We shoot a lot of steel plate matches at my range. We had a plate that cratered by someone using steel core ammo and the next shooter to hit it had jacket material fly back and hit him in the face.

One piece hit his ballistic Oakley lenses, no damage. Another piece hit his cheek below the classes and imbedded into his skin.

We have a mandatory Eye/Ear protection uses at our range, this just reinforced as to why. (and yes, we called a cease-fire and inspected the plates, and removed the cratered one. We now also inspect rounds to look for steel core and poly cased rounds)

I use the 3M 11327 Aearo Virtua Safety Glasses Grey Frame Grey Lens. About $5 at home depot. Have pairs in all my cars, and range bags. Tinted for UV protection, and fully rated impact protection. I have a pair of clear lenses for cloudy or rainy days at the range. They have stopped shotgun pellets twice for me, along with shaving lead from out of time revolvers next to me.

I guess I need to look into an impact rated solution for my range bag. Usually just wear my normal glasses as I can't see anything without them. Basic safety glasses don't work for that reason and I never thought to ask my optometrist. I guess it's good I have an appointment in a month.

When I wore contacts, I wore rated shooting glasses.

I shoot less now because I am not competing any more, and wear my regular polycarbonate lenses, which may not be rated, but still offer decent protection.

Any of us who shoot more than a little have been hit by some ricocheting material. We all should know enough to wear eye protection. I've been hit in the face two or three times hard enough to know I didn't want to be hit in the eye.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: jhe888,

My eye doctor (also a shooter) has told me any Rx glasses made in this country in the last decade at least are impact rated. So I just wear my prescription glasses so I can see. My son with his young person perfect vision wears a pair of MMM construction glasses from Home Depot when we go shoot.

I always eye and ear protection when shooting, cutting grass, using a chain saw, etc.

I have steel targets on my range and have run steel challenge stages like Triple Threat countless times. Targets are as close as 6, 8 and 10 yards away. Most of the time I was shooting 200gr. HG-68 hard cast bullets. I've been hit in the face and neck with splatter many times.

I have several MGM targets, including a Bianchi Plate rack and 18x24 silos. I also have some mild steel that are only used for long range rifle. A few months back, my Son had a brain fade and shot a pocked up mild steel target and the jacket came back and hit me in the stomach from 25 yards away. Part of the jacket barely penetrated the skin and left a dime sized blood blister that lasted for weeks.

I insist on eye and ear protection anytime someone is at my range.

I am an always guy and have been for decades

I hate when I see pictures ( posed or not I don’t care) or videos of people shooting without eye protection, especially as it may influence a young shooter to not wear eye protection.

I was on a Facebook group where I suggested eye pro should be mandatory and we need to set a good example for youth to protect eyes, and was pretty viciously attacked for it, which really surprised me.
With so many things that can go wrong ( rare as it may be) kabooms, brass failure, pierced primers, ejected brass debris bouncing of steel targets and lord knows what else, doing any shooting without basic eye protection is negligent from my perspective

I answered "Just my daily prescription eye wear" and "No".

However, I'm probably closer to a "sometimes" wearer of impact rated eye protection. Years ago I had a couple pair of prescription glasses that were paid for by my employer to comply with work safety requirements, that were impact rated and had detachable side shields, and I used those for shooting as well.

In later years I had prescription glasses with polycarbonate lenses that offered some protection while shooting, but I don't recall their actual rating.

Also, although I greatly prefer to shoot with my vision properly corrected, I feel it's prudent to occasionally train without my prescription eye glasses on to simulate a scenario in which I can't get to my glasses in time, or that I've fallen and lost them, or they're broken while I'm defending myself. When I train for this situation I always wear one of the assortment of impact rated safety glasses I keep in my range bag.

Although I've never taken frag to my eye pro while shooting, I once was shooting with my brother and while he was shooting a .357 mag revolver (I think with . 38 spl. handloads), I was standing @ 4' to his right and slightly behind him, and immediately after he broke the shot I felt an impact and sting to the upper left side of my nose. When I reached up to touch I found I was bleeding slightly. The revolver must've been shaving lead off one of my Dad's handloads. I was wearing my prescription glasses, but can't recall which pair. The impact to my nose was probably @ 1.5" from my left eye.

My current prescription glasses have polycarbonate lenses, but I need to verify what they are rated for.

sigfreund, thanks for the reminder this thread provides. Until I can verify what my current protection level is, and figure out some dedicated prescription shooting eye pro, I think I'm going to pick up a set of goggles that fit over my glasses as a stop gap measure.

I shoot a lot of black powder rifles and pistols. Here in UK eye protection in some ranges is mandatory, but not on ours.

However, when I shoot, or, on a guest day, somebody in my care shoots, then eye protection is a must. I wear a set of wrap-rounds that go over my everyday wear glasses, which, having cost me almost $800, I'm a mite sensitive about having marked from percussion cap sparks.

I am blind in my left eye so I take care to protect my right eye. I always wear eye protection, whether shooting or cycling. When I was in high school I got a piece of glass from a broken light bulb in my right eye. Had to wear a patch for a couple of weeks. It was then that I came to the conclusion that I had better take care of my vision. As a side note, I also missed a Van Halen concert that I already had tickets for.

I ordered DECOT glasses at Shot Show several years ago. They had an option for the strength of the lens so I went with the best one. The salesperson asked about what I shot and where I shot indoor/outdoor and made a recommendation as to color,etc.
The lens were made for my prescription.

I bought a bunch of Wiley X PT-1 shooting glasses for dirt cheap new for me and family/friends and used them for years.

Recently using a coupon code and promotion bought a new pair of Gatorz Magnum Milspec glasses. Both brands are Milsec and Anzi rated. The Gatorz were still twice the price of the Wiley's retail price wise but my advice is don't skimp out on good eye protection, I had a eye injury from on the job not shooting that healed after a eye procedure and many trips to the doctor. Thank god it was temporary never want to risk a permanent injury for a measly few dollars savings.

Only thing that sucks is Gatorz do make RX versions which are over 400 dollars which price is not the issue. They lose the Milspec and Anzi rating and the company doesn't recommend using them for shooting. Don't have problems seeing up close to a distance but after 20-25 yards my aging eyes need prescription lenses to see clearly far away.

Revision Sawfly military wrap arounds.

I have two of the large frame versions which are sadly too uncommon with other brands. Interchangeable Mil-Spec lenses. Rx carrier + optional vermillion lens to augment smoked and clear.

As always, thanks for the responses. The “impact rated” part of the question was to establish a line in the query, but the need for that level is obviously dependent upon circumstances. As some have mentioned, shooting at steel at close distances poses the greatest likelihood of something really dangerous coming back at the shooter. Even if recommended protocols are observed, sometimes people get hit with frag from steel. On the other hand of the many tens of thousands of rounds I’ve fired from various guns, only once was there a problem (ultimately unknown) with blowback from the cartridge itself. As far as I know that was limited to gas and probably some unburned powder, and therefore virtually any sort of glasses would have been enough protection.

Thanks again, and everyone be safe.

I suffer from pretty severe migraines, to the point that I need 20% tint on my car windows to drive during the day. To that end, whenever I wear my contacts I also wear my sunglasses. I wear them almost everywhere when I can. My "sunglasses" are actually ASTM Z87.1 rated polarized safety glasses made by 3M. They cost all of $30 and they're the best sunglasses I've ever worn.

Funny story: I went to a local indoor range with a friend, and when we were getting our lane the guy held out a pair of regular shooting glasses.

"I figure you're going to need these."

Actually, I plan on keeping what I've got.

"But there's no sun in there."

I'm not worried about the sun; they're polarized and I wear them for migraine control.

" "

Guy was falling all over himself apologizing once he realized what was going on. I told him all was good and that I didn't care (it was and I didn't), and that was that. I wore them for the entire hour I was there and had no real issues to speak of.

To the second question, folks will recall my thread in the PYB section about having my CZ P09 blow up in my hands. I'd say that qualifies.

Since seeing this I've been more faithful about it.