[Mike Irwin]

I overloaded a case in my .45 on Monday and blew it sky high. I thought I got off with no problems to either myself or the gun, but I found out last night that that wasn't quite true.

I noticed a bluish dot on my forehead, and thought it was a powder granule under the skin, so I proceeded to dig it out.

Turns out it was a chunk of lead, about 1mm by 0.5 mm.

Small, but had it hit me in the eye, it would have been more than enough to cause serious problems.

Always wear eye protection!

[Ktulu]

Always wear eye protection!

Sage advice!


EDIT: Oh, and I'm glad your ok.

[Third_Rail]

Wow. I'm really glad you're okay, that could've been a helluva lot worse.

[P95Carry]

Glad ''lady luck'' did not totally desert you Mike. I'm sure eye protection has saved the sight of a good many.

Hey .... gotta pic of that case coming??

[Mike Irwin]

Chris,

Yep, I wanted to post one last night but I wasn't happy with the shots I was getting so I'm going to try again tonight.

I want a shot of the primer pocket and the flash hole. It's pretty damned impressive what happened to them.

[P95Carry]

Not the easiest thing to take pics of ... maybe 2 or 3 angles. I'm still trying imagine that primer pocket!!

No sweat Mike .. I'm a patient sorta guy ...... :neener: :)

[SodaPop]

You don't need to tell me..................... I had a 308 Chilean round blow up in my face.

[Citadel99]

Thanks for letting us learn through your experience!

Mark

[ExpatGator]

Mike, I know what you mean. I had a trusted and knowledgable friends' handloaded .454 round blow up while I was shooting. Scared me half to death, but it did not hurt his Ruger. I swear you could use those things as hammers, but you really should not! I had crud crusted on my forearms after the event and I felt junk blast my face. No problem with the eyes since I had glasses on. It would be fine with me if it never happened again.

[R-WEST]

Amazing the number of guys I've seen who shoot with no eye protection, especially, and sometimes no hearing protection either. If I had a dollar for every time my Dad said 'son, you only GET one pair of eyes', I'd be able to afford at least one more rifle. :) That was one message that actually took.

At the very least, ANSI Z87 (I think that's the standard used) rated safety glasses, which are available from many places for $10 - 15, should be worn for anything involving moving parts that may come into contact with a potential projectile (mowing grass, drilling, running a chainsaw, etc..), to say nothing of shooting. Prevention beats cure any day!!

R-WEST