Shooters!... Wear Eye protection... My Lesson learned the HARD way!

Ever get something in your eye because of shooting?

  • Yes

    Votes: 24 22.0%

  • No

    Votes: 85 78.0%
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Black Majik

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Just curious, anyone ever have something fly into your eye to which you couldn't get it out?

I did yesterday, and it cost me $80 to the eye doctor to get it out. :mad:

Yesterday I went to Angeles Range, to try out my new SA M1A. After shooting the rifle we headed to the pistol range. On the very LAST shot with the pistol, something flew in my eye and I had to go to the rear and try to rub it out. That made it worse, I packed up and headed to the restroom to wash it out. It was PAINFUL. It didn't want to come out and my eye wouldn't open cuz it hurt so much. Finally I tried to get used to the pain, and drove an hour back home trying very hard not the blink. Everytime I blinked, it hurt. Damn...

The drive home, that was miserable. Holy hell.... I tried hard to not blink, the feel of something on your eyeball, underneath your eyelid is not a pleasant feeling at all.

I got home to try to clean it out again. No dice. I even bought the "Eye Showers" to wash it out, still no luck. Eyedrops, still didn't work. I guess I had to cope with it, I had a midterm the next morning and this was driving me nuts.

Screw the test, I cant concentrate. I headed for bed. Well wouldn't you know it, when I closed my eyes I can feel the damn particle floating around in my eye! :what:

The pressure started to build up as my eyes were closed and by 20 minutes of closing my eye with that damn floater in my eye, my right side of the head started to hurt from straining my eye so much.

Today: Failed my test, I didn't care. I wanted whatever was in my eye OUT! I went to the eye doctor, to which he used METAL TWEEZERS to get the piece out. COLD, SHARP, METAL against my eye. Damn, might as well cut me open while im still conscious while your at it. I hate anything touching my eye, and even worse something sharp and metal.

So, the trip to the eye doc cost me $80 all because I used Oakley sunglasses on that range trip. From now on, its proper shooting glasses. I learned my lesson. And what luck, something flies into my eye on my VERY LAST SHOT of the day.

Moral of the story: ALWAYS use PROPER eye protection

Dont make my mistake. Hopefully my story will convince you shooters to always wear eye protection. I wore eye protection and still got something in my eyes. And in the end, it was a small speck that caused me 24 hrs of misery.
 
What Oakley's were you using? and did this something fly through your sunglasses? or under them? I have 5 pairs of Oakleys, I wear a pair of Jacket 2.0's when shooting outdoors, because one of the ways they test the lenses, is they take a few random pair from the batch and shoot them with bird shot 12g at something like 25yds. and most of the time there are no scratches. Maxim took a pair of X-metal Juliets and shot them with a high powered pellet gun at less tham 10 yards, and then WIPED OFF the scratch.


That sucks that happened to ya. But I put a lot of faith in my Oakleys, give me some more detail on what you were wearing and how something got in your eye.
 
I came home from the range one day with a crescent-shaped gouge on the right lens of my shooting glasses. With the glasses on, the cut was perfectly centered on my eye. A .45 empty came straight back and hit the glasses edge on.

I've kicked myself for not saving them. They would have been a perfect object lesson for my classes.

As for glasses style--when you're wearing them for shooting protection--coverage is preferred to cool. It doesn't make a bit of difference how good they look or how strong the lenses are if things can sneak by because they don't provide enough coverage.

Small lenses may look great, but the only thing they're great for on the range is holding that hot empty against your eyelid after it falls down between your eye and the glasses because your glasses don't provide enough coverage.
 
Nope, nothing from shooting.......

But I did get Gun Scrubber in my eyes once. Stupid me, I forgot to put on my safety glasses, and I was using the little straw that comes with the can. Stuff shot right into my eyes. Ouch!
15 minutes under the faucet fixed me right up, though.

Still not as bad as the time when I rinsed my contact lense with the wrong solution(Hydrogen Pyroxide) and put it in my eye.

Pepper spray does not compare to either of these, btw. Not even the same ballpark. Then again, ymmv, since I sometimes put pepper spray on my food.....
 
Crude, I was using the A-Wires, and I do admit they dont offer much protection at all. I was shooting my Kimber from a rested position, and I guess the blast somehow got to my eye. First time I used CCI Blazers, not sure if they were spitting back or something.

Wow, was it painful :(
 
Not in the eye. I did get hit with something this weekend after shooting at steel plates. I think it was a jacket. Dit you know that a 7mm mag soft point will go through 1/2" steel plate like a hot knife thru butter? pretty cool.
 
Pepper spray does not compare to either of these, btw. Not even the same ballpark. Then again, ymmv, since I sometimes put pepper spray on my food.....
Click to expand...

I don't know about you but when I had to get sprayed that was just about one of the worst experiences of my life. Wasn't even so much the burning....was the fact that my eyes were locked shut and I couldn't open them. Made me feel very claustrophobic. Even still I didn't react as bad as some of the other guys. Was kinda funny to watch the biggest, baddest guys act like little babies after being sprayed with OC. :evil:
 
I use some dorky-looking safety glasses that I used when I worked at a machine shop. Not the greatest looking, but they have good coverage and are built heavy duty. I do have some Oakley M-frames though, and I would feel safe wearing those too, although I don't like wearing sunglasses to the range. I just don't like any sort of tint when I'm shooting, not even at outdoor ranges.
 
Small lenses may look great, but the only thing they're great for on the range is holding that hot empty against your eyelid after it falls down between your eye and the glasses because your glasses don't provide enough coverage.
Click to expand...

Been There - Done That!
 
Yeah, A-frames are not too good for total coverage. If you want to keep wearing Oakleys check out the jackets. The Jacket 2.0, Valve, and Scar will probably give you the best total area coverage.
 
One note about Scars (Oakleys, not the other kind!). The curvature of the frame tends to compromise the sealing of earmuffs.

I can attest to their ability to keep general junk outta your eyes while shooting (including hot .45 brass)
 
I got sprayed in the eye with some oil droplets from firing an old mauser- that was enough to convince me to always wear glasses when shooting.

This payed off a couple of years ago when a handgun I was shooting blew up- my glasses kept the brass shards and burning flakes of powder from hitting my eyes.

My wife calls my shooting glasses 'geek glasses' becase they were the largest lenses I could find made from polycarbonate when I had the prescription done. I told her I'm married- my eyes are more important than my looks now.:D
 
Protective Eye Wear

I tend to just wear my corrective lenses as does my husband. My six year old has her own pair of shooting glasses, because the ones at the range are all too big for her head, besides it makes her feel special to own her own pair :)
 
Was recently shooting clay pigeons. One was loaded wrong, did a 180, shattered against my right hand and shotgun stock. Still got a bit of dust in my eyes, but the glasses kept out the larger pieces. A bloody finger and scratched stock was the worst of the damage.

I always wear my glasses. You just never know what might happen.
 
About a week ago I had a .45 empty kick straight back hard. My glasses caught it right in front of my eye. And fjolnirsson, you're not the only one who's done that with Gun Scrubber. I was cleaning out a .38 not long after I got married and somehow deflected the blast straight back into my eyes. I had to yell to my wife to get her to lead me to the sink through all the remodeling materials and tools. It only took once to learn my lesson!
 
Yep, foreign matter, no matter what kind, in your eye is never fun. OC was kinda fun, in a sick macho way. Had to get hit with it for training, and it's not something that I really want to repeat. But it was at least temporary. A scratched eye is NO fun. Been there, done that several time. Not while shooting, but while a little kid. Ran into a stupid stick.... well, maybe the stick wasn't stupid.... maybe it was the kid. :D

As for pepper spray on food, now THAT is a different matter! It goes very well on lots of stuff. My boss even won a chili cookout with OC as one of the main ingredients.
 
Ive had pretty much everything in my eyes (OC excluded), esp. during shooting. Ive been pelted in the eyes (thankfully wearing glasses) by flying brass many times. A few times when I was benchrest shooting, id end up with chunks of ripped off brass in my eyes or other stuff from shooting. It is cheaper to get eye protection now, than pay for a surgery. I highly recommend you use eye glasses that fully cover your eye, and even ones with foam padding to seal your eye off. I always get gas from the ejection port in my eyes when I rapid fire rifles and a full enclosed goggle system would help me a great deal.
 
It is funny how everyone gets real serious about their eyes after they get something in them. I must admit I am the same way. I was never really keen on eye protection until I got a 7.62X39 case in my eye. Luckily my eye was in the middle of blinking when it hit me or I might have lost it. After the pain went away it was kind of funny I had a really interesting bruise on my eyelid shaped a lot like a piece of brass.
 
One time a friend and I were shooting at an indoor range. There was this teeny little lady shooting a coupla lanes over who somehow managed to bounce a .38 FMJ offa the overhead bar joists. We'll never know if it was a splinter from the jacket or splash from the core that hit my buddy, but whatever it was, it left an impressive gouge in the plastic lens of his industrial-quality safety glasses.
 
JohnKSa wrote:

I came home from the range one day with a crescent-shaped gouge on the right lens of my shooting glasses. With the glasses on, the cut was perfectly centered on my eye. A .45 empty came straight back and hit the glasses edge on.
Click to expand...

I've kicked myself for not saving them. They would have been a perfect object lesson for my classes.
Click to expand...

I'll send you mine. I have the exact same pair...

I don't wear mine anymore either, but kept the glasses as a souvenir
 
I just wear my regular eyeglasses at the range. Never gotten anything in my eye. Closest I came was when I was shooting a Ruger Mark II with my dad at an indoor range and one of the .22 brass bounced off the wall and hit the frame of my glasses.
 
I must wear glasses......................

so I have the lenses treated so that they may be used as shooting glasses. I don't exactly know what is done as my optometrist is also a shooting buddy and he just takes care of it. Works for me. Good shooting;)
 
I had a case rupture in a 10mm Glock on me once. Burning powder embedding in my hands and sprayed all over my face. If it wasn't for my eye protection, I'd have been in big trouble.

I've also had a case or two bounce of a lense before.

Wear it. It's only a matter of time.

- Gabe
 
i wear eye protection 99.9% and haven't gotten anything in my eye from shooting, but i feel your pain. i got some rust dust in my eye helping my dad with car. working on the exhaust underneath. had a bunch of junk fall in my eye and like you , i rubbed it. that is the WRONG this to do. doing that will firmly grind it into your cornea. three days later, i couldn't see out of that eye. i could only see white, like looking into a cloud. the body sent in the white blood cells and they filled my cornea trying to get the foreign bodies out. i finally went to the doc and the metal had rusted onto and into my eye becuase of the tears (my eye constantly watered for the three days previous) he tried to wash it out unsecessfully and finally broke the (dramtaic music here) CORNEAL BURR! its a gyroscope powered miniature drill. at least he was nice enough to sqirt some topical novicaine in my eye before he started drilling. that was probably the worst feeling i've ever had. a vibrating, drilling, cold sharp thing being stuck in my eye. all the while of course, you can't blink and you must focus on one spot to keep your eyeball still. he got most of it, then i had to go to an opthomolgist to get the rest with the cold sharps steel tweezers. he was able to get the rest out along with the scar tissue that had formed.

the moral of the story is, were eye protection and DON'T RUB IT!!

Bobby
 
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