Lesson in Eye Pro

[pikid89]

Went to the range today to celebrate an unexpected day off

was getting mine and my sisters rifles re-zeroed for the upcoming hunting season

all was well until my buddy asked me to try out his moms Remington Sportsman 78 .243

I said sure, and as i lined up the iron sights with a nice low tight cheek weld, i heard him mention to the other guy with us "yeah these are some handloads my grandma cooked up a while back"...

that should have been a clear warning to me but it didnt register at the time

as an aside..south florida is quite humid these days and i was sweating pretty good (esp inside my glasses)

i removed my glasses to get a better view of the target..slowly squeezed the trigger...BOOM...everything went black

i couldnt see out of my right eye and my face was burning for some reason...as the cloud of smoke cleared i felt my face to make sure all the parts were there as my buddies yelling "are you alright?"

turns out his grandma had loaded those rounds A LONG time ago...i ejected the shell and inspected it. Along the rim where the brass had turned a little green it cracked in 2 places venting all the powder and gas straight through the bolt into my face and eye

luckily a bottle of water and a few blinks cleared it up

sorry for the long post but i just wanted to use my mistake as a reminder to always always always use eye pro when shooting...after the fact i realize i really did come close to really messing up my vision

ALWAYS WEAR EYE AND EAR PRO

 

[opie4386]

wow good to hear nothing seriouse happend but i cant shake the image of cartoon characters where the guns blow up in theire face. sorry

 

[Sunray]

"...getting mine and my sisters rifles re-zeroed..." You can't sight in for your sister.
"...removed my glasses..." I'd slap you into next week for shooting anything without your shooting glasses on and shooting other people's reloads, if you weren't so far away. What's your sister's number, so I can have her do it.
"...a few blinks cleared it up..." You have horseshoes up your bung hole. Go see an Opthamologist, just in case
Mind you, I'll hold your "buddy" while you hit him or hit him while you hold him. He's a rectal orifice. I'll have a few words with his grandma too if you want. She's likely close to my age.

 

[heron]

As soon as you heard "yeah these are some handloads my grandma cooked up a while back"... you should have handed the rifle back to your buddy and told him to take the first shot.

 

[Tim the student]

OP, glad you are ok. Thanks for the reminder to us.

You have horseshoes up your bung hole.

Good lord, that is funny. That should be on someones sig line.

 

[The Bushmaster]

So many shooting safety rules broken to list...Glad you are alright and have learned a bunch of valuable lessons...

 

[Wishoot]

Glad you're OK. The ONE TIME I neglected to wear eye protection I managed to get some blowback in my eyes. Unpleasant and painful to say the very least.

 

[General Geoff]

I have a funny story about eye protection. I was heading to the range with a friend of mine, we were all set for a wonderful day of shooting. We stopped by the clubhouse at the range, and picked up some updated membership cards. I was wearing my Revision Hellfly ballistic sunglasses (they double as every day sunglasses). I took them off when I went inside since it was rather dim in the building. As we were heading back outside, I attempted to slip the glasses back on with one hand while the other was opening the door. Apparently I misjudged and poked my eye pretty badly with the tip of the sunglasses. My eye got very red, very quickly, and started to hurt badly. It then became very light sensitive and I could barely open either eye in broad daylight. We only put a few rounds downrange before I couldn't stand it anymore and we had to call it a day. I ended up having to take a full week off from work while my eye healed.

Apparently I caused a fairly deep corneal abrasion. Fortunately it healed up on its own, though I can't say being effectively blind for a week was any fun (my uninjured eye was sympathetically light sensitive to the point where it hurt to look at a dim monitor screen in a dark room). I researched my symptoms and determined that it would heal on its own given enough time, so I didn't bother going to the optometrist. Had it continued any longer, I probably would have.

Moral of the story is: PAY ATTENTION WHEN PUTTING ON YOUR GLASSES!

 

[pikid89]

told him to take the first shot.

he had fired about 6 of em before i shot

So many shooting safety rules broken to list

besides the handloads that had worked at first...the only one i see was when i wasnt wearing eye pro...other than that were following all the safety rules

 

[The Bushmaster]

Shall we start with handing over a loaded gun for starters? And end with your friends comment on who loaded them stating "cooked up a while back"? You can put your removal of safety classes in the middle somwhere.

 

[General Geoff]

Shall we start with handing over a loaded gun for starters?

There is nothing wrong with handing a loaded gun to someone, as long as they are made aware of it (granted, everyone should always assume a gun handed to them is loaded anyway); especially when ready to immediately shoot at a hot range.

 

[The Bushmaster]

Weapons are not suppose to be loaded behind the line. And bolts are supposed to be open when they are behind the line. To pass a weapon to someone else [loaded] you must have been in the same shooting station (bit cosy I bet) if you didn't go behind the firing line to pass this weapon. Yes General Geoff, there IS something wrong with handing loaded gun to someone at a firing range.

 

[WardenWolf]

Weapons are not suppose to be loaded behind the line. And bolts are supposed to be open when they are behind the line. To pass a weapon to someone else [loaded] you must have been in the same shooting station (bit cosy I bet) if you didn't go behind the firing line to pass this weapon. Yes General Geoff, there IS something wrong with handing loaded gun to someone at a firing range.

Not necessarily. Sometimes shooting tables don't have barriers in between them, or if they do, not barriers that go all the way to the ground. I can and have passed handguns between stations UNDER the screens while keeping the muzzle pointed safely downrange and forward of the line. It is perfectly safe to do so, and no range officer ever complained (and they're very anal at that range). I always make sure the weapon is safed before I do so. If I hand a loaded firearm to someone, they are aware of it BEFORE they take possession of it.

To the OP, glad you're okay. But lesson learned: wear eye protection, and never shoot someone else's reloads, at least unless you know the person very well and they're there at the range with you, and it's their gun. As soon as you found out it was an unknown reload, you should have handed the gun back. I find it kind of odd, though, that it vented back THROUGH the bolt. Possibly bad rifle design?

 

[pikid89]

actually we were in two different lanes and we switched lanes with the gun laying on the sandbags...the bolt was open and the magazine was loaded...all i did was close the bolt

as far as the ammo "being cooked up a while back"...thats just semantics or grammer or whatever...somthing us florida crackers dont really pay much attention to, esp in casual convorsation at the gun range

 

[Rail Driver]

us florida crackers dont really pay much attention to

Leave me out of that group... I wouldn't be shooting some handloads someone's grandmother "cooked up awhile back", and if I heard someone referring to rounds I was preparing to shoot in those terms, I believe I would quickly change my mind about firing them. I've seen what bad loads can do, and I'm not about to be cast for the local stage remake of "The Man Without A Face".

 

[General Geoff]

Weapons are not suppose to be loaded behind the line. And bolts are supposed to be open when they are behind the line. To pass a weapon to someone else [loaded] you must have been in the same shooting station (bit cosy I bet) if you didn't go behind the firing line to pass this weapon. Yes General Geoff, there IS something wrong with handing loaded gun to someone at a firing range.

Shooting station? I prefer to practice in natural positions such as standing offhand, sitting, kneeling, and prone. And the "shooting stations" (i.e. benches) at every range I've ever been to, make it very easy to hand a rifle or pistol to the person sitting next to you, without ever leaving the firing line.