Who Actually Wears Eye Protection - Supplemental Poll

To truthfully answer the question I have to say yes...but NOT from anything shooting related. I have been injured when not wearing eye protection however the worst eye injury came while wearing OSHA approved eye wear. I was burning a hardened rubber "O" ring from a diesel engine part with a torch. The "O" ring "exploded" an a burning piece went under my glasses and struck me in the eye. A trip to the ER and all was well. Another time was a result of a fleck of rust from a vehicle exhaust system which ended with another trip to the ER. Not once in over 50 years of shooting have I suffered anything as a result of shooting.

Many years ago I had a minor eye injury while not wearing safety glasses.

It was not a situation where one would think they were needed. A small piece of glass (grain of sand sized) blew off a construction site across the streen and embedded in my right eye. Hurt like hell, I was walking to work at my job in the Texas Medical Center and it was removed with a local anesthetic by a resident ophthalmologist -- pretty gross to basically have my head in a vice and a guy come at my eye with a very bright light, magnifying glass, and tweezers, but the relief was near instantaneous. No long term consequences as far as I can tell.

I rarely venture outside without some kind of impact rated sunglasses on since.

Not while shooting, sinse I ALWAYS wear eyepro while shooting

but while cutting a wire strap from a stack of pallets, I decided I didn't "need",
the safety glasses on my forklift because it would be a hassle to put them on for just a couple seconds.

Tiny piece of metal directly into my right eye:banghead:
Trip to eye doctor, small dremel-type tool and now I have to wear prescription glasses


ALWAYS wear your eyepro when you are working with or around metal or you may regret it

I answered "never" because I try not to spend much time shooting with people who aren't smart enough to wear eyepro.

I have had lead splash (off target steel) hit my glasses before. I was glad to be wearing them.

This question is like asking how many people you have known who died in car accidents because they weren't wearing seat belts. If you're under a certain age, the odds are the answer is low or zero... because you and your peers wear seatbelts.

I wear prescription eyeglasses. One of the reasons I wear safety glasses when shooting rifles is the scope makes it possible to wear them. I wear side guards when shooting a handgun.

The ranges I shoot at all require eye and ear protection.

Every shooting competition I have attended as a shooter or observer have required eye and ear protection.

I have had at least three significant lead splatter strikes on my eye glasses and multiple pieces of lead splatter hit me on my face, ears, hands, throat and body area while doing Cowboy Action Shooting since the late 1990s.

I will not shoot with anyone if they don't have eye and ear protection. I don't want to harm them. Nor will I shoot with anyone if I don't have eye and ear protection because I don't want to be harmed.

I didnt until recently when a few months back while working out loads, I had my 500 mag spit lead back and embed a couple small pieces of lead in my cheek and one in my ear lobe. I would have had a really bad day if one of those pieces of lead came back into my eye. Now I always wear glasses while shooting.

Can't say that I know anyone that has suffered a shooting related eye injury, but all of the shooters I've ever hung out with wear eye protection when they're shooting and haven't experienced kabooms to my knowledge.

Huge difference between "never, because I always wear eyepro" and "never, because no incidents have occurred to me where it would have mattered."

CSB about eye protection but not relevant to most range/club shooting:

While my company was taking resupply in Cambodia 1970, my platoon sector of the perimeter was ambushed by a small squad of NVA who had followed us up our back trail. At the time I was bending over my ruck, packing our rations or re-packing my stuff when a round landed at my feet; spattering dirt and what-all into my face and under my eyelids. That left me pretty much blind for the duration of the "incident" (maybe 5 minutes- 15 at the most). It seemed like forever.
My vision is fine though, for a 68 yo. Wear your safety glasses; you may not be so lucky.

It depends on the gun and weather.

I dont usually run eyepro on AR's.
I run eyepro on handguns.
I usually run eyepro on rifles.

I never use eyepro when the heat/humidity is high, I simply cannot see through the fogging.

A grinding spark got me, not shooting related at all. I was fixing a snow plow...

DM

I had a RPG-7 detonate about 3' from me. I was wearing body armor, eye pro, and helmet, and I was mostly behind cover (armor vehicle). Besides the blast/overpressure injuries, extensive shrapnel to the arm, shoulder, neck, and face, a broken nose/dislocated jaw/7 teeth knocked out (from hitting the turret gun) my eye pro was destroyed and I STILL got a shrapnel injury to my left eye (who knows, it could have been worse and to BOTH eyes if I hadn't been wearing eye pro). Plus, I was hit by an AK (probably) bullet to the arm just after, because I just wasn't on my "A game" after the RPG. Biggest concern? The eye injury. Couldn't see, wasn't even sure if it was still in my skull. I got LOTS of eye pro now. In both vehicles, range bag, hunting gear, workshop, saddlebags of harley, in junk pouch on ATV. I learned my lesson- if I ever have an eye injury again doing something where I should be wearing eye pro, it won't be because I was too lazy or whatever to put eye pro on.

I have not and know no one that has. So my vote was Never. That includes several years of walking firing lines as a U.S.Army Medical Corpsman.

I have worn industrial safety glasses since junior high. My father saw the value in me having them with what I was doing all the time and consequently that is all I purchased ever since.

Because of my near-sightedness, I have had to wear glasses since the 1st grade.
With the changes to polycarbonate (rather than glass) lenses many years ago, I'm never without "safety glasses".

I used to wear glasses whenever it was convenient, I didn't really take it too seriously. Then, a few years back I took a small piece of brass (or something) to the eye, blown back off my Mark iii 22lr. I wouldn't call it an injury, but it sucked.

Nowadays I always wear whatever sunglasses happen to already be on my face, or a real pair of safety glasses that I pull out of my range bag. I keep two in there.

I used to wear protection sporadically. Then one day while walking behind the firing line at the indoor range I took a ricochet to the leg. It hurt about like a wasp stung me. I had no eye protection on at the time because i wasn't shooting. I wear it all the time now. If that had hit my eye there's not telling what the damage might have been.

I honestly don't know if I've ever shot a gun without eye protection. After seeing all the kabooms on the interwebs I'm getting to the point where I'm thinking more along the lines of the goggles they issue to troops in IED prone areas.

Have you or someone you know experienced eye injury from not wearing eye wear?

Click to expand...

Wrong question because everyone I know has sense enough to wear eye protection and every range I shoot at requires it.

Now if you'd asked "Have you or someone you know ever had an incident where you would have experienced eye injury from not wearing eye wear?", my answer would be yes. I once caught a chunk of lead from a 44 mag ricochet at an indoor range that hit my glasses hard enough to leave a ding. I was really glad it wasn't in my eye. Not to mention assorted rimfire ruptures, pierced primers, semiauto kabooms. Sure it doesn't happen often, but it only needs to happen once.

I know everybody goes thorough a phase of denial when they believe "it can't happen to me", but it can.

I can remember shooting stuff with a BB gun as a kid and having the balls come straight back off hard surfaces. Didn't even think about glasses then and my dad never used em.

After a piece of metal embedded itself half-way through my prescription eyeglass lens (thick hard plastic, not like the thin ones we have now), I don't do anything that remotely resembles shooting/reloading/working with any hand tool without full protection. As an R.N. who worked in E.R.s over the years, I have seen the full gamut of eye injuries, to include ones requiring enucleation, and the majority were a result of no eye protection. Same as no seat belt and no motorcycle helmet - rolling the dice with the devil...

Is the purpose of this poll to make those who choose not to wear protection feel better about it?

Even if the poll shows that a substantial percentage don't know of anyone who has ever suffered damage, the problem isn't the risk, which is small, but the consequences, which are huge.