Eye protection, to wear or not.

[saddler]

Wear them when shooting ANYTHING
Wear them when driving

The type I use are the ISS Ice or similar - so the lense can be changed from clear to dark - hence using them when driving as they make great sunglasses.
Never really bothered with them but had to do so at UKPSA events, so just continued the habit. Never been an issue.

I seem to recall it's also part of the NRA RCO range orders/briefing now?

[Chuck]

Why is this being selfish?

Well chances are (a) that when an accident DOES eventually happen they'll want too sue someone -anyone - for their misfortune.

(b) Chances are injury could affect their work ability -and so their income and so their family??? Or for that matter upset those around them if they receive a serious eye injury etc .whatever...Yes it IS all about personal choice...but nothing is perfect and we all know accidents only happen to other people - don't they.

[pir]

I seem to recall it's also part of the NRA RCO range orders/briefing now?

The NRA RCO course teaches ear protection as mandatory and eye protection optional but recommended.

All too often when I wear safety glasses while shooting gallery I end up looking through the nose section which isn't useful at all. When shooting prone they're way too low. What glasses do people have that help with these problems?

[pnuk]

I'm copying something I wrote on another forum in case it's useful to anyone:

Safety glasses. Do you? (safe sight for a tenner)
I'm always surprised how few shooters I see at my club or Bisley wearing eye protection (other than clay shooters). Unlike ear protection, which is worn by all, yet burst ear drums are a damn sight easier to fix than burst eye balls.

When I've asked people often their reasoning is 'I don't need to, my prescription glasses are plastic' which, is true, but as its not made to withstand much force that particular plastic can just create a lot of shards which then imbed themselves in your eyes. Nice.

I've just been doing a lot of research as I needed a new pair and thought I'd share what I found out.

Firstly, why I wear eye protection:

Yes, I know that I'm not running out of spec, hot reloads in my rifles,
Yes, I know if a round doesn't go 'bang' I'll wait for an appropriate amount of time before opening the bolt,
Yes, I know that if one shot sounds considerably quieter than the others, that I'll check that there isn't a bullet jammed part way up the barrel before merrily sending another one up after it.
However, I don't know any of those things for sure about the people shooting either side of me. If you've seen any YouTube clips of rifles going 'pop' there's a lot of metal and wood/plastic as well as powder and lead that gets sprayed out to each side any small particle of which could cause a real downer on your day.

How to choose:

All glasses are not made equal but there are ratings which make it easy for a shooter to find appropriate ones. (And they definitely don't have to be called 'shooting glasses' as we all know how much the word shooting can add to the price of anything. God forbid you add 'tactical' into the mix too.

Ratings to look for:

En166f is the highest EU rating for glasses
(Showing they can withstand a 22mm steel ball weighing 43 g dropped onto the lens from a height of .38 meters)

The US standard to look for is ANSI z87+ for impact rated glasses (the plus is important and ones without the + may be rated a lot lower.)
(This tests that the glasses can withstand a 6.4mm steel ball at a velocity of 45 m/s)

There is also the US military rating for glasses: MIL-PRF-31013 that is a lot more aggressive than Z87+
(This tests that the glasses can withstand a 3.8mm 0.376 g projectile at a velocity of 195 – 201m/s)

http://www.radians.com/radsite/pdf/R...-FastFacts.pdf

How much will it cost?

Personally, I figure that you may as well go for as high protection as you can, as well as getting anti-scratch and anti-fog coatings to make them pleasant to wear. So, I wanted to have all the above which I thought would be expensive, especially when my initial research turned up glasses for £80 upwards.

Turns out that you really don't need to spend much at all.

In one test for example http://shotgunworld.com/bbs/viewtopi...05992&p=844081
the Pyramex Rendevous did incredibly well despite costing about £7

As the US standard seem to be higher than the EU I tended to search by 'Z87+' or 'MIL-PRF-31013' on US retailers sites then found the same model on a UK site.

There are a lot of models that fit the bill for very little money and even if you really feel they you want ones that have all the above and happen to be on the US military/law enforcement approved list (which I assume are selected partly due to a financial agreement between the companies and the procurement for the military as there are plenty that meet all the same criteria that aren't on the list!) then you can either buy one of the big names (such as Oakleys for £200) or go for one of the Uvex brands on the list such as the Genesis (which are the ones I went for) that are the princely sum of £13 Inc delivery from US Amazon
List here http://www.peosoldier.army.mil/equipment/eyewear/

For those that have a prescription, many of the brands you'll see can have a prescription insert (often referred to as an 'RX insert') for not much money too.

If you've tried some before and got annoyed at the arms either stopping your ear defenders from getting a good seal or simply being painful being pressed into your head, many now have very thin arms expressly for this reason (ESS Crossbows for example). It's normally pretty apparent from the picture of them.

One thing worth noticing when you try yours is the fit at the bottom. I found with some of the larger wrap around types (I.e. ESS Ice) that they sat quite high up and left a very large air gap between their lower edge and my cheek which, if you're a pistol shooter (when most nasties are most likely to come from eye-level) probably isn't an issue, but for rifle shooting where your rifle (and those next to you) is below eye level, I think it's better to have as small a gap as possible here.

Couple of other test articles if you're bored:
http://www.luckygunner.com/labs/eye-...lasses-review/

http://blog.safetyglassesusa.com/how...rated-eyewear/

Hope that helps someone.

[pnuk]

And my later update:

Uvex Genesis XC arrived yesterday a week after ordering from US Amazon. I'm really pleased with them, they are very clear, didn't fog and the arms are thin enough that I didn't notice them under my ear defenders.
In terms of coverage they are by far the best I've had. As well as a good sweep of lens to the side of each eye they also leave very little air gap between my cheek and the bottom of the lens which is often not the case. The XCs are a little bit more coverage than the standard Genesis. (Obviously faces are all different so this may not be the case for everyone.)

All for £13.82 delivered to my door over a week earlier than the estimated date when I ordered.

Very happy

[dromia]

I used to use a pair of Swiss shooting glasses that were articulated to let you see when shooting prone.

Earlier this year I went to the local spec savers to get some new reading glasses and I also enquired about safety glasses like the Swiss eye that would let me shoot prone but also have my reading prescription in the lower half for loading, checking sights, capping, pan filling etc. He said to give him week came back and he had a pair of what looked like bog standard safety glasses with side shields, I tried them on and they were perfect fitted well with a soft nose pad that let them sit in position so there was no impairment to vision when shooting prone. The safety glasses with a subscription lens in the bottom half plus my reading glasses came to £100 all in. These safety glasses have been a boon as I don't have to put on my reading glasses at the point for loading etc.

[safetyfirst]

I've got some Swiss eye with ear buds built in, excellent for gallery and rimfire but not quite enough for shooting next to a muzzle brake'd lunatic.

[Alpha1]

I have two pairs of safety specs made up by spec savers one pair is for iron sights the other pair is similar to Adams.

[dromia]

My Swiss Eye glasses came with the ear plugs and a normal set of articulated legs the ear plug legs were binned as I don't use plugs as they do not give sufficient protection.

[pir]

Anyone got a picture of these specsavers ones that work for prone shooting? That way if the local shop has no idea I can at least wave something at them.