And his experience “I worked for Sikorsky Aircraft, a helicopter manufacturer. During my tenure there, I was responsible for testing of fuel and hydraulic systems, which are important areas to keep bullet safe. I worked on ballistics tests of fuel tanks, fuel lines, and hydraulic components. It was a great experience and I learned a lot. I have applied the knowledge gained there in launching this company.”
Fuel tanks and lines, not much worry there about back face defamation.
But hey, Richard Davis was a Pizza guy before he started Second Chance
Stupid product! I would rather get my brains spilled out all over the place and be good and dead then having my family spoon feed me baby food through a tube in my stomach and have to wipe my ass till I get pneumonia 15 years later and finally die.
Then you’re going to love the upcoming Tannerite filled hat.
But hey with you in that vegetative state your wife is free to shop his other websites. It’s a win win for him.
I’m on team “better then nothing.” I’ve read a lot of stories of people surviving head wounds from pistol calibers, so if this can just bump up your odds a little it could make the difference between “barely dead” and “not dead.” If people can survive handgun rounds ricocheting off their skull I don’t see how this would be any more deadly.
Its the old “just let him bleed out and die because if you use a tourniquet he might lose the limb” argument.
Being as .22lr is one of the most used calibers in crime. What could be a bullet lodged in your skull/brain is now a massive headache with possible serious implications. Still better than what your tacticool shooter cap provides.
A 2 or 4 grain fragment can travel at 4000 fps and do damage from afar due to its low co-efficient of drag. Assuming that a guy is going low-pro, the shoulders, neck, face, cerebral cortex, etc. are all exposed. Small frags commonly travel horizontally.
That being said, if you want to wear a ballistic cap and minimally cover that area, why not?
mixed feelings on this. During my first tour to iraq, i was shot throu the kevlar and the round passed through the back of my head and out the kevlar. so i know what its like to be shot in the head.
at first i thought this was stupid, but started to think, and yes it has its potential issues but in the end its better then nothing. Im a LEO and carry a kelvar in my active shooter bag, but thats because i bought it with my own money and choose too. This would be a good option for alot of small departments who would have nothing. Its also a good option for guys who are responding from working a detail to an active shooter or incident. and lets not forget lowpro guys
I see a point for IEDs and other fragments more than bullets.
I see the point too. But my point is I’d rather see this product developed by someone that doesn’t sell fake dicks as his other job.
Now we need ballistic t shirts, shorts, boxers, socks, and shoes. then we will be set!
After reading through all the comments and seeing the agreements and disagreements i feel as though people who are looking at this for actual caliber protection (which i will not argue that this is what it is being marketed as) are thinking to narrowly. A few people were spot on by brining up the frag protection of this, and all in replacing the “Tacticool” hat. When everything is said and done, most of us wear helmets to hold night vision, and for that very small warm and fuzzy during a D.A. Other than that most ballistic helmets are not going to stop bullets as i believe SSD stated already. However if i would have had a ballistic ball cap to replace my regular one during my deployments, i would have been pretty happy as I’m sure most other people would have been as well. Its something albeit small. Just as are those tiny plates most people wear before they put them selves in going to be shot at situations. Just a tool in the tool box to be used for the right situation, not for everyone.
Did anybody watch the video?!?!? I had an assumption of what this was, until I watched the video. Now, I think this is dumb. First, this company, an actual company who makes this stuff, is on kickstarter. So they don’t think it’s worthy of thier investment and want us to foot the bill. Secondly, comparing this hat with a slaap panel in the front two panels of a hat to a ballistic helmet seems a little of a stretch. I doubt this would not affect comfort either!
Everyone in Helmand wore ballistic underwear that was not rated to stop much of anything. It supposedly made IED amputations more survivable by preventing injury to the groin and upper thigh. Was it that good? Probably not. Did I wear them? You bet.this is a “better than nothing” type of product and is not advertising itself as anything better.
I completely agree with you, Jason !