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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 6859727" data-attributes="member: 19675">Exactly.  Think of those riot shields as light shields or bucklers in terms of mass.  The lightweight, durable material protects a bigger area of the wielder, but a sufficiently massive weapon striking it can displace it or allow some energy transfer up your arm.  And hydrostatic shock ain't no joke.However, there are higher quality ones that do a better job of energy dispersal- they're built to flex a bit.But if they're thinking small arms fire is going to be involved, you'll see cops deploy with bigger, heavier shields with polycarbonate/lexan/whatever vision ports.  THOSE are the kind I'd want if facing someone with a large maul or battleaxe.Even so, your best bet agains that kind of weapon is angling your shield for deflection, not just stopping it like a wall.  Again, you don't want that energy traveling up your arm.When I was sparring in NERO- one of those bopper fighting organizations- I often fought against a guy who was a bouncer: 6'3", 330 lbs of meat.  He preferred 2 weapon style, and he was good at it.  I went after him with a 6' "polearm"- the last 2' of which were the striking head.  That head weighed about 2lbs.  The first time we faced off, I had the base of the thing's haft at shoulder height, so the head was 11' in the air.  When I brought it down, he tried to simply catch it with crossed swords...and the striking head collapsed his defense right into his noggin.  Damn near concussed him.  As big and powerful as he was, the only way he could counter that strike was to deflect it.</blockquote>

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