September 13, 1923. Washington, D.C. "Testing bulletproof vest." National Photo Company Collection glass negative. View full size. [Update: more here.]
Submitted by Boogerhead on Thu, 04/03/2008 - 8:17am.
Transfer of momentum means the person taking the bullet can't feel any more momentum than the person firing. If they're of the same weight, as these two gentlemen seem to be, the guy getting shot's basically going to feel the recoil of the gun.
I'd be more worried about penetration, of course -- but I suspect the guy wearing the vest was, too, and wanted to see plenty of tests before trying it on himself.
I am sure that if the picture was taken 15 seconds later he would look different than he does in this shot. I suspect he has not had time to react to the impact.
[There are four photos in this series and the guy looks pretty much the same in each. - Dave]
Yeah, I would think they're blanks. The risk of accidentally sneezing while pulling the trigger and hitting him in the face or legs... or of any other number of things combined with his calmness.
Submitted by Anonymous Tipster on Tue, 04/01/2008 - 7:05pm.
Don't know what kind of bullets they are using, but the target subject looks amazingly calm to have sustained the force of impact from that short range. Doubtless it did have quite an impact and probably left a bruise on his chest. Since the shooter is also wearing a vest, maybe they took turns shooting at each other. It's a thankless job, but somebody's got to do it.
[Or, seeing as how this is a photo-op, maybe they're blanks. - Dave]
