shooting-range, eye-protectionWhen a shooting range is portrayed in a movie the characters often wear safety goggles made of slightly colored plastic. I often see such goggles on display in local gun shops.
The “slightly colored” part is easy - it’s to increase contrast and give better visibility. However the goggles are almost always designed to extensively cover the eyes from all angles. They are clearly intended to protect against something yet they’re also clearly not strong enough to protect against being shot.
What exactly are they designed to protect against?
They are designed to protect against anything injuring your eyes. Be it spall, debris, shotgun pellets, or ricochets. Even carbon, powder, and dirt from the chamber of semi-automatic rifles that escapes through the ejection port.
The material they are made of is much stronger than the plastic your TV remote is made of. Take a look around the websites of companies like Revision Eyewear that make glasses for the military and you will see lenses that have saved the wearer’s eyes from explosions and gunfire.
In addition to protecting your eyes the larger lens surface also help protect the very sensitive tissue of the facial area. There is a lot of very important stuff behind your face.
They also do more mundane tasks like keep the sun, wind, dirt and rain out of your eyes. All in all, they are an extremely important piece of safety gear to wear.
In addition to the quality answers…
Make sure when you are picking out safety glasses for the shooting sports, you make sure of a few things:
Coverage. Get good coverage of your whole eye area. Basically from the brow down past the orbital structure and cheekbone.
Wide angle coverage to protect against lateral debris.
ANSI Z87.1 spec.
If you wear prescription eye-wear, investigate whether the lens and frame can accept your Rx and retain Z87.1 spec or have the ability to put Rx inserts behind the protective lenses.
Not a deal breaker, but quality eye protection should have the ability to swap lenses for different lighting conditions.
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