Safety Glasses?

[twoclones]

Do you use safety glasses for shooting? I wouldn't consider it outside of a self-defense situation...

What got me to thinking about this is all the YouTube videos of people shooting without glasses.

 

[Calibre44]

I do when shooting Black Powder Revolvers. Last year I witnessed a fellow shooter get hit from a spent percussion cap. It embedded itself into his cheek. An inch higher and it would have been in his eye.

He'll wear safety glasses from now on!

 

[dave from mesa]

Always and ear protection.

 

[TimRB]

Your chances of having a gun actually blow up in your face are small, but having a case split or otherwise rupture, sending gas and small bits of brass your way is not that uncommon.

Safety glasses are best, but ordinary eyeglasses or even a cheap pair of sunglasses offer near complete protection against all but the worst accidents.

Tim

 

[Anna's Dad]

Usually just my ordinary eye glasses.

I do own a pair of safety glasses that surround glasses but rarely use them myself. I bought them after my wife managed to get a hot case to land in right above her glasses and burn her eyelid!

 

[hso]

Just because you haven't had an accident doesn't mean it can't happen to you.

Wear protective eyewear suitable for what you're doing (growing an eye back is such an annoying time-consuming thing these days ).

Do you need to wear Z87+ high impact rated safety glasses while shooting? Probably not. An ejected casing that would hit your eye will be stopped by almost any glasses. A ruptured casing that could spray brass will easily be stopped by any standard pair of safety glasses.

Just be sure that you understand that the glasses you do wear need to provide protection from particles coming from the front as well as the occasional casing arcing over the top of your glasses (have a slight burn scar just under my left eye from a hot .45 case getting trapped behind my Ray Ban Aviators). Also be sure that the temples of your safety glasses don't make big gaps in your ear muff pads that let noise through.

Safe shooting can be fun for years.

 

[KBintheSLC]

I never shoot without 'em. Last year I was shooting at an indoor range with my wife. She fired a 9mm round that hit the metal piece of the target holder, and it sent a chunk of copper jacket straight back at me. The chunk embedded itself in my cheek bone just below my eye. I had to dig it out with a pair of tweezers.

 

[jcwit]

I wear my perscription glasses which are safety glass. I also always a hat which would stop the brass from going between the face and the glasses.

I thought already of getting sport glasses to wear when shooting but haven't done that yet.

 

[ChronoCube]

Safety glasses: $4.95
Six pairs of earplugs: $1.97
Earmuffs: $7.95
Preserving your vision and hearing: priceless

(Yes, I wear both earplugs and earmuffs when shooting.)

 

[lions]

I don't know why anyone wouldn't wear them, they aren't uncomfortable or anything. The full 1 second it takes to put them on is worth the possibility of saving my vision in my opinion

 

[Lightninstrike]

Ear muffs and safety glasses. Add ear plugs if shooting large caliber or loud guns.

 

[CoRoMo]

Hearing and eye protection always, always, always.

If you don't, eventually you'll learn why you should have.

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

Some years ago my oldest son was shooting a s & w .22 pistol (forgot model). Anyway the adjustable rear sight flew off the slide and hit him just above his eye. I called s & w to let them know of this problem and they put a rivet thru the sight and frame. Prior to that there was just a tiny screw holding it. By the way, he wasn't wearing any glasses.

Innocent bystanders beware. I was shooting my 29 smith and my friend was about 2 feet to my left and slightly behind me and received a nice piece of copper just under his eye. You never know.

 

[jnyork]

Always. Only takes once.

 

[Claude Clay]

polycarbonate glasses. i keep my most recent old ones in my range bag. a 9mm casing left a long 1/2+ inch rather deep scratch/ gouge just above center right eye. i show them for training and the point of eye protection rather makes itself.
i dbl ears also--plugs plus e-muffs for any shooting except 22lr.

 

[Boba Fett]

Always wear eye and ear protection. I have super sensitive hearing (I can hear things like a watch ticking three rooms away at night) so I wear the muffs and plugs. Both have a NR of over 30 each.

As for the eyewear, I went with ESS ICE

Supposedly it will stop a 22lr or a shotgun blast from 35 ft away. Personally I think if you are getting shot at, the eyewear stopping the projectile is the least of your concerns. I like the ICE because you can easily switch between the three different tints and they are very comfortable.

 

[Hungry Seagull]

Without fail. Always on the range ear protection and eye protection.

Once one of the guns did not close the action all the way, I eyeballed it and caught it in time before spouse fired. If she did, that stuff would have hurt her eyes or something else.

Always without exception. If in doubt, refer to rule number one:

Ear protection and Eye protection.

How did I learn? Giddy with new gun purchase and feeling oats, I fired Magnums through the 870 and heard hellsbells and phones for a month. Luckily things have quieted down...

In home defense it wont matter anyway one way or the other; even so, an effort is made to take a moment to grab the eyes and ear stuff.

We also wore protection when attending Living History Artillery shooting years ago. Those things, particularly the James and Parrots had a peircing voice when firing ammunition downrange. A day of that is enough and hard on the body besides sight, hearing and air quality breathing.

I should put up a video showing leftovers bouncing back towards the firing line from that yonder wall 100 yards away. That will be a testiment to eye safety.

 

[Kat144]

Yes. That brass flies everywhere, and once I had one hit the glasses...if I hadn't been wearing them, it likely would've hit me right in the eyebrow...and heaven help me if if it'd then dropped behind my (prescription) glasses. Ow.

 

[Redneck with a 40]

I just wear ordinary sunglasses, I figure that's good enough protection.

 

[INSULATION TIM]

I always wear ear protection and eye protection. As I have been having a harder time keeping the sights from blurring (Shadow image) I am going to try wearing a pair of old bi-focals at the range tomorrow. As I paid quite a bit for them, I am making an assumption that they are shatter resistant.

 

[H1500308]

Always.

 

[GRIZ22]

Eye protection was not always in the vogue. What convinced me a long time ago was a primer burst while shooting a 380 Beretta and shot a jet of gas through the firing pin channel hitting me in the eye. Fortunately, just mild discomfort.

Eye protection when shooting has even come into style for the military.

 

[.38 Special]

You can almost certainly get away with a lifetime of shooting without wearing glasses. Countless shooters in "the good old days" did so.

However, shooting -- and especially shooting at a range -- does present an increased risk to your eyes. It's so easy and cheap to protect them that it's hard to understand why anyone wouldn't.

For my money, I suppose it would be slightly more convenient to forgo glasses. But I know how stupid I would feel to lose an eye for want of a pair of glasses, so I always wear them.

 

[bensdad]

I got a wicked facefull of something once when I fired a friend's Carcano. I don't know jack about old bolt-guns, so I don't really know what happened. It felt like somebody threw a handful of sand in my face - really hard - right when I pulled the trigger... actually stung. Safety glasses? ALWAYS. Hearing protection? ALWAYS.

 

[AnthonyC.]

I once got hit in the cheek (right below the eye) from a pellet gun ricochet, I have never shot any guns without glasses after that, I never knew those pellet guns could ricochet pellets back so fast, It made a pretty bad welt for a few days and I can't imagine the pain I would have been in if it would have hit my eye.