How Safe Are Your Shooting Glasses?
The editors of the NRA’s American Hunter magazine recently tested 10 brands of shooting glasses, determining how well the eyewear could shield users from shotgun birdshot. Eyewear samples were tested at 25, 15, 10, 8, and 5 yards, using #8 shot. One ANSI Z87.1-certified set of polycarbonate eyewear was then repeat-tested with #6 shot, #4 shot, #2 steel and buckshot.
CLICK HERE for Full TEST Report.
The tests provided some very important conclusions:
1. The glasses marked Z87.1+ (“plus” is a high-impact rating) performed the best. Overall, Z87.1-rated polycarbonate lenses provided excellent protection from birdshot at 10-15 yards and beyond. Some Z87.1+ eyewear even blocked birdshot at 8 yards.
2. You can’t necessarily rely on price as an indicator of quality. The $12 Bollé VX and the $5.95 Pyramex Rendezvous both worked better than some much more expensive brands. The $5.95 Pyramex, in fact, was one of only three products that stood up to the #8 birdshot at 8 yards. The Pyramex does carry a Z87.1+ rating.
3. Avoid no-name, un-rated plastic eyewear. American Hunter Editor Jeff Johnston writes: “It’s a mistake to assume that any plastic-lens sunglasses off the rack at the local 7-11 are made of polycarbonate and therefore are effective as shooting glasses—cheap plastics are not polycarbonates; in fact, wearing them could be worse than wearing nothing, as they can introduce sharp shards of plastic to your eyes in addition to the projectile(s) that caused them to break.”
Since I am not currently hunting with Vice President Chaney, I’m not concerned with the absolute safety of my shooting glasses…
As a boy on a mixed farm on the plains the 1st shooting stick I owned was a Red Ryder BB gun. My Dad bought it for me as I showed a keen interest in the shooting and hunting sports. I was about 9 years old at the time.
We had literally thousands of sparrows in our large farm yard and they liked to roast on the steel railings in the barn loof. The grain bins and hay stacks were coated with their bird droppings.
I took to slowly thinning out their ranks by flashlight at night as these little winged pests settled in the farm buildings. One evening as I slayed sparrow after sparrow in the barn loft – with about a dozen farm cats following me to consume these easy meals, I fired at another bird centered in my flashlight beam.
However, my aim was a bit low – and the copper pellet hit the steel beam square on. Instantly I felt a sharp pain as the BB bounced back and hit me squarely between the eyes on the bridge of my nose – drawing blood from the partial penetration into the skin. A half inch either way and I’d have lost an eye..!
Never, never, never shoot at any target with a steel background with any firearm, even a BB gun – is the hard lesson I learned, and wear the best shooting glasses that money can buy..!!
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT..!!!