Shooting/Safety Glasses While Hunting

[don hepler]

I know you all are tired of hearing me preach about Essilor Definity glasses. They are progressive lenses, developed by Johnson & Johnson and sold to Essilor. I was on the R&D team that developed them. They are different from progressive lenses made in the past. Instead of two plastic pieces bonded together, they are cut on CNC lathes and Polished on CNC robotic polishers and coated with the hardest coating in the market and Anti-reflective coated. They have the widest range of any lenses made. They are a little pricy but you can see the front and rear sight and distance better and wider peripheral view than any other lenses. In a couple weeks wearing them, you won't even realize you're wearing progressive lenses. I'm retired from them, and there's nothing in it for me.

 

[necchi]

While they may be the best "progressive" they say this on the own website marketing page.

as close to a regular, single-vision lens as you can get

http://www.essilorusa.com/EN/ECPSupport/ProductInformation/Pages/DEFINITY.aspx

My point is that progressive lenses are good for some applications, they simply do not replicate the full field view that common prescription lenses have.

 

[leslie]

:thumbsup:

 

[don hepler]

I fully agree with you. Regular prescription glasses are fine. I'm just comparing "good" progressive, VS. "el cheapo", progressive, for those who need progressive and live an active life style, like shooting, hunting, and computer use.

 

[crockett]

IMHO the muzzle loaders are FAR MORE dangerous and good eye protection is mandatory.

 

[S.Kenton]

I wear glasses because I have a crappy Astigmatism...in short.. I can't see real well at night nor long distance details, without my glasses. However, if I didn't have the need for glasses, I doubt that I would wear them while hunting. I know other peoples preferences will differ...but in the end, this would be my preference.

 

[Cpl. Ashencheeks]

Just make sense for any firearm being used.

I was using a friend's AR-7 .22 survival rifle. Aiming this little rifle brings your face close to the receiver and ejection port, and it somehow had an issue the day he let me use it.

When I fired it, it did fine for the first couple rounds, but when cycling the third round, the next thing I know is I am hearing a large 'POW!' followed by a long sustained high-pitched tone in my ears and a look of dazed confusion, by the time my hearing began to fade back in, my friend was telling me "You're okay!, You're alright, you are going to be fine!" This did not instill too much confidence in me, so I checked my fingers, my nose, and the one eye which took a good sized flash from the exploding rimfire, thankfully everything was still there.

I was wearing safety glasses as I always do when I go shooting, so my eye was still in good shape, but the rimfire brass that exploded had fragmented apart.

I have had cap fragments from cap and ball pistols tick me above the eyebrow and stick in my thumb and forefinger cup on the back of my hand, so it just makes sense to use protective eyewear.

With a flintlock, I would worry about tiny flint chips hitting me also.

If you look at old matchlocks, a lot of them had a flashgaurd running from the pan's rear and across part of the barrel, I believe this was for eye protection, before safety glasses came into being.

I would get something rated for shooting safety only, I suppose the other glasses would be better than nothing, but it is just better to have something rated for the activity.

 

[azmntman]

Geez :shocked2: , glad you were OK. Next we thing we see on TV will be atty ads...."Have you or a loved one been injured by a defective round of ammo?...you may be eligible for compensation"

Have had nothing but duds and 1/2 loads in .22 I'd say you were lucky! There's an add out in NRA or some magazine I was reading about recall on .22 (winchester?) that could have been double loaded? This happen recently?

 

[S.Kenton]

I one time loaded my pan on my N.W. Trade Gun a little too full while Squirrel hunting. I seen one of the varmints and took aim and pulled the trigger. The result was, I somehow got some burnt powder, or microscopic pieces of burning debris in my right eye. I had glasses on due to my Astigmatism and am not quite sure how it happened.Now keep in mind that this only happened ONE time..BUT methinks that goggles would be a true safety measure, rather than just plain old reading glasses, with or without safety lenses....BTW, I did kill the squirrel... :wink:

 

[Cpl. Ashencheeks]

Geez :shocked2: , glad you were OK. Next we thing we see on TV will be atty ads...."Have you or a loved one been injured by a defective round of ammo?...you may be eligible for compensation"

Have had nothing but duds and 1/2 loads in .22 I'd say you were lucky! There's an add out in NRA or some magazine I was reading about recall on .22 (winchester?) that could have been double loaded? This happen recently?

It happened I think in 1989.

I am not entirely sure how it exploded, but I have always thought that somehow a fresh .22 round collided with a jammed spent case in the ejector port while sending the next fresh round in and the bolt caught the rim in just a manner to cause it to fire that fresh round to explode in the half-opened receiver.

I can't say for sure, but I think proper lubrication of the rifle might have reduced the chance of this happening.

We put that gun up for the day, but my friend used his rifle at a later time with no problems.

 

[MacRob46]

I just found out that I have to have cataract surgery, which the docs had told me was years away. That is fine with me because they say plan to correct my nearsightedness with the new lenses. However, now I will have to invest with some good quality shooting glasses, something my prescription glasses took care of for many years. Looking forward to the surgery, which is not something I have said about past surgeries. This one will be a bonus if I can, indeed, ditch the glasses for most things.

 

[azmntman]

My pop had it done at age 75 (approx) and he never wore glasses again. AND he seemed to shoot alot better?

 

[Billnpatti]

The main purpose for wearing eye pretection when shooting either a flintlock or caplock rifle is to protect your eyes from flying fragments from the ignition of your rifle. That being the case, any of the safety glasses that are on the shelf in a sporting goods store will certainly do the job. If you need to wear prescription glasses, they will do the job so long as the lenses are big enough. Many of the current style of glasses have pretty small lenses and remind me of the glasses worn by Benjamin Franklin. These glasses do not provide sufficient protection because small fragments of cap or flint can possibly fly by the small lens and strike you in the eye. You can be fashionable off the range with the small lenses but be sure to have glasses with large lenses for any time you are shooting whether it be target shooting or hunting.

Some years ago, I had a small piece of steel fly up and stick in my cornea. Trust me when I tell you that you do not want that to happen. It is an experience never to be forgotten.

 

[Alden]

Team, when I was young I didn't need glasses to hunt with modern firearms but always did otherwise especially for competitve shooting so I was good to go. Even for reenacting, if you DON'T need glasses, get a pair of old time frames and have polycarbonate lenses, with anti-glare coating, which is what all my shooting-related glasses are now. I can see and am reasonably well protected.

 

[satx78247]

IF your employer offers "vision care" through your company's health plan, chances are that "industrial quality safety glasses" & in your choice of frames are covered & will cost you little or nothing.

MOST such policies allow one pair of new glasses per year.

yours, satx

 

[crockett]

I just had a crazy idea.... :grin: Goggles are pc. If you just have to be pc, maybe prescription goggles or just pc type goggles for eye protection.
IMHO, you really need something to protect your eyes. I hunt in thickets a lot where a branch in the eye is another worry.

 

[MSW]

when I started wearing the safety glasses which my company was nice enough to get (the whole deal is covered: the exam, frames and lenses) the whole 'looking at stuff' deal became a boatload better...

shoulda done that much sooner - didn't realize how bad my eyesight had become

you should wear eye protection whenever you

make good smoke!