Wear Glasses

[Dreaming100Straight]

I thought I got hit in the cheek with some shards of a skeet target, but only discovered when I got home why I didn't seem to have been cut or scratched on the cheek. The left lens of my shooting glasses was scratched over a 1/2" long area and my eye would have taken a hit but not for them. The lens is easily replaced if needed, but the eye . . .

(It was like pulling teeth without anesthesia to talk myself into spending the money for shooting glasses, but I am so glad that I broke down and did. even if they cost as much as my first shotgun, the 870.)

 

[Mosin-Marauder]

What? My Winchesters were free. Or are you talking about prescription lenses?

 

[Virginian]

Excellent post. I took a branch in the eye one morning going duck hunting. Fortunately missed the important parts but it felt like I had a toothpick stuck in there. Eye doctor numbed it and used some dye and it had taken a chunk out of my eyeball. I started wearing safety glasses, and now I need a slight prescription anyway. I have gotten marks on the lenses lots of times shooting incoming clays.

 

[Kframe]

Not only shooters, spectators nearby ought to wear them, too.
At a recent shoot I saw a guy's daughter catch a piece of copper jacket (pistol onto steel poppers) in her straw cowboy hat - it went through and got stuck in her hair. We were 30 yards behind the plate.
She wasn't wearing any eyeglasses and if it went through the straw it surely would've gone through an eye.

 

[Dreaming100Straight]

Yep, prescription shooting glasses and I wasn't exactly shooting, but standing behind the shooter on low 8 to study hold points. I have some inexpensive planos that I am going to start carrying in my trunk for shooters without glasses.

 

[BigJimP]

Most ranges will require you to wear glasses ...if you go beyond the fence ( shooting, scoring, watching. instructing or whatever...)....

but yes, its a good reminder...so Thanks for bringing it up ....

more than once I've ended up with shards from a clay target in the side of my face ...standing 10 feet away from the shooter on a skeet field...as they break and splatter ( and these new bio degradeable targets seem to be harder and more prone to splatter like that ).../ as a referee at a skeet tournament, I got hit with pieces on 3 or 4 occasions one day...( I looked like I'd been in a bar fight - or scratched up by an alley cat ...)...

 

[SPEMack618]

In some regards, being forced into eye classes in the 3rd grade by my Mother has been most fruitful.

When I took to shooting, wearing glasses was no big deal, I was already used to having some sitting on my face.

I have a pair of tinted prescription shooting classes and my Army issued BCG that are impact resistant and cover the entire eye.

Somewhat related note, I had a pair of Oakley protective sunglasses with my prescription inserts that stopped several chunks of Humvee when we got hit with a VBIED.

 

[Goatwhiskers]

A cap is another good accessory. I've seen a couple of nicely split scalps from a chunk of clay target. GW

 

[zach_]

I used to shoot pistols at the rifle range I currently call my favorite place away from home. This range does not have walled dividers between pistol lanes. I grew tired of brass showering on me while shooting, but I would shoot there anyway. One day, my last day shooting pistols there, I caught hot debris, more than once, of some kind on my cheek just below the edge of my glasses. The guy was shooting a large revolver of some kind. I now shoot with glasses that cover completely. No more aviator style shades while shooting.

 

[Brotherbadger]

I use OTG shooting glasses. It's much cheaper than prescription shooting glasses. Takes a little getting used to, but it's worth it.

 

[TomADC]

Always wear shooting glasses, many times especially on station one when the low house is broke I'd get pieces close or even hit a few times, I was taught when shooting the singles on a doubles station break the incoming clay close to you as that's where it will be when you shoot doubles. Didn't have the problem on station 7.

 

[Shane Tuttle]

Back when I was a young teenager, I operated the skeet houses for a gun range my uncle ran. The low house was giving us fits on a more and more frequent basis. Can't remember what part was broke, but my uncle told me to keep the unit clean/free of debris. It would fling the clays either really early or really late, which would result demolitions of the clay pidgeons instead of flying out of the window.

I was cleaning the house out, and, stupid typical teenager me decide to give it a test run while inside of the house. I've always been a gearhead and wanted to know up close and personal what was causing it to act up. Needless to say, I didn't follow my uncle's stern "advice" on wearing safety glasses.

Let's just say I was extremely lucky one of the few areas of my face that didn't receive the horns of the bull were my eyes. Miracle, yet very stupid not to wear them. I could only imagine what it would be like today if I was stooping about an inch either way...

 

[Vt.birdhunter]

At a recent shoot I saw a guy's daughter catch a piece of copper jacket (pistol onto steel poppers)

Jacketed ammo on steel targets is a big no no.