How important is eye protection?

[monotonous_iterancy]

In reading manuals, I always see them stress eye protection. Yet I don't wear any (partly because I wear prescription glasses and protective glasses would intefere), and no one that I know wears any.

I've also never seen anyone get their eyes hurt from shooting, yet I know firsthand how shooting without hearing protection is harmful.

I'm sure there are instances where eye protection should have been worn. Perhaps you have stories of them. If so, share them.

Is eye protection really as important as it's sometimes said to be?

 

[Queen_of_Thunder]

Like having the use of your eyes? Then wear eye protection. Only fools don't.

 

[gspn]

Only important if you like to see.

I got hit in the leg with a ricochet at the indoor range one day. My first thought was "oh man! What if that had hit my nuts!?!?". Only later did i think of my eyes.

 

[mljdeckard]

Yes.

If you wear glasses, you have a few options. There are actually a lot of eye shields that will go over your Rx and not distort it. (This is not a new concern.) Some of them might cost.....ten bucks.

I usually wear ESS eye shields with the RX insert. The whole setup costs about $80.

I know it's not something everyone takes seriously. My dad, and the guys I grew up with, all HAD safety gear lying around, but they never used it. Obviously, somewhere along the line, they had worked somewhere OSHA had visited, and they had been TOLD to use it, but they would never do so voluntarily. They used paint cans for stepping stools. They were all partially deaf by the time they died. Some walked with a limp, and yes, at least one lost an eye. My dad's truck had seat belts, I was messing around and found them down between the cushions. I dug them out and used them because I thought they were cool. (He rolled his eyes.) I remember shooting 130 gr .270 and thinking that the sound just kept coming and reverberating, and asked my dad if it was harmful, and he told me not to worry about it.

There are too many things on a range that can hurt you. Lead backsplash and unburned powder are just the two most obvious.

 

[rcmodel]

1. Because stuff happens sometimes??

2. Better safe then blind?

3. Shooting glasses cost way less then glass eyes & white canes?

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl..._-W_rVWpy1GeM:;DMrETuEbWNVwSM;w_-W_rVWpy1GeM:

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...UUQUqGmEqWe2gW22YCoAw&ved=0CDUQ9QEwAw&dur=390

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl...6UUQUqGmEqWe2gW22YCoAw&ved=0CFMQ9QEwDA&dur=71

rc

 

[MasterSergeantA]

I was shot in the eye with some snake shot. Not fun. Anyone who doesn't wear some sort of eye protection is, IMHO, an idiot.

 

[Roons]

I had been bit many times with ricochette fragments from steel targets while shooting Steel Challenge or USPSA. Eyepro is a must.

 

[JeffDilla]

Last year I went to the range one day and realized I had forgotten my shooting glasses. I thought, "Ah well, I'll be alright" and for the most part I was. But on 2 occasions that day, I had tiny bits of burnt powder or some other residue fly back into my eye.

It didn't do any damage but was pretty uncomfortable. It made me wonder how often that happens and I just never notice because I wear glasses.

That's all pretty minor stuff but it can be a lot worse.

 

[TennJed]

I used to not be too strict about it. I would at ranges and when shooting with other people, but a lot of times out plinking at the farm by myself I would skip it

That changed one day when I was weed eating by a tree line and had forgotten my sunglasses. I took a small rock just barely below the eyeball. It hurt and cut deep. Even though I wasn't shooting I scared me and I felt like I dodged a bullet, so I don't take chances with my eyes anymore

 

[medalguy]

Shoot lead out of pistols much? I'm always getting little splatters back into my face from lead shaved off by the forcing cone. My old S&W Model 25 is really bad about it. I should get it tightened up. Well maybe one of these days.....meantime I wear safety glasses.

 

[denton]

Eyeglasses are not bad eye protection. Yeah, it's better to have side guards and all that.

I've seen a couple of situations at the range where eye protection saved a lot of hurt, and maybe an eye.

I failed to put some cheap overglasses on while casting bullets, and splattered a small blob of molten lead on the front of my glasses. Didn't hurt me, but crazed the surface of the lens. That was a $128 lesson.

 

[YZ]

Why people don't protect their eyes? There is a different logic to eye protection, compared to ear protection. Not wearing ear protection almost guarantees hearing loss, although not to the point of an early disability. The noise itself motivates you to cover your ears. Not wearing eye protection results in no serious damage at all, most of the times. When the damage occurs, however, it is sudden and often catastrophic.

I am a little surprised to be the first here (next to OP) to admit that I lapse often. The majority of my fellow shooters do. Evidently not the case among these Members.

 

[ericp1]

I put on eye protection before ear protection.
Hearing damage or deafness is bad, but can some times be corrected (cochlear implant etc).

Busted eye is end of line.

 

[monotonous_iterancy]

Granted, I've never been to a formal range, but I don't recall many instances at all of people wearing safety glasses. Not at skeet shoots, not at the one time I went to a public outdoor range, not while plinking.

I guess a lot of people take it for granted. Is that unusual in your circles?

 

[Ignition Override]

Every other round of Thunderbolt .22LR in the ancient Savage rifle causes a gas blowback into your face (not so with the Rom. M-69).

Out of over 800 rds. of mostly Bulgarian 7.62x54R surplus, only one round caused a moderate blowback.
But what if a tiny speck of dirt/brass had gotten into the chamber? It is headed straight into your upper face. I respect Murphy's Law in all situations.

Many of us are sometimes offered a chance to shoot a stranger's gun. We have no idea how safe the headspace is.
Loss of vision in one eye will cost many people their careers. Imagine both eyes gone: for you young people, that is decades of your life.

 

[Oceanbob]

You can't replace your eyes. 100 percent for me.

 

[Schwing]

I always just wore my regular glasses until I was hit in the left eye by something. About 3 years ago, I was at the range and was hit by some debris. I don't even know where it came from but it cracked my lens and burned most of my left eyebrow off. I thoroughly checked my gun and couldn't find a problem so I am still stumped as to what it was but it motivated me to go get a pair of prescription safety goggles.

 

[dmazur]

I also used to wear normal polycarbonate prescription glasses.

.45ACP case took a nick out of one of the lenses.

Now I use these -

Uvex Genesis prescription insert

The insert is shown at the upper left of the page, and it fits any of the Uvex Genesis line-up. (Genesis, Genesis X2, Genesis XC).

I use them with clear lenses for shop work, with dark or yellow lenses for shooting, and with shade 5 lenses for oxy-acetylene welding/cutting.

The only precaution in having the prescription fitted is to note that the lenses are "tilted upward" about 6 degrees when installed on the frames, compared to an uninstalled position. If your prescription has a large astigmatism correction, this can give the dispensing optician apoplexy.

So warn him about it...

 

[mljdeckard]

I even wear my ESS shades whenever I'm out and about. I am always wearing some kind of eyewear that is 'army approved' for eye protection.

 

[tactikel]

Years ago while Pheasant hunting, at the last minute I grabbed a pair of prescription sunglasses, less than an hour later I was hit, dead center in the right lens with a #5 pellet. I am never without eye protection when shooting.

 

[Sam1911]

One simple accident and your life will change forever. Eye pro is an ALWAYS thing. No one is allowed on the line (not just shooting!) at our ranges or any of our matches without it, ever.

 

[Warp]

In reading manuals, I always see them stress eye protection. Yet I don't wear any (partly because I wear prescription glasses and protective glasses would intefere), and no one that I know wears any.

I've also never seen anyone get their eyes hurt from shooting, yet I know firsthand how shooting without hearing protection is harmful.

I'm sure there are instances where eye protection should have been worn. Perhaps you have stories of them. If so, share them.

Is eye protection really as important as it's sometimes said to be?

That is highly unusual.

I suggest that the people you know may not be the sharpest knives in the drawer.

I can understand why people who wear prescription glasses don't wear proper eye protection over them, although I cannot recommend it as most eyeglasses do not offer anything even close to resembling adequate coverage.

 

[Double_J]

I wear contact lenses and glasses on occasion, and I have a pair of safety glasses in my truck, on my motorcycle, and at my desk. I also have safety glasses in my prescription, those live at the house unless I am wearing them. I will not be caught shooting without eye protection by choice, glasses are way too cheap and convenient to have around.

Any good eye glasses lab should be able to make a pair of prescription safety glasses for a reasonable price. You can also get them with tinted lenses if you want, or keep them clear. MAKE SURE that they are impact rated, or else they can/will shatter and put glass in your eyes should something happen. I worked in a machine shop and saw what happens when hot metal hits safety glasses, and there is no way I would risk my eyes to normal polycarbonate.

 

[thegiff]

I've been stuck by jacket fragments 3 times now, where I had to pull the piece out of my skin.

I don't know how anybody ever shot a blackpowder flintlock without eye pro, they throw stuff everywhere.

Had muzzle brakes throw rocks and junk so hard that they chipped my glasses. Usually when the shooter is next to me, the clamshell ones seem to be the worst offenders because if you are next to one, you are looking right down the exhaust pipe.

One time grinding some metal I changed from an angle grinder to die grinder with a big cutting wheel, and directed all of the sparks straight at my belly. They bounced off the metal I was leaning on and went straight at my eyes. My eyepro stopped maybe 10,000 of them little high speed glowing chips, but one got in under my goggles and stuck in my eye. To shorten up the story, the first doc I went to was at urgent care, he said he didn't see anything (what he meant was that it was beyond his skill, but I didn't get the referral I needed).:banghead: After turning into unbearable pain where both eyes swelled up, I made it to the eye doc. A couple days later when the eye doc pulled it out, it went "boink." Then, he had to grind the rust out.

A few days later I had to go back in and the other eye doc was in, she ground some more rust out, it had made a rust ring. They both used a little burr that looks like it belongs on a dremel, with a miniature sort of medical looking battery powered roto tool, and I had a divot in my cornea for a 6 months or so, which gradually filled in, now a white scar there. And my eye was itchy for several years afterward. Luckily, the damage is outside of my vision. She said that if it were in my vision, it would be blurry forever, or I guess until a cornea transplant.

So then, my other eye has a similar scar from charcoal, it sizzled in and again back to the eye doc and have it scraped out and ground. Never would have guessed that, I dumped the last bits from a charcoal bag into the fire and it flared up and threw sparks out. By that time, I had been through the grinding it out thing twice before, that eye doc said I was the most steady patient she had seen, I said it was all the practice! Kind of freaky cause you can see your reflection in the slit microscope lens... Aahhh, the memories.

 

[Neo-Luddite]

I used to fluff the eye protection off----now, my right eye has gone south via a bad cataract that will be tricky to fix and so (for now) I'm one-eyed jack and shooting lefty when I'm a righty. I've come to appreciate the fact that eyes can been done for good in a blink with as little as a powder burn. I model this for my kids as well and insist on eyes when we shoot.