How safe are competition glasses?

[SlartyBartFast]

I've been looking at buying pistol glasses, but quickly realised that no matter how good they may be my range is likely to disallow shooting with them.
Having been hit by lead and jackets from ricochet at the range, I wondered how safe they could possibly be. A plastic blinder and monocle are hardly a replacement for close wrapped safety glasses with impact resistant lenses.

[Jon Math]

I don't trust them so I wear a pair of Wiley-X tight fitting wraparound glasses under my Champion optical glasses. Unless everyone around me is shooting air or free pistols then I usually only wear the Champions.

[SlartyBartFast]

I wear a pair of Wiley-X tight fitting wraparound glasses under my Champion optical glasses.

I was wondering if something like that is feasible.

At the range someone got hit in the arm with a ricochet that had enough left in it to leave a welt through a shirt.

I might take the risk of short sleeves as it gets hot and humid, but I don't want to take any risks with my eyes.

[atomicgale]

Sounds like you need a new range.

[David M]

Try these fitted with shatter proof lens.
They work well for shooting Blackpowder.
https://www.knobloch-schiessbrillen.de/ ... ng-Glasses

[C. Perkins]

Sounds like you need a new range.

The best answer is quoted above ^^^

No way that I would shoot at a range that cannot control ricochets using a proper back stop.

Clarence

[Mike M.]

Try these fitted with shatter proof lens.
They work well for shooting Blackpowder.
https://www.knobloch-schiessbrillen.de/ ... ng-Glasses

Actually, I use a regular pair of Knoblochs, with a 37mm lens, for BP pistol. The only concession is a pair of side shields.

[SamEEE]

They are not ballistic projectile protected, nor are they designed to be.

You only have two eyes and if you have any doubt, then you should wear ballistic protection in the USA the standard is "Z87.1".

[ShootingSight]

Safety glasses are tested according to the spec Z87.1 for regular safety glasses, or Z87.1+ for high impact safety glasses.

The former has to withstand a 1" steel ball of 68 gm weight, dropped from a height of 48" onto the lens. The high impact rated has to additionally withstand a 500gm pointed dart dropped on it from 50", and a 1/4" steel ball weighing 1.06gm fired at 150 to 300 fps.

That said, there are also 50 pages of additional requirements dealing with side shields, corrosion resistance, optical clarity, size of side holes, etc, etc.

Success for these tests includes that the lens not shatter, or form cracks all the way through, but also that the lens not pop out of the frames, and that the frames not flex enough that the lens touch the face of the user.

Standard shooting glasses similar to Knobloch and Hy-wide or Rangers will not pass the total test for safety glasses ratings. Assuming they use polycarbonate lenses (which is 'impact resistant', and the only thing I sell for shooters), the lenses would probably pass most of the impact requirements and would not shatter, however the strength of the frames is such that the lens would hit the user's face, and of course there are no side shields. So these are better than nothing, but certainly not true safety rated.

There are two (maybe three) other options:

1. If you can see distance perfectly without glasses (ie no distance glasses, just reading), the powers you need for shooting are either 0.5 or 0.75 and very occasionally for short arms, +1.00 diopters. I have worked with a safety glasses company, and gotten them to mold these powers of lenses right into the safety glasses, so I have true Z87.1+ rated safety glasses with shooting correction in them on my website.
2. Many safety glasses manufacturers can sell you safety glasses that have internal frames that you can fit prescription lenses into. This si similar to wearing your safety glasses over your prescription glasses, excepth that they are designed to work together.
2.5. I have thought about getting medical safety glasses that have a little metal plate in the face of them, so dentists can screw on the binocular magnifiers, and making an adaptor to allow you to add a Knobloch style lens. Still a 2 lens system, but you can position and angle the correcting lens. Trouble is that it is multiple hundreds of dollars to get glasses safety certified, and I am not sure if the market size justifies the investment, as most shooters accept the standard Knobloch system.

[SlartyBartFast]

Sounds like you need a new range.

If you can get me the Federal, Provincial, Municipal buy-in, the CFO and different levels of police approval and the couple million dollars or so it would take to build, I'll build the mythical range that never has a ricochet.

But my options are limited and the place is pretty well run and well kept. Not sure how much can be done when you have a full range with idiots that manage to shoot the target retrieval wires down.

Regardless, until I'm shooting with Olympic class shooters on international quality ranges I'll do my best to protect my eyes.

The frame-in-frame goggles, or Champion style with wrap around glasses underneath seem to all be options worth exploring.

The range doesn't seem to have a problem with me wearing my street glasses only, but I don't do that, I wear 3M safety glasses over them.

[Rover]

"Not sure how much can be done when you have a full range with idiots that manage to shoot the target retrieval wires down. "


Is this why Canadians are frequently called "hosers"?

[atomicgale]

Here in rural Tennessee, we have plenty of "Mythological ranges that never have a ricochet," . . . . it's called THE WOODS.

[atomicgale]

. . . also, here the TN Appalachia, we've solved "The Idiot Problem." THE WOODS = "Where Idiots walk in . . . but they don't walk out."

[ShootingSight]

There is another option for you, maybe 2:

Get a pair of street glasses made that are 'safety glasses'. These are the old framed style safety glasses, and you have your prescription lenses put in. Something like this: https://safetygearpro.com/product/sedan/. the frames are $30, and your optometrist will charge per lens to get safety lenses put in - if I recall, these are PC lenses that are minimum 3mm thick. You might spend $150 or so total.

The other option is to just get a second pair of street glasses made with PC or trivex lenses. PC and trivex are both impact resistant, so this gets you most of the way to having safety glasses. Indeed, you can buy little plastic side shields that go on the side.

True safety glasses need to meet specs that are some 56 pages long, including things like conductivity in case you are in an electrical situation, or corrosion resistance. For shooting, you simply don't care about many of these requirements; you are only after impact protection and perhaps side shields. Indeed, you probably don't even need the high momentum impact protection. So simply having pc lenses is most of what you need.