Another safety eye-opener.

[DarkRose]

So this past Saturday me and my dad and my son went out to our wooded property to do some weedeating and multi-flora rose spraying. My son has been learning to shoot with a pellet gun, so we took it, we've got a nice shooting bench and 50 yard range, clearing it back a little further every year.

At the NRA convention (I think) dad got some of those thick plastic colored bottle hanging targets for my son to shoot at.

Well he hung a couple up at about 10 yards, and as I'm standing there next to my son, my son takes his first shot, and I hear "thwack wizzzzzz...." and something lands in the bushes right behind the shooting bench and about 6-12 inches to his right... I tell dad "hold up, I don't like the sound of this".

So I sit down at the bench and take a shot (Crossman pump with flat nose pellets), same thing. The pellets are bouncing off the bottle and straight back past the shooter. We weren't thinking, and my son didn't have eye protection (me and dad were wearing glasses). No harm no foul, but could have been bad.
We found an empty pop bottle, much thinner, pellets went right through, and he got to shoot a little bit more. (No spare non-prescription glasses with us)


Even kids shooting pellet guns should have eye protection. We'll be getting him a pair of youth shooting glasses before we go out shooting again!

 

[cedartop]

My daughter can't take her bb gun out without safety glasses. Eyes are just too important to take the chance.

 

[shibumiseeker]

It should be ok, I hear from INGO that because not that many people have had eye injuries from shooting guns that precautions aren't necessary.

The above IS sarcasm by the way, I don't do purple. Seems like in any of these types of threads you'll get the yahoos who come on and say that because THEY didn't get hurt doing something, no one will and we're all just wusses for taking precautions.

Eyes are delicate, easily damaged, and expensive to fix if they can be fixed. There may be times when not using shooting glasses is necessary, but when you're just plinking isn't one of those times. On three occasions while shooting, once with a pellet gun, I can credit safety glasses with saving one of my eyes.

 

[Jackson]

Safety glasses are important for other activities, too. I wear them when reloading, mowing, using thhe weed eater or leaf blower, working under my car, and when using many aerosol chemicals. I've had backsplash from brake parts cleaner or carb cleaner in my eye and it is none too pleasant.

Protect your eyes.

 

[Kirk Freeman]

Always shocked at the lack of eye protection I see on the range. The Internet gives me the heebie geebies.

 

[singlesix]

The only targets I use at 10 meters is paper with old phone books as the backstop. I found out that pellets have a nasty habit of bouncing back on harder targets.

 

[jblomenberg16]

I bounced a pellet off my forehead when I was about 10. Don't recall what my target was, but I was shooting in the back yard (without permission) and without glasses. I was about 2" from litterally shooting my eye out. Dad never had to remind me again to wear my eye pro, and I don't think twice about it today.

Glad this incident had a happy ending and a lesson learned the not so hard (and painful) way.

 

[singlesix]

[video=youtube_share;mrAwb9ptu9U]http://youtu.be/mrAwb9ptu9U[/video]

 

[Cameramonkey]

Yep, even soft targets can massively deflect pellets.

Mom wanted me to show her how to run dad's pellet gun for critters. we grabbed a plastic gallon vinegar bottle from the recycling, and used it as a target at about 20'.

I dont recall who, but one of us took a shot and it hit the bottle high on the angled part above the body. the bottle spun and I heard the pellet impact sheet metal. both of our cars were to the right of the bottle about 25' away. Everything behind the target was turf.

The bottle managed to redirect the pellet and fling it into one of the cars. (we never did find the ding)

So yes, always wear eyes, regardless of what you think wont happen. I cant find the video, but I recall watching a PSS RO get hit in the face with a ricochet from a steel target. As I recall it hit his glasses and was deflected into his cheek. guy dropped like Fats Domino falling through a skylight. (he was ok, thanks to the glasses)

 

[ModernGunner]

Ya only get one set of eyes, and there's no actual replacement for them. Please wear proper eye protection.

As I wear glasses, every pair are made with shatter-resistant 'safety' lenses. For those times I'm wearing contact lenses, I have 'regular' safety shooting glasses.

 

[cmr13]

I always wear eye protection when shooting, and when doing other activities that could be a risk to my eyes. At my last job I got battery acid in my eyes before I started wearing safety glasses. That was a painful lesson to learn. Thank God there was no permanent damage, but I wore safety glasses every day after that day.

So yes, always wear eyes, regardless of what you think wont happen. I cant find the video, but I recall watching a PSS RO get hit in the face with a ricochet from a steel target. As I recall it hit his glasses and was deflected into his cheek. guy dropped like Fats Domino falling through a skylight. (he was ok, thanks to the glasses)

I believe this may be the video you are referring to:
[video=youtube;aDPz4ODYsnw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aDPz4ODYsnw[/video]

 

[Cameramonkey]

I believe this may be the video you are referring to:

Yep! Thanks for the find!

 

[cmr13]

Yep! Thanks for the find!

You're welcome!

 

[DarkRose]

Yeah, lesson learned.
Taking the pellet gun was more of an afterthought, because we hadn't planned on taking it. But next time there will be a spare set of glasses around just in case. Think I'm gonna dig up one of my extra sets and stash them in dads truck just for that. (I already keep a pair in mine, along with extras in my toolbox at work...)