Thread: Shooting Safety Glasses

Aaah! Ready for a day at the range...

And look, here's @systolic arriving, always prepared.

QUOTE..Shooting glasses are a rule at most gun clubs, and a good idea at all of them. You should wear them in the field as well. There’s no excuse not to, since even $15 safety glasses will withstand a direct hit from a target load at ten yards. I know this is true, because I’ve shot a few pairs over the years to see what would happen. Even at close range, 7½ pellets make only divots in the lenses. The rest of your head would be gone, but you would still be able to leave your eyes to medical science.
If shooting glasses will protect your eyes from 7½ at dueling range, they will obviously shield them from lesser dangers. For instance, lately I have been shooting the dirt-cheap, Chinese-made Stevens 320 pump, under editorial orders to put a bunch of rounds through it.* So last week, I took it to the sporting-clays course in place of my usual target gun. The Stevens is a right-handed gun, and I am a left-handed shooter, so the ejection port is a few inches from my nose. I was shooting some cheap factory ammo, which was performing pretty well in the cheap pump gun, when, about halfway through the course, I shot at the first target of a pair, pumped the action, and a cloud of powder and smoke blew out of the ejection port into my face. It probably looked like a less-violent version of what happens when Bugs Bunny sticks his finger into the muzzle of Elmer Fudd’s shotgun. I could feel little stings of burning powder bouncing off of my face, but my eyes were perfectly safe behind the tough lenses of my Randolph Rangers.
I have never had a factory load do that before, but it may very well happen again sometime. When it does, I will be wearing glasses, as you should be, too.

QUOTE..Selecting a Pair of Shooting Glasses

When choosing a pair of protective eyewear, there are several components to consider. The lenses need to be strong. Standard reading glasses or non-rated shooting glasses may shatter upon impact with the glass from them going into your eyes. Polycarbonate is the strongest material that can be purchased for shooting glasses. You don’t need to spend a lot of money, but the glasses should be rated to at least the ANSI Z87.1 standard.

It was popular in the 80s to wear aviator style shooting glasses, but today, wrap-around glasses are recommended. The aviator style glasses leave a gap around the frame and the face which allows things to potentially get to the eye area. The wrap-around style glasses which most people use now are much closer to the face with a much smaller opening, so there is less chance anything will get in. However, there is still enough airflow to prevent the glasses from fogging.

Lightweight frames that are made of either plastic or titanium are usually the most comfortable. Finally, there are several lens colors available. Gray, amber, yellow, and purple are four of the most popular lens colors to choose from. Gray or gray-green are good at blocking glare without hindering overall perception. Yellow and orange lenses can provide a more detailed line of vision. Amber works well on cloudy days. Purple or blue lenses can help distinguish a target that's set against trees.

Wearing shooting glasses should always be part of firearm safety. Even those who are standing behind the shooter should wear a pair of glasses.

Me and a mate were culling turkeys near Ohura a few years ago. It was great fun, stalk up on a mob, get as many as we could with the shotguns before they took flight, then use the 223 and hornet to pick them off when they landed across the gully.
We had just started onto another mob when my mates side by side made a strange bang and he started swearing and jumping up and down. A big chunk of the stock had blown off near the action. He was okay but a bit freaked, I still don't know what caused it. We were both wearing hearing protection but no eye protection so he was pretty lucky.

So are we talking handloads here or factory ammo? Does that even matter?

Sounds bloody scary.

Fuck I'm amazed how many that people don't value their eye sight

I'm a tradie & wear basic safety specs all the time ( tinted & non-tinted ) I'm amazed how many times I see guys not wearing any or have to tell people to put some protection on while on job sites ( especially using power tools )

As for shooting, I had a magnum suppressor blow many yeas ago at a gong shoot & luckily I was wearing a pair of basic Oakley "five" sunnies & yes they saved alot of small shit & rubbish going in my peepers, It took little chips out'a the lenses & I still use those glasses today, was probably the best $120 I ever spent.

I was lucky it was only a suppressor popping but if you have a major "breach explosion" then you need decent protection,remember you are firing a bomb 3" from you face & it's not just shit blowing apart & flying but the shock wave that causes the damage.

Invest in decent shooting glasses, If doing lots of range -target - gong shooting buy the best you can afford & use em, I use Scott AEGIS they are enormous stupid looking things but fuk they have great reviews & seem to work.

AS for in the hills, I use cheap safety specs, I know they won't work as well but offer some protection & don't care if I scratch or lose em.


Just look after ya eyes, they don't grow back.

I have worn glasses since I was 18 I am now 72 my glasses are hardened to safety standards and have kept shit out of my eyes on several occasions
from crappy .22rf ammo, leaky and blown primers, shit from semi-auto 22's ejection port never had a gun blow up had cases come back from semi-auto
pistols and bullet fragments from shots on steel targets, shoot enough and you will thank your eye protection one day

Originally Posted by shooternz

I have worn glasses since I was 18 I am now 72 my glasses are hardened to safety standards

It is amazing how the mind muddles things.... when I first read the above I read..." now 72 my eyes have hardened to safety standards... I must be a little lesdexic.

Some good stuff above, like Philpo I work in Maintenance in the mining industry... safety glasses are a part of every day life for me.

Where I was going with this thread is to find out about brands, tints, shapes, optical charactoristics etc that work and what the problems may be. I have need googling the subject and see that options go fro $5 specials to $1500 jobbies used by competition trap shooters.

I will visit my local shooting supplies shops soon and see what they may have.

As for the stories above, it reminded me about the slug gun pellet ricochet that drew blood on my forehead when I was young...

Thanks for all the good stuff

Planetnutz... Factory loads for now , hand loads in the near future.... and about 80 rounds per trip to the range

I am sure any Ipsc/comp shooter that has watched someone shoot a stage that has steel targets has been hit by debris.
I was hit recently with a flattened cast projectile in the chest that drew blood while ROing someone shooting at a plate rack. Left a pretty good bruise as well.
I have prescription safety/shooting glasses. I used to be slack when rifle shooting not wearing any eye protection other than sunnys.
Now I need the bastards so it is a good thing.
Shoot a slightly overgassed AR and you will be quickly look for some eye protection

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Originally Posted by R93

I am sure any Ipsc/comp shooter that has watched someone shoot a stage that has steel targets has been hit by debris.
I was hit recently with a flattened cast projectile in the chest that drew blood while ROing someone shooting at a plate rack. Left a pretty good bruise as well.
I have prescription safety/shooting glasses. I used to be slack when rifle shooting not wearing any eye protection other than sunnys.
Now I need the bastards so it is a good thing.
Shoot a slightly overgassed AR and you will be quickly look for some eye protection

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk

It's cool bey you always have the best stories fullah
Arze any of thems truths

Don't ever let the truth get in the way of a good story...... bey.





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flesh heals, eyes dont. i had to have my cornea reattached and that was just from a tennis ball.

Wear them when sighting in etc, and when needed at work. Looking at some workplaces that for H&S and industry rules have to wear them full time. Wonder what their eye sight will be like in 20 years of looking thru plastic lenses, as some of these glasses supplied are shockers.

I recall an incident that happened about 40 years ago. My wife( girlfriend then) was standing 2 or so metres off to my left, when the Uberti .22 revolver I was shooting,shaved a slither of lead between the cylinder and the barrel. The semi circle of lead ended up entering her eye through the gap in her glasses. The old GP calmly removed it with a tweezers. The old girl still picks up my cases,repacks the shooting bench etc.
Just proves what a wonderful husband I am...