What eye protection is good for center fire practice?

You want maximum eye protection. Eye glasses are not enough. I wear prescription glasses and I had a special pair of sunglasses made. They are my driving glasses and they are safety rated. I get them at America's Best. Check them out.

RAJBCPA said:

I use standard eyeglasses (plastic) when shooting center fire and rim-fire guns.

Is this OK, or should I consider another layer of protection?

My local range (owned by the state government) does not have any rules on what eye protection should be used and many shooters do not use any eye protection on the range.

Do you take any extra precautions when using reloads?

thx..

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If you do get something, get it from a optometrist to your prescription and with yellow lenses. He can provide you with side shields, etc. Just tell him what you want them for. They are relatively expensive, but you can save a couple bucks on a inexpensive frame. Off the shelf goggles are (usually) not optically non-distorting, or made for shooters, and will mess up your accuracy.

PS: Your shooting prescription will likely be different than your normal glasses. They should be ground to optimize for front sight distance, so you'll either need to have someone measure for you while shouldering the rifle or take it with you. The optometrist will need to know this info. This gets really tricky if you need bifocals like me. My guy wears glasses and is a competition shooter, so he knows exactly what I need.

when i finally broke down and admitted the orbs were shot and needed specs full time, i told the doc i did target practice so he prescribed impact resistant lenses. was only 20 or 25 bucks more. forget what he called them, carbo something. 5 years ago so thinking i might be up for a new pair

Any eyewear that is ANSI Z87 rated; if you wear glasses, they do make "over the glasses" types, but they're a bit bulky. Better than an oopps though. I have prescription safety glasses with side shields. I had Transistions lenses put in and they work great at the range whether it's sunny or overcast.

I just wear my regular prescription eyeglasses which are shatter resistant.

My everyday glasses have Z87.1 rated polycarbonate lenses, but I don't use side shields.
Besides the Z87.1 front lenses & frames I have to wear side shields at work too, but I don't wear em off the clock.

I do occasionally double-up with a pair of wrap-around glasses over my prescription frames. I don't normally wear em while reloading or shooting unless I'm decapping live primers (and I still don't like doing that either).

Not just reloads, but any shooting should be max protection.
My buddy was hit in the face by wood splinters from an ND next to him on a public range when the idiot jacked the slide on an auto with his finger on the trigger.
Blind people don't shoot well.

Tell your optometrist that you want safty glass in you glasses. In the mean time you can get "over galsses" just about anywhere they sell safety items. Wal Mart has them from $2, and up.

While I have plastic shatter proof lenses in my regular eyeglasses, I generally also wear some amber over-the-glasses safety goggles. I plan to ask my optometrist to work with me to get a good pair of prescription shooting glasses.

Recently it was reinforced to me how well eyewear with some additional shielding can help. One day when I did not wear the goggles, a spent (very hot) 9mm case hit me in the forehead just above my right eye and dropped down behind my eyeglass lense. Even though I immediately jerked off my glasses to drop the brass, it burned me pretty good just below the eye. That was a sufficient reminder for me to get my goggles back on.

smlranger said:

While I have plastic shatter proof lenses in my regular eyeglasses, I generally also wear some amber over-the-glasses safety goggles. I plan to ask my optometrist to work with me to get a good pair of prescription shooting glasses.

Recently it was reinforced to me how well eyewear with some additional shielding can help. One day when I did not wear the goggles, a spent (very hot) 9mm case hit me in the forehead just above my right eye and dropped down behind my eyeglass lense. Even though I immediately jerked off my glasses to drop the brass, it burned me pretty good just below the eye. That was a sufficient reminder for me to get my goggles back on.

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That same reason (several 45 brass and a couple of 22 brass, I was a slow learner) that I switched from the uber cool sweat bands most of the shooters was wearing to a ball cap like my coach was wearing. No more hot brass on my eyelids.

My shooting glasses come in dark amber, light amber and yellow. All are safety glasses and all of them are prescription with the focal point set at 30", Doesn't matter if I am shooting long gun or handgun that is where the front sight is give or take a few inches.

I'm wearing a pair of my shooting glasses in my avatar.

76Highboy said:

You want maximum eye protection. Eye glasses are not enough. .

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maybe your's aren't. some are.

I wear prescription glasses and sun glasses. both are using a polycarbonate impact rated lense. My eye glasses carry the same ansi rating as a pair of our safety gogles at work for chip and impact resistance. Of my sunglasses I have 2.. a cheaper pair and a more expensive pair.. both are prescription.. the cheaper pair does not clamim the ansi rating.. and they are plastic lenses, not PC.. the other are PC, and carry more ratings than the ansi spec safety gogles.

One thing though.. some people wear SMALL glasses that don't adequately cover the eye.. I still wear the old '70's era' large lense style glasses that cover about as much as a set of those welding goggles.

it may be why my glasses carry an ansi rating.. IE.. due to material and lense size.

not to mention, they are thick enough that when I look down.. ants scatter for safety