I got shot AKA wear your durn eye protection.

[Feanaro]

Don't get too concerned, I'm still in 95% NRA condition.

I was shooting my first "tactical" match at the Alabama Training Institute and Pistol Range, doing my best for all the wheely shooters out there. This is an indoor range and they just recently added a steel trap system. As the next guy starts his string, I feel a thump 'n a sting on my arm. I look down and see... well, take a look for yourself(.38 Special and .22LR for comparison purposes).





A badly deformed .45 slug. It bounced off the steel, hit my brother in the stomach and deflected into my arm. It didn't hurt either of us much but it would have busted my (seeing) glasses at least.

I've been guilty of not wearing shooting glasses, simply because it can be hard to find any that fit over prescription eyewear. I was wearing a pair, just by chance. The range has a few pairs for people who don't bring their own and one barely fit. Not going to be caught without them again. Neither should you.

At least I got a nifty keepsake from the incident and an interesting story to tell. Think I should put the bullet in one of those little plastic pyramid thingies?

 

[JLStorm]

I never forget my shooting glasses, but I know a guy who does...Im gonna make sure to tell him this story next time I see him!

 

[Leanwolf]

FEANARO - "I've been guilty of not wearing shooting glasses, simply because it can be hard to find any that fit over prescription eyewear."

If I were you, I'd go to an opthalmologist and have him/her put your eye prescription into a good shooting glasses. I know a number of people who've done that.

Good luck.

L.W.

 

[3rdpig]

Another example. One of the ranges where I shoot shoot sporting clays has a station where the birds are coming almost directly at you. If you miss they'll land 15 to 20 feet in front of you, but if you hit them you'll often be pelted with chips. The chips are sharp, spinning and coming in pretty fast. I've been caught in the face at least once with a chip, I'd hate to take one in the eye.

People who shoot with no eye protection are begging to lose an eye.

 

[helpless]

We own a custom framing business, if you want I can throw that badboy in a shadow box and make a little plate that sits below it that reads "5/5/07 I was shot."

 

[skeeter1]

I haven't seen one at the trap range for quite a while, but I was shooting in the station next to a gent with a shotgun equipped with a Lyman Cutts Compensator, and a pellet came out of it sideways and stung me in the arm pretty good. Had that hit me in the eye, I'm pretty sure I'd be wearing a pirate patch right now.

 

[qajaq59]

And keep your glasses on even if you are off the firing line. I was sitting on the bench the other day and I got whacked in the face by a shell from a semi auto that tossed the shell back instead of forward. It was hot as blazes and would have definitely caused an eye injury if it had hit me just right.

 

[gunsmith]

I once said to my brother in law
"we are just shooting pellets, I don't need to wear glasses"
The next shot a ricohet hit me hard ...in the eyebrow!

 

[AaronE]

I caught one of those at a pin match oh so many years ago....when I was cleaning the tables with a new-york reload....with Dan Wessons in .357. The guy in the next lane was using a .45 ACP and missing the centers of the pins...he SPUN more than not off the table. ( I was spanking them clean to the backstop...and NO you cant have the load.)

It left a print of the shirt in my hide that didnt fade for WEEKS...and the dang thing STUCK THERE. Right over the heart...on the sternum. I stopped shooting pins for a while...until the range got smart and ran each lane in its own BAY.

Glad you are OK! and I'm a freak about SAfety glasses....teach Hunter Ed and NRA Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun.

 

[armoredman]

I still have the slug that caught me in the junk some years ago...RO'ing a bowling pin match, and a super light loaded 38 bounced off the pin, and nailed my best friends. At the time, it wasn't funny, in retrospect, that was a howl. I will say this, the guy apologized for weeks...
I sometimes wear the overglassess, especially when shooting at any moving match, after a Winchester WinClean 40 case disintigrated on ejection, and put a peice of brass into my prescription glasses...fortunately polycarbonate lenses. If they had been glass, I would look like a pirate. Even before it became fashionable.

 

[robmkivseries70]

Good Topic,
I have seen several close calls over the years, I have an SA 1911 I was tuning a bit at a time and it occasionally sent cases directly back over the sights. Luckily, I wear prescription safety glasses. I stoned a small angle into the bottom corner of the extractor and now the cases go out to the side. This case hit hard, I shudder to think what the result would have been without eye protection.
Best,
Rob

 

[ilbob]

I get my glasses made with polycarbonate for this reason, but usually I wear contacts and traditional safety glasses of some kind when shooting.

 

[Jim Watson]

All I can say is, like the boxing referee says: Protect yourself at all times.

Over the years I have been hit by bounce-back (a railroad tie will bounce a .44 Special right back at you), spatter and deflection off of steel targets and bullet traps, revolver cylinder gap flash and shavings, HOT empty brass, etc.

It is all startling, sometimes painful, but not much dangerous IF you wear your eye protection.

 

[YoPedro]

Medal Needed

Maybe THR could issue a medal. Not a Purple Heart, that would be offensive for those who have given so much of themselves to this country.

Maybe a Red or a Pink Heart:

"Wounded while enjoying my favorite sport"

Ofcourse, then John Kerry would want one for bumping his head on the refridgerator door while reacing in for a Diet Starwberry Fanta soda late at night.

 

[Jomax]

All of my eyeglasses have plastic prescription lenses in them. I never wear another pair over them when I shoot because they make me sweat and it gets in my eyes. And I have several different types and brands of these with no luck. Am I okay with wearing only plastic prescription lenses at the range?

 

[FieroCDSP]

I've taken a pair of the side protection type shooting glasses and used a drill press to make notches for my earpiece hinges to fit into. It was a bit of searching to find a decent fitting set, and some work, but I managed to get them to fit perfectly over my glasses and not easily come off. No loss of impact protection, either.

 

[FieroCDSP]

JoMax, you're probably okay safety wise, but not wallet wise. I recently had to fork out $400 bucks for a new pair of glasses because the guide-rod on my Walther P22 slipped as I was re-installing it (not by the manual) and chipped a lens. Had my lenses been glass, I'd have been screwed. Since they were Polycarbonate, they just chipped in an annoying manner. Optical Lens manufacturers make Poly lenses to resist chipping, scratching, and breaking. Not for 100% direct-impact protection from a slug, hammer, or such. Unless you want to have to replace your glasses at some point, you should wear safety rated protective goggles or glasses. The idea I posted above worked nice for me. I'm sure i'm not the first to have thought of it.

 

[zero_chances]

Another example. One of the ranges where I shoot shoot sporting clays has a station where the birds are coming almost directly at you. If you miss they'll land 15 to 20 feet in front of you, but if you hit them you'll often be pelted with chips. The chips are sharp, spinning and coming in pretty fast. I've been caught in the face at least once with a chip, I'd hate to take one in the eye.

I noticed that today, when i went skeet shooing. At the last two staions, you can be pelted with little sharp peices of clay. I was hit in the neck one round and the arm the next. I couldnt imagine being hit in the eye. (yes i was wearing eye protection)

 

[Beren]

Glad you're okay, Feanaro! So how long did the "OH CRAP!" sensation last after you realized what happened?

I have a nice scar on my arm from a similar incident. I was sighting in a 9mm AR and discovered it was more off than I thought. The bullet hit the metal frame holder, and the jacket peeled off, flew back, and embedded itself in my arm. It all happened fast. "Pfft-ping-ow!"

Wear that eye protection folks! You don't want to shoot with a squint.

 

[wallysparx]

i used to be one of the people who depended on my prescription polycarbonate lenses for protection. at least that was until i was playing with a new load, and this load happened to eject its case right between my eyeglasses and my eyelid. i got myself a wonderful little burn scar and about a quarter of my eyebrow never bothered to grow back. since then, i've picked up safety glasses from home depot which are made to fit over prescription glasses, and they've done their job just fine. i can see them easily scratching or breaking, but are extremely cheap to replace.

 

[Guntalk]

I took a small cut last week from a piece of a handgun bullet that bounced off steel.

NOTE: I was not shooting. I was at least 35 YARDS back from the steel.

Wear those glasses when you are anywhere near anyone shooting.

 

[ripcurlksm]

Are steel matches just as "dangerous" ?? This has me thinking, it doesnt seem too bright to me with all these posts about getting hit with bounce backs.. Im sure there is no real danger if you have eye protection but what if it nails you in the mouth or neck? Im not trying to be negative or maybe this is out of proportion but it seems like quite a few people have had bounce backs.

There is a steel match every Thursday nite at my range on the 15 yard side, and after reading this it doesnt seem too bright to do... and i want to do the steel match too! paper targets can get boring which is why I moved to trap

 

[Guntalk]

The smart move is for the range to require the use of frangible ammo on steel. Not likely, though.

 

[JohnKSa]

I've been guilty of not wearing shooting glasses, simply because it can be hard to find any that fit over prescription eyewear.

EyeArmor makes polycarbonate protective eyewear called OveRx that is designed to fit over prescription glasses.

Also, WileyX and Decot make prescription glasses with polycarbonate lenses.

(Courtesy of the May 2007 issue of American Hunter. In the article by Jeff Johnston various shooting glasses were tested to determine how close one had to be to get a shotgun blast of #8 shot to penetrate the lenses.)

 

[Feanaro]

So how long did the "OH CRAP!" sensation last after you realized what happened?

I was split between amusement at the odds of being beaned by a round that ricocheted off my brother's stomach and a quiet realization that I could have been wearing my seein' glasses inside my eyeball, had circumstances been a little different. Didn't really have an "AL GORE ON A POGOSTICK!" reaction. I had a match to shoot and I'm hard to agitate.

We own a custom framing business, if you want I can throw that badboy in a shadow box and make a little plate that sits below it that reads "5/5/07 I was shot."

Hehe. I like that idea. Maybe when my paycheck rolls in I'll do that.

The smart move is for the range to require the use of frangible ammo on steel.

The trap itself is steel and I don't think they do quite enough business to justify a frangible only policy. I certainly couldn't afford to shoot as often.

EyeArmor makes polycarbonate protectiv eyewear called OveRx that is designed to fit over prescription glasses.

Thanks John. I've actually skimmed over that article but I didn't notice those glasses.