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Importance of eye protection

B

BFDshooter5

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Jul 10, 2007
119
4
52
Maine
So I was at a friends home range in rural maine yesterday. I got a chance to play with my new to me AI AE and Glock 19 without incident and we were wrapping up when one of my friends offered up an enfield carbine he had just purchased the day before and some Wolf 303 British ammo to try out. So I'm going to say up front that its probably 50/50 when I wear eye protection but as luck would prove to be on my side in a couple instances Sunday I was wearing my Ray Bans. As the rifle looked to be in good working order, I stepped up to the range and touched off the first round and saw a blinding flash and felt blood pouring from my face.

My first thought was "holy shit, I just lost my eye!" When I took one of those personal inventories of my parts and pieces and wiped the blood from my right eye I found that I could see without pain. As it turns out, it looks like a combination of an over charged round and old weapon lead to an explosion that blew open the bolt and sent a 1/4 of the base of the cartridge off into my face. A 9mm brass frag spalled a hole through the lense of my sunglasses and went into my skin just below my eye. The piece continued on along my cheek bone and stopped just short of my ear. I ended up with powder burns and other small brass particles imbedded in my face but nothing where my glasses covered my eyes. Needless to say it blew the shit out of the Ray Bans.

The second piece of luck was I happened to bring a medic bag that I have when I deploy with the departments sniper team. I almost left it home, as my car was packed to the gills with range shit but I decided I'd cram it in, in case someone needed a bandaid. This was the second best decision I made yesterday.

I kept the remnants of my sunglasses and the brass pieces the doctor pulled out of face as a little reminder to myself and to my brothers and sisters at the fire dept, Hide members and SWAT team the importance of basic safety gear.
 
Appreciate the warning. I need to be better about this.

Also very glad to hear that you're all right. Hopefully you're not too much uglier than when you originally went to the range. ;)

~Brett
 
Thanks Brett! Other than a shot to my pride I'm doing great! If anything the scars are an excuse for why I'm so damn ugly!
 
I had an extractor blow off of a 22 that blew powder in my eyes. From that day on you will hardly see me without quality eye pro anytime I'm out, even when I'm not shooting. If I'm outside or even downstairs in the shop I have on eye pro.

I'm glad you're OK.
 
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I am glad to hear that you did not lose your eye.

I always wear my protective gear, and I always carry a trauma kit with me to the range.

The problem is that people think it won't happen to them. It is a human trait that has no connection to reality, but probably allowed us to take risks as we progressed through evolution...

ATGAT= all the gear, all the time!
 
Glad to hear you are all right. One thing that I would mention that I find a lot of people overlook is that eye protection doesn't mean just wearing a pair of sunglasses. In your case you got very lucky as you said the fragment went through the lens of your sunglasses. A true pair of protective eyewear will not allow fragments to penetrate the lens and will have an ANSI rating, anything else is a guess as to whether or not it will really protect your eyesight.

You can get ANSI rated safety glasses/sunglasses at the hardware store for a few bucks or you can buy name brand sunglasses that are known to have an ANSI rating. As I am hard on sunglasses, my personal preference are those made by Liquid eyewear. They have an aluminum frame and have an ANSI and a MILSPEC rating for impact protection. They also do in lens Rx and are 100% made in the USA. Other name brands do the same but generally have plastic frames and I end up braking them at some point, I have yet to break a pair of the Liquid frames. Liquideyewear.com is where you can pick them up and they offer a military/LEO discount if you ask for it.
 
I noticed at a recent "Event" there were very few folks running eye pro. There were, however, a few guys running $200+ ear pro., it certainly caught my attention. I happened to be shooting next to a buddy with a brake yesterday. Every shot would flip the pages of my data book. That kind of pressure would throw all sorts of debris in your eyes. Of course there will be plenty of folks who will bitch about suggesting it.
 
Working on a public range I've seen my share of incidents. I've also been smacked with frags off of steel plates to my head, neck and chest......I don't shoot without glasses anymore either. Congrats, You were one of the lucky ones.
 
I wear over glasses eyewear or goggles. The minimun standard is ANSI Z87.1-2003 - this includes requirements for basic impact and high impact protection. In the basic impact test, a 1 in (2.54 cm) steel ball is dropped on the lens from a height of 50 in (127 cm). In the high velocity test, a 1/4 in (6.35 mm) steel ball is shot at the lens at 150 ft/s (45.72 m/s). To pass both tests, no part of the lens may touch the eye. [21]
 
Papa Zero Three said:
Glad to hear you are all right. One thing that I would mention that I find a lot of people overlook is that eye protection doesn't mean just wearing a pair of sunglasses. In your case you got very lucky as you said the fragment went through the lens of your sunglasses. A true pair of protective eyewear will not allow fragments to penetrate the lens and will have an ANSI rating, anything else is a guess as to whether or not it will really protect your eyesight.

You can get ANSI rated safety glasses/sunglasses at the hardware store for a few bucks or you can buy name brand sunglasses that are known to have an ANSI rating. As I am hard on sunglasses, my personal preference are those made by Liquid eyewear. They have an aluminum frame and have an ANSI and a MILSPEC rating for impact protection. They also do in lens Rx and are 100% made in the USA. Other name brands do the same but generally have plastic frames and I end up braking them at some point, I have yet to break a pair of the Liquid frames. Liquideyewear.com is where you can pick them up and they offer a military/LEO discount if you ask for it.
Click to expand...

Those look really interesting, thanks for posting!

Sent from my POS phone using Tapatalk 2
 
Glad to hear you're okay, things could have been much worse. I normally don't wear eye pro when shooting my bolt gun but if im shooting .22's (rifles or pistols), any pistol, or shotgun, I normally wear my Oakleys since ive had debris from .22's get in my eyes before so I do.. not all the time but most.

But since my Oakleys can be uncomfortable and impair my vision when shooting my bolt gun with muffs on I've been looking at getting a decent pair of safety glasses.
 
Glad you're OK.

I used to shoot without eye protection because everything I had used got banged up by sights, etc. (Shooting service rifle). After seeing a rifle blow up at a club a few years back (everyone ended up OK), I got religon. I shoot at the National Matches every year at camp Perry (here now) and I'm amazed at how many folks shoot without protection. I guess I get the military guys not useing them, but everyone else? I know it seems like a pain sometimes, but it sure beats losing an eye or two. My Oakleys are always in my kit now. I change out to clear lense Flak Jackets when pulling the trigger and back to a polarized set when not. Even when pulling pits, I've seen shots hit target uprights, spindles, etc and stuff shatter on folks.

Wear the glasses!
 
Glad you can see and all that but if ever a post screamed for pics...

And I too have been a eye protection fanatic for years (though not in my foolish youth). Being a trapshooter I also wear sideblinders as they are already on my Ranger XLs.
 
If you give me an email I can forward the pics to you to post. I haven't quite mastered the art of pic posting on the hide.
 
Got shot pellets embedded in a pair of Gargoyles. Sent them back to manufacturer with a thank you note, a week later a new pair appeared in the mail. Gotta Wear them glasses!.
 
I too used to be too cool for eye pro. I still don't LIKE it and am trying to get used to shooting irons with it on....but I was wire wheeling some welds one day and caught a chip of slag in an eye. Hurt like a mother for two days straight, and this was just a TINY piece (like end of a ballpoint pen). That little experience made me think about never shooting or driving or welding or...hell doing anything else I like, ever again. I wear it more regularly now....
 
About 25 yrs ago I dropped the hammer on a double charged 45ACP in a 1911. Blew out the unsupported bottom of the case, blew the mag out on the ground and sprayed brass backward between the frame and the slide and cracked the slide along it's length below the extractor.

Steel inserts in the Pachmayrs saved my hand and my shooting glasses saved my eyes. A fan of brass came out of the back of the pistol leaving 23 small cuts on my face and across the right lens of the glasses. (I bled like a stuck pig, can you imagine the blood from 23 deep shaving cuts!?) Five yrs later a dentist X-ray found a small chunk of brass still in my right cheek. About 5 yrs after that it finally worked it's way to the surface.

I did the same as the original poster. Carefully feeling my face to see if there was a slide stuck in there, then inspecting the pistol just to make sure it was all still accounted for. Not an experience I'd care to repeat.
 
Thanks for the post & heads up. Rifle shooters- our head is, what , 6" away from a 55,000 psi explosion, many of them...
After shooting many thousands of rounds, had my 1st case ever in .223 ( let's face it, a small cartridge) rupture. I was shooting with can, so no ear pro, right...? the sound was deafening, and the blood coming out of my lip not a good feeling. I wear glasses
all times. No harm done. Wear your glasses, seconded here.
 
Years ago, I was an instructor at a police range. I had just been talked into new polycarbonate lenses over glass. Although I was sceptical of plastic lenses, I went with it. Three days later I was on the range, and one of those 1 in 1,000,000 frags sent a bit of bullet into the left lens about 1/8 inch from the frame, shattering the left lens. I took the glasses back to the seller, and they asked what happend, and I said it was a bullet....I got new lenses for free, and since then, I have always felt naked without something over my eyes.
 
There is a real danger from shooting steel at distances under 100 yards. I've been hit several times from pieces of bullets coming back to the shooting line.
 
As a guy with prescription glasses I hate eye protection. I still wear it though because when I didn't stuff still got by my regular glasses. I should just suck it up and buy a pair of script safety glasses, but man they are not cheap.
 
I've seen three patients since last November with firearm related eye injuries. A .270 round when fired thru a 7mm doesnt end well. I've removed metal shavings from another eye docter's eye after an evening spent shooting handguns. I've seen what a box of blanks can do when they fire prematurely. I never wore saftey glasses growing up, but thanks to many unfortunate metal workers, I get daily reminders of the consequences of not doing so. The patient's complaint always begins with "I always wear saftey glasses, but I took them off just for a minute and..." Saftey glasses are cheaper than surgery, but they only work when you wear them.
FWIW
-dmh
 
Wrex said:
As a guy with prescription glasses I hate eye protection. I still wear it though because when I didn't stuff still got by my regular glasses. I should just suck it up and buy a pair of script safety glasses, but man they are not cheap.
Click to expand...

Can you put a price on your eyesight? I didn't think so. What I recommend is that you get a RX pair of glasses that provide you with full protection that you can wear all of the time or when you need the full coverage. There are several companies that do this but I recommend LiquidEyewear.com as they are 100% made in the USA, ANSI certified (safety glasses) and the frames are damn near indestructible. If you get the light to dark version lenses, they can also serve as your sunglasses.
 
The thing with safety glasses is, "You can only break even", but if you loose????

Glad you're OK.
 
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