Using body armor plates to prevent collateral damage

[SiroccoSousse]

Hi all,
I'm planning to ctb by shooting myself in the head with 12ga 00 buckshot in my bathroom, but I'm concerned about causing harm to other people who live around me. I'm not crammed around other people like an apartment complex but I live in a fairly dense neighborhood. I'm going to face a direction that I know the pellets will fly through my house upwards over a small empty lot, but I know that a couple layers of drywall is not going to be enough to guarantee that a stray pellet won't hit someone far away.

So I'm considering getting a level 3 soft body armor plate and taping it to the wall behind my head; from what I've seen in test videos I'm positive that none of the pellets will be able to penetrate this armor even at point blank, but my concern is what will happen after the pellets make impact with the plate. My assumption is that, unlike a plate made from a hard material like steel or ceramic, the soft polyethylene plate will absorb virtually all of the kinetic energy of the pellets rather than diverting the force in another direction, so they shouldn't bounce off with enough force to go through an adjacent wall and hit something or someone else. But I'm only speculating and don't know a thing about the ballistics involved so I'm hoping someone more educated than me can weigh in on this idea.

I know the best solution would be to ctb somewhere much less populated - I've been looking around for a good quiet place but haven't had any luck so far, so I want to come up with a backup plan in the meantime.

The plate I'm looking at: https://tacmedsolutions.com/products/dkx-m3-series-ballistic-plates
Some footage of the DKX plates stopping various rounds:

 

[locked*n*loaded]

Is a vest large enough to catch all of the buckshot after it exits the barrel, even with the spread? What about deflection off the bones? Honestly, I have no idea, as I haven't considered this method. Hope you find your answer. and I hope you find your peace, too.

 

[Suicideorgy]

You could do it laying down if you're on the ground floor

 

[SiroccoSousse]

Is a vest large enough to catch all of the buckshot after it exits the barrel, even with the spread? What about deflection off the bones? Honestly, I have no idea, as I haven't considered this method. Hope you find your answer. and I hope you find your peace, too.

My head would be up against the plate, so there would be maybe 7-8 inches between the barrel and the plate. I think at that distance the spread is practically nonexistent. I'm not sure about the bones though, I would imagine buckshot at that range would punch straight through the parietal bone at the back of the head, it's not particularly thick - but I really have no idea.


This guy shoots 00 buck from about the same distance and it looks like the entire payload enters the ballistic dummy.

Most choke charts I've seen don't even bother to show the spread diameter until at least a couple yards away. If my math (and this chart) are accurate, the spread at 8" would be maybe an inch or so, virtually nonexistent.

 

[SiroccoSousse]

You could do it laying down if you're on the ground floor

At first I thought this would be a terrible idea because it seemed like it would be difficult to aim at the right spot long enough to do the deed, but after giving it a try it was actually fairly stable. If I was shooting anything but a shotgun I still probably wouldn't go this route, but the short barrel and pistol grip on mine make aiming it above me fairly ergonomic. My landlords were saying they wanted to replace the carpet anyways

 

[SiroccoSousse]

Developing the idea of shooting myself while lying down further, I realized that the dip bars that I have are perfect for bracing a long gun against from this position. It's the perfect height to rest the stock on (though they are adjustable as well) and have a grip in the center to prevent slippage. Using this bar I can verify my angle in the mirror without worrying about deviation when I prepare to take the shot. Though with this payload it's probably not that important to get the angle exactly perfect.

These are the bars I have, for those interested:

 

[locked*n*loaded]

My head would be up against the plate, so there would be maybe 7-8 inches between the barrel and the plate. I think at that distance the spread is practically nonexistent. I'm not sure about the bones though, I would imagine buckshot at that range would punch straight through the parietal bone at the back of the head, it's not particularly thick - but I really have no idea.

I think the only thing I was attempting (badly) to get at with deflection off the bones, is there isn't only deflection off the bones to be concerned about. The pellets would ricochet off of each other, too, would they not? I've never really studied this method, as I never considered it seriously for my method. Maybe there are no real issues.