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Bullet Resistant Blankets
ryans63
Member Posts: 64 ✭✭
My sister is a single mom to my sole newphew kid and moved into a new home. Good neighborhood but that doesn't mean a lot too me since I live 30 mins. away. I am making her walk in closet into a safe room of sorts. Gutted room and put 1 inch plywood screwed to nothing but studs and then recovered with drywall to hide it. On all three walls and ceiling. I am not worried about fire just intruders. Solid core door with three hinges that have four inch screws screwing them into the frame of the entire house. plus three deadbolts and some other fixtures that will make the door unramable. I am just curious is there a cost effective way I can get/make bullet resistant blankets. This room is to only hold off the douches until the police, if the criminals are lucky, get there, or if I'm lucky, I'll get there first. I would like to have something where my newphew and sister could lay under a blanket and both shrapnel or rounds are made less lethal. Any ideas? With out spending 1000.00 on a 4x4 level II blakey I found to be the most cost effective. Thanks
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in ww1 it was normal for there to be a blanket hanging loosly over the enterance to dugouts in the trenches. the loosly hanging blankets would stop bullets and shrapnel.
I think that your sister would be best served by a professionally installed perimeter alarm system, with multiple keypads/remotes & UL monitoring center alerted by satlink. If that's not enough, "harden" the home with high security locks, Lexan on vulnerable windows, etc. If she's an experienced shooter, then a safe/lock box with a gun may be appropriate.
Neal
"You may be paranoid, but that doesn't mean that they aren't out to get you."
A safe room is the last and final resort. It boxes up the occupants making them unable to respond to threats. Not a good plan if it can be avoided.
Material to stop a bullet? Think simple and inexpensive. Sandbags or tubes. You aren't expecting to stop an armored division, just an intruder. Most times you might expect a pistol to be used if the intruder is armed. Combined with sheetrock and plywood I'd opine that there would be little danger of bullet penetration. Even a shotgun would be hard pressed to punch through.
The best part is that your expenses would be very low and you could test the ability of this type of barrier in the field before you installed.
Just an aside... We have a range on our property. In the winter we push snow as far back as possible. It amounts to a backstop. I'd never have believed it but a pile of semi compressed snow is a great backstop for both pistol and rifle projectiles. Spring thaw always proves my point as there is very little penetration beyond about 18 inches. It's all about absorbing and dissipating energy.
I have heard that a loose hanging blanket can stop a .38 as it sort of "catches" it.I'm not so sure that would work...
I handled an incident once where a drunk azzhat was arguing with his wife at their home and started waving a 9mm pistol around. During their conversation he felt the need to underline a particular point and fired a round down a hallway leading toward their bedroom.
This round (ball ammo) entered a wall of his closet and traveled it's entire length, putting a hole in every piece of clothing hanging inside before stopping in the insulation of an exterior wall on the other end. [:D]
After seeing a single round kill an entire wardrobe I wouldn't have much faith in a blanket.
steel door in a thin wood and sheet rock room .... a rifle round will go thru the whole thing...A safe room for a single mom and child to shelter from potential burglars isn't a bad idea.
If you're worried about your safe room being attacked by rifle toting hordes on a mission to see you dead, you need to move. [:D]
Material to stop a bullet? Think simple and inexpensive. Sandbags or tubes. Combined with sheetrock and plywood I'd opine that there would be little danger of bullet penetration. Even a shotgun would be hard pressed to punch through.
The best part is that your expenses would be very low and you could test the ability of this type of barrier in the field before you installed.
Would it be possible at this point to open up the walls enough to add dried sand between the studs? Cheap but a of of work and would then allow you to concentrate on the door. Then again, stacking sand bags might be better. Check the support of the floor to make sure it will bear the weight.
Does the floor/ceiling need protection too?
store them in the closet. also that way if they have to leave the closet they take the protection with them.
Consider...
Unless a full scale invasion an intruder is likely to be lightly armed and unprepared to breach a safe room. At best the intruder will perhaps fire a couple rounds in frustration. The last thing needed inside a small room is splinters and shrapnel bouncing around as a vest only offers a percentage of protection rather than full protection.
Given a choice I'd mount an offset door heavy enough to withstand any attempt to breach and at least resistant to bullets. The safe area would be out of any direct line of fire. I'd probably double wall the room and place sandbags between the walls if really seriously worried about an armed intruder.
To be perfectly frank I'd much rather have an A5 or 870 beside me and know how to use it. Nothing says "WELCOME" quite like an A5 going into battery or an 870 racking a round. Those two sounds are universally understood.
FMJ rounds from an AK would poke through the truck cab, through the blanket on one side, travel to the other side of the truck then get caught in the blanket. Only thing it was really affective against was shrapnel from an IED or grenade. I haven't seen what the blankets would do to a handgun bullet but they didn't always stop a 7.62x39 like you think it would.
I like the idea of sandwiching metal between two layers of 1" plywood or better yet 1" subfloor material as it is more dense and may slow things down better.
Here you go for your viewing pleasure
Armor
Steel Armor Plate
AR 500, MIL-A-46100, MIL-A-12560 Class 1 and 2, MIL-A-46177
Bulldog Commercial Steel Armor Plate is a high hard commercial ballistic steel that is a quenched and tempered steel armor plate which meets National Institute of Justice [N.I.J.] and Underwriters Laboratories [U.L.] threat levels.
Commercial / Non-Military Applications: Bulldog Steel Armor Plate is used in the manufacture of money haulers, personal armored vehicles, riot shields, body armor, vehicle door panels, safe rooms, guard booths, bank counters.
http://www.bulldogdirect.com/armor-panels/
I'd check the local steel / welding shop for pricing. Could weld the corners of the room.
Some suggest deflection as a means of protection. In other words armor plate in one form or another. There's nothing really wrong with this other than expense, weight, and planning for the many variables that could make up the ballistics of a projectile.
Others, myself included, suggest total energy dissipation or absorption. Unlike deflection where energy is transferred to or reflected by an armor plate, media such as sand absorbs tremendous amounts of energy as fine particles of silica are forced aside and into one another by a high speed projectile. Unlike armor plate where a projectile expends all its energy at one point, sand or similar media distributes the energy over a large area which is roughly comparable to a recoil pad in reverse.
This isn't to say that armor plate deformed by a projectile doesn't absorb energy as it most certainly does. It is to say, however, that a medium such as sand under the circumstances noted may be a better solution to the problem at hand.
Think of it this way...
Take a broadhead arrow shot into an armored wall of even moderate thickness and expect it to bounce off. Shoot it against a sand-filled wall as described and I'd not wish to be in back of that wall. Substitute a bullet traveling at about four times the speed of the fastest arrow or more and things change drastically.
It's all about physics and the interaction of a projectile with media it's attempting to penetrate. All in all a very interesting subject.
Kevlar screwed on seems to be a good choice. Perhaps doubling it up. and securing it with some sort of metal boarded screwed in every couple of inches so it isn't blown off. If aesthetics aren't a concern the Kevlar could be used on the outside of the door.
Assuming the hinges are strong enough, steel plate. Would cement board help as an alternative?
Door should be sturdy and not breachable even if damaged. (Steel man door.) The purpose not being to stop projectiles but to prevent human entry. Bolts and a bar would be a good idea.
Door should be positioned so as not to directly open toward shelter occupants.
Door should ideally face an alcove. Construction should be such that shelter occupants are protected by a 90 degree angle from the door and able to remain outside the shooting radius of an intruder.
If we're really going to extremes, then possibly a Kevlar blanket or a packing blanket just forward of the back wall facing the door. This to either prevent further penetration, or to stop anything bouncing off the rear wall if the blanket is penetrated.
Once again we must bear in mind that the average home invasion is not one where the use of heavy weapons might reasonably be expected. Usually we're talking someone with a small caliber popgun. What we're discussing here will prevent this type of invasion and a whole lot more.