Wear your shooting glasses

Status
Not open for further replies.
L

Low Key

Member
Joined
Dec 15, 2005
Messages
302
Location
In the hills of TN
This happened a couple of weeks back, but it’s been in the back of my mind so I thought I’d post about it. I was out shooting my 5.5 inch barrel 1858, (shorty) and when I fired my second shot I felt a sting across the back of my right hand. Of course, I looked to see what I’d done to myself and found a small cut on my second knuckle with a little piece of brass colored metal sticking out! Just a small piece of the cap that had detonated so forcefully that it blew a piece of itself off and into my knuckle.

I know I’ve fired at least a couple of thousand shots in the past 7 months and I’ve never had a cap do that before or since, but impressed on me the need to be wearing eye protection when I shoot. I also thought of any spectators standing nearby. My little girl likes to watch me shoot and if she had been standing in the right place at the right time, she could have been hit by the fragment. I don’t let her stand very close to me when I shoot, but I’ve seen things travel a fair distance that you wouldn’t think would go very far. A little cut on the hand is one thing, minor, but if something like that hit your eye it would mean a quick trip to the emergency room and maybe blindness.

There have been a few times when I’ve forgotten to wear the shooting glasses when I’ve just went out in the yard to fire 6 or 12 shots, but from now on I’ll have them on when I’m target shooting.
 
i'm sure we all appreciate your story. it only reminds us that our hobby/sport is not the safest in the world and precautions definetely needed to be taken. we can never be too laxed.

i'm glad nobody, especially your little girl, was injured.

thanks for sharing.:)
 
Low Key, I'm not fond of shooting glasses when hunting but around the house or the range I wear a pair of safety glasses. To many times I have had blow back smack me in the face not just from BP guns but from my other revolvers and autos too. Glad you weren't hurt any worse than you were and that your daughter wasn't there. Thanks for the reminder,Mike
 
I don't wear them when I'm hunting either, I should but I don't. I will wear them target shooting from now on though, and anyone standing near me will have to wear them as well if they want to watch me shooting. It's good to remind folks about basic safety from time to time.
 
From an ex Health and Safety Manager

LK, it's good to keep people thinking SAFETY. You either have it 100% of the time or you don't have it at all!
At the club in Blaye when my friend fired his 1777 Dragoon all morning he wore glasses but not safety glasses over them. They had plastic lenses and when he had finished both lenses were pitted and scratched. He had to have new lenses which cost him about $400! If he had not been wearing his own glasses he would not have been able to buy new eyes!! You only need to forget once and the damage is done for life.

Cheers
Duncan
 
I asked the local Bass Pro Firearms counter attendent for a tin of #11 caps for my 1858 Rem Pietta replica, and just put them into my bag without double checking the label.

Turned out they were CCI #11 Magnum caps, for use in larger applications.

Just about every time I fired those 100, the cap would violently explode off of the nipple, and shoot little cap-parts everywhere. I had about 10% jamming rate, too, from cap-bits getting stuck in the lockwork. Didn't have a single hang fire though :p

I'm getting normal #11s next time!


-mike
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top