That's actually a post 'nam shell made by RJ Stampings in Canada. (yes, we really had several million shells made in Canada in the 1970's). They are well known for stress cracking and the uneven quality of the steel. It's not really surprising to see it perform poorly. The second worst shells made (the worst are some lots of Schlueter WW2 shells which should have failed quality control entirely but were desperately needed and were passed anyway) and would probably have been a scandal if anyone knew about it at the time. Many of these substandard shells remained in storage and were surplussed off in unissued condition - and now display display stress fractures after doing nothing more than sitting in storage.
I've talked to a Vietnam vet once and told me how he was save by his helmet from a friendly fire. And the shot was actually from an M60 "the pig" machine gun from a heli door. A heli door gunner sprayed his area thinking it was a VC position. It penetrated the steel shell but not the liner. But well, I never asked about the distance of the heli from him and I guess it's far.
Probably… does help that some rounds were given extra humitity dampners in certain areas of us history that just lowered the power of those rounds… may have had something to do with it. Nam is very humid
No helmet can stop a 7.62 x 51mm NATO with a direct hit. It was most likely a glancing shot and the angle of the helmet would ricochet the round due to the law of armor angling increasing the armor thickness
I served as a infantryman in the Vietnam war my unit the 25th infantry division my helmet was actually shot off my head by a…AK-47 it went through my helmet 🪖 hit the helmet liner and spun around to the back of the liner my helmet lifted off my head and landed about 3 feet behind me this was a fire fight we were in with the NVA near the Cambodian border in March 1969…it was with the luckiest day of my life for sure..
In the 80's I thought Warsaw Pact gear, especially helmets, were inferior to ours. That semi-gloss paint they used made them look like a dime-store toy helmet. I was dead wrong on that one.
Yeah it's all that good ol' western propaganda. They did they same thing to their troops about our gear and supplies. Come to find out it's all pretty comparable, just in different ways.
From the looks that was a refurbed front seam? Which kinda hurt to see, even if it was a beater, shot up. But if that's the case it's even more valuable, because it (like stated in the video) that this pot being full of stress cracks may mean the steel was improperly heat treated, and how that would affect its ability to stop projectiles of any kind. Very cool to see!
Definitely was not a refurb....And again, even if I end up testing a front seam someday, the educational value far outweighs the historical value in this case. I'm not going to be using a mint condition one obviously, but please just relax about these videos as I said in the beginning. If they hurt you, simply don't watch them..
Are you simple? or did you just not watch the vid? I am holding it in front of me. It's definitely a rear seam, and the "shiny rim" is because paint chipped off of it......Go back to playing Fortnite....
@@MikeB128 I think I should try to clear up my comment because believe me I'm not whining about this helmet being shot up, and if I came off that way I apologize. Yes, the educational value of this is great, and I agree that it served a better purpose in this way than just being a beater. And I thought it was a front seam, as after the paint came off the front of the rim, I thought I saw the seam, I apologize that I was incorrect, and if you stated it wasn't during the video I wasn't paying enough attention, so that's on me. But again, I'm not trying to whine about this. Believe me, I've wanted to see a US M1 test for a loooong time.
@@1stcalvarydivisonmilitaria261 All good. It looks like a seam, but it's not. The seam is definitely in the rear and has a decent amount of paint on it. I'm just a bit surprised at the comments on here so far, so I may have reacted a bit hostile and I apologize. I do know my helmets quite well, and chose this particular helmet because it was the Vietnam era smaller shell with a rear seam. Thanks for watching!
@@JustaGuy1250 It's not a seam, just a mark on the rim. I see where you can confuse it, as the rear seam has paint over it. I assure you, it's a rear seam. As far as the Brodie helmets, I'm almost positive they won't stop anything. If I can find a shitty U.S. M1917 shell, I may consider it, but they're getting extremely expensive.
It seems that the whole right-hand side of this particular helmet is compromised with thinner/cracked steel, but the left side seems to do what it's meant to and stop pistol bullets (except 7.65 Tokarev and .357 magnum).
@@MikeB128 i found the unlisted video by accident personally. i went to the "playlist" section of your channel (originally to re-watch the test on the polish WZ-93 and WZ-2000) and then i found out that you did put some new videos, so, i just clicked to see. if you wish to wait a bit more before the videos can be seen, i recommend to not put them into the balistic test playlist (as this playlist can be publicly seen: anything that is added on it can also be, even unlisted content)
You finaly did it, im very thankful for this informaton, results are interesting, i just want the conformation that it is rear seam and not ww2 heat stamp
alot of the cracks are also find in the early m1s from ww2, i had a fixed bale m1 with more than 10 small cracks i cant remember the exat number but it was more than 10 haha
Very interesting that they were issued with the stress cracks like that. I have a pot with one of those stress cracks that I always assumed came from service.
The US M1 helmet , was the absolut worst uncomfortable steel helmet that I ever wore in my Military careers in two countries Militaries, the US Army and the Estonian Defense Forces Army. As unlike most other country's steel Military helmets, the US M1 helmet is a one size fits all only. I remember the damn thing consistently getting loose wobbling on my head during Road Marches, Bayonet drills, Fire and Manover drills etc. The one practical atribute was the inner shell if they could get it right where it will not constantly get loose and wobble on the wearer then that might be a usefull atribute for other country's steel helmet designs. It would be interesting to see if other country's besides France copied this idea of two shelled steel helmet. Like if East Germany made any such prototype M56 helmet designs. I will look into this more. With such an inner plastic resin liner that could have been removed and used also as a Parade helmet.
Modern military steel helmets were ALWAYS intended to simply offer blunt force and shrapnel protection. The same is true of current composite helmets. Yes, any of them could protect you from a glancing shot at range. But the fact is whether you're sporting an old M1 pot or a high-speed ECH, if you take a direct hit from a centerfire rifle round it's almost guaranteed to be lights out. Even if the more modern composite helmet succeeds in stopping the round (which isn't a high probability to begin with) you will likely have been rendered blind and/or deaf from the shock trauma. Possibly have bleeding on the brain, or a delayed aneurism (again, from the shock trauma) Or you could end up permanently vegetative/paralyzed. My advice is to not get shot in the head.
Hey Mike. I didn't know the liner had anything to do with the ballistic properties of the helmet. Would you mind elaborating on the design thought process behind that? Thanks!
I once tested a steel M1 helmet with a 9 mm carbine and was amazed that it didn't generate. A certain amount of luck is involved. I don't remember the exact model of carbine, but it definitely had at least a 16in barrel.
Watched the newest video about the Spanish clone version and came back to check this one. It is really interesting to see the difference between the two models. Nice work sir👍 btw I’m recently working on a video about the residual stress in the M1 helmet left by the cold-forming process. Would it be okay if I quote sections from this video?
Hi Mike B, Love the videos. Would I be right in thinking the M1 from Vietnam War era is a bit different in shape from the ones in WW2 or is it just that he camo used make them look different. The Vietnam ones look a bit bigger, rounder.
Mike, I love these helmet videos, keep it up despite the whiners! Would also be cool to see some vests if you ever get any that's arent in great shape.
I got one of these it has a crack on the back of the helmet so put a erdl helmet cover in it. Luckily I have a kevlar helmet now so I can just use my m1 helmet as a display piece.
Yeah it was an early shell that got refurbished. A lot of guys in WW2 had these helmets issued, and some were hit. The test shows what the effects would have been.
Do it yourself then, hero. 50 meters with a pistol is a long distance, and not an effective one. If you had any actual experience with real firearms, you'd know that....But hey, who am I to keep you from being a fucking internet expert?
Go whine somewhere else. It's the internet, if you can't handle it, don't go on it. Your kid knows cuss words by age 4-5, sorry to drop that truth bomb on you.
So the helmet has a bad heat treat on it that's why it's cracked. When you're making thousands of them all the time sometimes you get a bad heat treat. I've actually seen them with the proper liner stop a 3 round burst of 9 mm ball at 10 feet from an MP5 and they didn't penetrate, the same helmet also stopped 45 ACP so just depends on who made the helmet and how crappy the manufacturing process was.
Pretty shitty. Hopefully at least some of the batches were a little better than this. Either way, none of them will stop rifle rounds. Getting shot at with pistols is pretty uncommon really.
The reason why you got weird results is because 20th century steel helmets were made out of a weird steel. That's Manganese, IE "Hadfield Steel". "Upon creating mangalloy, Hadfield tested the material, thinking that the results must have been erroneous. It looked dull and soft, similar in appearance to lead, yet sheared the teeth off his file. It would not hold an edge as a cutting tool, yet could not be cut with saws nor machined on a lathe. It was non-magnetic despite containing over 80% iron, and had very high electrical resistance. Attempts to grind it simply glazed and polished the surface. Most striking, when heated and quenched, it behaved almost opposite to plain carbon-steel.[12] After performing several hundred tests, he realized that they must be accurate, although the reason for the combination of hardness and toughness defied any explanation at the time" Basically, the harder you hit the stuff, the more it resists the shock, so its disappointing against relatively weak rounds (behaving more like mild steel), but surprisingly effective as you move up to rounds with more kinetic energy (where it will behave more like hardened steel if hardened steel had the same toughness as mild steel). Of course there is a limit to everything (which is why the Tokarov round went right through), but basically the more KE Manganese Steel absorbs, the less it yields. Which is why it was the standard for steel in body armor (including helments) for the first 50 or 60 years of the 20th century.
That's actually a post 'nam shell made by RJ Stampings in Canada. (yes, we really had several million shells made in Canada in the 1970's). They are well known for stress cracking and the uneven quality of the steel. It's not really surprising to see it perform poorly. The second worst shells made (the worst are some lots of Schlueter WW2 shells which should have failed quality control entirely but were desperately needed and were passed anyway) and would probably have been a scandal if anyone knew about it at the time. Many of these substandard shells remained in storage and were surplussed off in unissued condition - and now display display stress fractures after doing nothing more than sitting in storage.
So that's why my arvn new old stock helmet had a crack after I accidentally dropped it on the ground.
So Mccord shells are better than schlueters?
Mike always uploads these ballistic tests to where I have just enough time before class starts to watch the whole thing, this is truly epic.
That’s what I’m doing right now lol
@@benr.9628 Maybe you should go back to history class to learn what your profile picture means
A Forerunner don't be so senetive
I've talked to a Vietnam vet once and told me how he was save by his helmet from a friendly fire.
And the shot was actually from an M60 "the pig" machine gun from a heli door.
A heli door gunner sprayed his area thinking it was a VC position.
It penetrated the steel shell but not the liner.
But well, I never asked about the distance of the heli from him and I guess it's far.
Probably… does help that some rounds were given extra humitity dampners in certain areas of us history that just lowered the power of those rounds… may have had something to do with it. Nam is very humid
No helmet can stop a 7.62 x 51mm NATO with a direct hit.
It was most likely a glancing shot and the angle of the helmet would ricochet the round due to the law of armor angling increasing the armor thickness
@@ConstantineJoseph Distance, wind resistance, bullet was likely going through dense jungle canopy. Crazy story but it doesn't surprise me.
I served as a infantryman in the Vietnam war my unit the 25th infantry division my helmet was actually shot off my head by a…AK-47 it went through my helmet 🪖 hit the helmet liner and spun around to the back of the liner my helmet lifted off my head and landed about 3 feet behind me this was a fire fight we were in with the NVA near the Cambodian border in March 1969…it was with the luckiest day of my life for sure..
Damn! I've heard a lot of those sorts of situations happening. Glad you made it!
@@MikeB128 thank you ..
So just in case anyone is wondering. The stance mike takes with the m1917 is what's taught for precision revolver shooting.
In the 80's I thought Warsaw Pact gear, especially helmets, were inferior to ours. That semi-gloss paint they used made them look like a dime-store toy helmet. I was dead wrong on that one.
Yeah it's all that good ol' western propaganda. They did they same thing to their troops about our gear and supplies. Come to find out it's all pretty comparable, just in different ways.
From the looks that was a refurbed front seam? Which kinda hurt to see, even if it was a beater, shot up. But if that's the case it's even more valuable, because it (like stated in the video) that this pot being full of stress cracks may mean the steel was improperly heat treated, and how that would affect its ability to stop projectiles of any kind. Very cool to see!
Definitely was not a refurb....And again, even if I end up testing a front seam someday, the educational value far outweighs the historical value in this case. I'm not going to be using a mint condition one obviously, but please just relax about these videos as I said in the beginning. If they hurt you, simply don't watch them..
Are you simple? or did you just not watch the vid? I am holding it in front of me. It's definitely a rear seam, and the "shiny rim" is because paint chipped off of it......Go back to playing Fortnite....
@@MikeB128 I think I should try to clear up my comment because believe me I'm not whining about this helmet being shot up, and if I came off that way I apologize. Yes, the educational value of this is great, and I agree that it served a better purpose in this way than just being a beater. And I thought it was a front seam, as after the paint came off the front of the rim, I thought I saw the seam, I apologize that I was incorrect, and if you stated it wasn't during the video I wasn't paying enough attention, so that's on me. But again, I'm not trying to whine about this. Believe me, I've wanted to see a US M1 test for a loooong time.
@@1stcalvarydivisonmilitaria261 All good. It looks like a seam, but it's not. The seam is definitely in the rear and has a decent amount of paint on it. I'm just a bit surprised at the comments on here so far, so I may have reacted a bit hostile and I apologize. I do know my helmets quite well, and chose this particular helmet because it was the Vietnam era smaller shell with a rear seam. Thanks for watching!
@@JustaGuy1250 It's not a seam, just a mark on the rim. I see where you can confuse it, as the rear seam has paint over it. I assure you, it's a rear seam. As far as the Brodie helmets, I'm almost positive they won't stop anything. If I can find a shitty U.S. M1917 shell, I may consider it, but they're getting extremely expensive.
It seems that the whole right-hand side of this particular helmet is compromised with thinner/cracked steel, but the left side seems to do what it's meant to and stop pistol bullets (except 7.65 Tokarev and .357 magnum).
Most modern ms2000 and pasgt beans won't stop the tokarev round either, that's a SUPER spicy round
Well, if you saw my other Ballistic tests, the PASGT did indeed stop the 7.62x25mm...
Awesome. This'll be neat
Very peculiar results on this one.
HAHAHa yep. Love the people who are able to see this as "unlisted". Cheers!
@@MikeB128 i found the unlisted video by accident personally. i went to the "playlist" section of your channel (originally to re-watch the test on the polish WZ-93 and WZ-2000) and then i found out that you did put some new videos, so, i just clicked to see. if you wish to wait a bit more before the videos can be seen, i recommend to not put them into the balistic test playlist (as this playlist can be publicly seen: anything that is added on it can also be, even unlisted content)
@@gamecubekingdevon3 It's not a big deal.....
Same. I was curious to see what other ballistic tests there were and just saw this one in the playlist. YT fuckery, I suppose.
You finaly did it, im very thankful for this informaton, results are interesting, i just want the conformation that it is rear seam and not ww2 heat stamp
Jesus fucking Christ no matter what I do it's never good enough.......It is a rear seam...........
Not gonna lie, this was by far the most interesting one yet. I'm suddenly hearing the X-Files theme.
alot of the cracks are also find in the early m1s from ww2, i had a fixed bale m1 with more than 10 small cracks i cant remember the exat number but it was more than 10 haha
I have the same helmet and was thinking about this literally yesterday
Also when will you test the plates you've had? Thanks for this vid!
Another good video, Mike, keep 'em coming. I really enjoy them.
Very interesting that they were issued with the stress cracks like that. I have a pot with one of those stress cracks that I always assumed came from service.
The US M1 helmet , was the absolut worst uncomfortable steel helmet that I ever wore in my Military careers in two countries Militaries, the US Army and the Estonian Defense Forces Army.
As unlike most other country's steel Military helmets, the US M1 helmet is a one size fits all only. I remember the damn thing consistently getting loose wobbling on my head during Road Marches, Bayonet drills, Fire and Manover drills etc.
The one practical atribute was the inner shell if they could get it right where it will not constantly get loose and wobble on the wearer then that might be a usefull atribute for other country's steel helmet designs.
It would be interesting to see if other country's besides France copied this idea of two shelled steel helmet.
Like if East Germany made any such prototype M56 helmet designs. I will look into this more. With such an inner plastic resin liner that could have been removed and used also as a Parade helmet.
Modern military steel helmets were ALWAYS intended to simply offer blunt force and shrapnel protection. The same is true of current composite helmets. Yes, any of them could protect you from a glancing shot at range. But the fact is whether you're sporting an old M1 pot or a high-speed ECH, if you take a direct hit from a centerfire rifle round it's almost guaranteed to be lights out. Even if the more modern composite helmet succeeds in stopping the round (which isn't a high probability to begin with) you will likely have been rendered blind and/or deaf from the shock trauma. Possibly have bleeding on the brain, or a delayed aneurism (again, from the shock trauma)
Or you could end up permanently vegetative/paralyzed.
My advice is to not get shot in the head.
Did you even watch the video?
@@MikeB128 Yessir. I just wanted to throw my opinion out there. I actually bought an Israeli M1 from you last year.
Just checking as I believe I stated most of that in this video at the beginning.
@@MikeB128 You did! No offense meant towards you.
Hey Mike. I didn't know the liner had anything to do with the ballistic properties of the helmet. Would you mind elaborating on the design thought process behind that? Thanks!
Some Vietnam helmet liners were apparently made of high-impact polystyrene (HIPS) or a ballistic nylon-impregnated resin..
I've also shot an M1helmet only wih 9mm and .45acp, no peneration.
Now I know that lower calibers will actually penetrate. Lol.
Why is that wtf
This helmets results are so weird!
I would like to see another one of these at some point, this was so odd
I can only afford to shoot so many $50 helmets...
Mike B I totally understand
I’ll keep watching whatever gets posted
Just that the results really are confusing on this one
@@StevenRecknagelMusic I'm aware. Will try to re-do a Vietnam era M1 someday.
I once tested a steel M1 helmet with a 9 mm carbine and was amazed that it didn't generate. A certain amount of luck is involved. I don't remember the exact model of carbine, but it definitely had at least a 16in barrel.
Would like to see you test Russianbody armor, 6b12 and 6b45. *_THIS_* would truly be beneficial and information that doesn't exist so far.
Thanks for this, now I don’t have to test either of mine if the ATF comes
ahem, *when the ATF comes 😄
Watched the newest video about the Spanish clone version and came back to check this one. It is really interesting to see the difference between the two models. Nice work sir👍 btw I’m recently working on a video about the residual stress in the M1 helmet left by the cold-forming process. Would it be okay if I quote sections from this video?
Sure.
Hi Mike B, Love the videos. Would I be right in thinking the M1 from Vietnam War era is a bit different in shape from the ones in WW2 or is it just that he camo used make them look different. The Vietnam ones look a bit bigger, rounder.
It's the other way around.
Mike, I love these helmet videos, keep it up despite the whiners! Would also be cool to see some vests if you ever get any that's arent in great shape.
Beautiful area
Issuing cracked helmets must have been a real "boost" for morale.
I got one of these it has a crack on the back of the helmet so put a erdl helmet cover in it. Luckily I have a kevlar helmet now so I can just use my m1 helmet as a display piece.
Bad heat treatment on the shell, that's the only reason I can think it was split and cracked to begin with
Yeah it was an early shell that got refurbished. A lot of guys in WW2 had these helmets issued, and some were hit. The test shows what the effects would have been.
Was the 9x18 steel core?
I’m really curious if a US WW2 helmet would stop a Luger
What are those...
How do you think an Austrian M75 would fare compared to this?
Jesus, I don't know. Your guess is as good as mine...Sorry this wasn't good enough..
where these all filmed on the same day?
Yes.
Interesting...
These helmets aren’t designed to stop bullets.....
You just making a trite trolling attempt? Or are you really that oblivious?
@@MikeB128 - Nah he’s right, they’re designed to prevent migraines and eye strain by blocking their heads from the sun
As weird as that one is it's like the metal isn't consistent
Love all the rustled jimmies. Haha
Lmao now add a Kevlar sheet between the two pieces!!!
That helmet is so cursed
No u
i never saw cracks in our helmets.
Okay, that's because that consisted of about 10% of all M1s ever made....
@@MikeB128 we had them 1968-1972.
And that’s why I carry a Makarov....
Ah yes, the classic fear from the GIs. Does the enemy have .32 ACP pistols
Considering the pistol we used was Czechoslovakian from the 1950s, I'd say it's safe to assume....Yes........
That M1s a lil bipolar 🤣
Шлемы Варшавского Договора явно лучше держат удар.
What's with the crocs shoes. Worst looking shoe ever.
What's with you having nothing better to do than bitch about what shoes someone is wearing?
@@MikeB128 I mean I understand they are comfortable. But they are an eyesore
@@unkono So is reading your pointless bitchy comment...
It's fragile af I had an arvn new old stock and it broke in half after I accidentally dropped it on the ground.
50 meters would be a better range to do this.
Do it yourself then, hero. 50 meters with a pistol is a long distance, and not an effective one. If you had any actual experience with real firearms, you'd know that....But hey, who am I to keep you from being a fucking internet expert?
Less swearing would make it more watchable for peoppe with children. Interesting topic.
Go whine somewhere else. It's the internet, if you can't handle it, don't go on it. Your kid knows cuss words by age 4-5, sorry to drop that truth bomb on you.
So the helmet has a bad heat treat on it that's why it's cracked. When you're making thousands of them all the time sometimes you get a bad heat treat. I've actually seen them with the proper liner stop a 3 round burst of 9 mm ball at 10 feet from an MP5 and they didn't penetrate, the same helmet also stopped 45 ACP so just depends on who made the helmet and how crappy the manufacturing process was.
Velocity kills armor.
Not always true....
Mike B ceramic/composites are a little different, but that’s generally the case with steel.
Pretty shitty. Hopefully at least some of the batches were a little better than this. Either way, none of them will stop rifle rounds. Getting shot at with pistols is pretty uncommon really.
Long story short, what the fuck
The reason why you got weird results is because 20th century steel helmets were made out of a weird steel. That's Manganese, IE "Hadfield Steel".
"Upon creating mangalloy, Hadfield tested the material, thinking that the results must have been erroneous. It looked dull and soft, similar in appearance to lead, yet sheared the teeth off his file. It would not hold an edge as a cutting tool, yet could not be cut with saws nor machined on a lathe. It was non-magnetic despite containing over 80% iron, and had very high electrical resistance. Attempts to grind it simply glazed and polished the surface. Most striking, when heated and quenched, it behaved almost opposite to plain carbon-steel.[12] After performing several hundred tests, he realized that they must be accurate, although the reason for the combination of hardness and toughness defied any explanation at the time"
Basically, the harder you hit the stuff, the more it resists the shock, so its disappointing against relatively weak rounds (behaving more like mild steel), but surprisingly effective as you move up to rounds with more kinetic energy (where it will behave more like hardened steel if hardened steel had the same toughness as mild steel). Of course there is a limit to everything (which is why the Tokarov round went right through), but basically the more KE Manganese Steel absorbs, the less it yields. Which is why it was the standard for steel in body armor (including helments) for the first 50 or 60 years of the 20th century.
Makes sense. Will be doing another test with another shell just to be a little more sure.
what the fuck lmao
This is almost unbelievably disappointing... Hopefully there can be an opportunity to do this again, for 'science,' of course.
Clearly czechnology is superior. Poor helmet didnt stand a chance.