Be Careful or You'll shoot your eye out!

[Newtire]

I am thinking lucky for me I had safety glasses on & did'nt actually get hit in the eye.

I wanted to see the pattern of a .44 shot load so shot one at the 7 yard line and a piece of shot bounced off of a knot in the 2X4 frame of the target & hit me in the chin-stung a bit and just broke the skin.

So watch out shooting that stuff.

I was using a Speer shot capsule and the load printed on the box.

[lathesmith]

Thanks for the reminder Newtire, just another good reason to ALWAYS, ALWAYS wear eye protection when shooting.
lathesmith

[462]

As a young boy, a friend and I were shooting Red Ryder's at flys that were landing on a wooden shed. Since our shooting skills were almost non-existent, we were shooting but a few feet away from the shed. I spotted a likely target, took an ever-so-deadly aim, jerked the trigger with wild abandon, and the BB came back and hit me just under the eye. I reckon the fly didn't know how close he came to an inglorious death.

Can't remember the adventure-filled tale I fabricated to explain the new red welt, but parents have an innate ability for seeing through a 4th-grader's lie.

Ralphie's mother haunts me every Christmas.

[Alchemist]

Glad you weren't hurt Newtire. Good reminder. My older brother told me to "watch that ant on that rock while I shoot it" when we were about 6 & 8 yrs old. Damn that BB stung! So did my bro's butt...Mom saw it all out the window!!

[fecmech]

I shoot sporting clays every weekend and over the years practically every one that I shoot with has been hit at least once by shot bouncing back off trees and stuff. I had one come back and hit me on the bridge of my nose between my glasses on the first shot of a double. I did hit both birds though!

[shooting on a shoestring]

One of the worst offenders is a dueling tree. I shoot on one every once in a while, and usually get a splatter, even from 20 yards.

[geargnasher]

First shot out of my buddie's brand-new 44 magnum splattered lead out the cylinder gap and sprayed me (sitting next to him) full on the side of my face. Thankfully my "shooting" glasses are actually Uvex wrap-around tinted safety glasses and they protected my eyes, but I dug lead foil out of my cheek and temple for a week!

I wonder how my next blood-lead level test will turn out [smilie=b:

Gear

[44man]

First shot out of my buddie's brand-new 44 magnum splattered lead out the cylinder gap and sprayed me (sitting next to him) full on the side of my face. Thankfully my "shooting" glasses are actually Uvex wrap-around tinted safety glasses and they protected my eyes, but I dug lead foil out of my cheek and temple for a week!

I wonder how my next blood-lead level test will turn out [smilie=b:

Gear
That is scary. Was it the gun's timing or a soft boolit? What make revolver?
I shot a steel plate at 50 yards one day and had a piece of lead stick in my chin.
The worst was when I was using RWS caps in my .54 Hawken. The things are so hard they shatter and about every time I shot, I had to dig a chunk of brass out of my nose. A lot of blood! I use them now to clean the nipple before loading but I hold the gun upside down.
The absolute worst was when I shot a 5 gallon can of water at 50 yards with a 30-06 using the 110 gr boolit. A piece of the can went whistling over my head like a freight train.
Then my friend was trying to get a scope setting at 50 yards with his .270 Weatherby by shooting into a RR bank. The bullet hit something hard and a piece came back and hit him in the thigh. It just missed the femoral artery and I had to rush him to the hospital. There was a huge hole in his leg and they had to sew it from the inside out. The piece of copper weighed 12 grains.
Be careful guys, even glasses will not save you sometimes.

[targetshootr]

Here's another example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ABGIJwiGBc

[OutHuntn84]

I was out at a range once with a bunch of reserve guys and between the burm and the targes were a bunch of old tires. Well we are all having a good ol time near the 7 yard line when this one guy shooting a 45 hits the ground holding his leg screaming "I'M HIT I'M HIT" (funny now to look back on, but at the time it was horrifying). We checked him out and no holes thank God but a 45 sized welp on his leg. From what we figured he was shooting CCI Blazers which are weak to boot, the round hit part of the target frame, a 1x4 and BOUNCED back when it hit the tire. After some searching we found the bullet and later that year presented it to him with a inscription around it saying "may all bullets continue to bounce off of you"

[oscarflytyer]

First shot out of my buddie's brand-new 44 magnum splattered lead out the cylinder gap and sprayed me (sitting next to him) full on the side of my face. Thankfully my "shooting" glasses are actually Uvex wrap-around tinted safety glasses and they protected my eyes, but I dug lead foil out of my cheek and temple for a week!

I wonder how my next blood-lead level test will turn out [smilie=b:

Gear

Had a revolver I suspected was not aligning the cylinder with the barrel and shaving lead. So.. being the rocket scientist I am, I decided to have a friend shoot it while I held a piece of paper next to the cylinder/barrel gap.

You GUESSED it! It WAS shaving lead! I picked lead and powder out of the back of my hand for 3 months! And damned, it hurt!

[oscarflytyer]

I was only about 16 or 17. Luckily my dad taught me right, and I had on my scrip shooting glasses I used for competition. The very first shot I ever took with a muzzle loader, the cap blew up and a piece hit me directly in the right lense - in direct line with my eye. It divoted the lense and then slide down and cut my cheek below the glasses.

I am now 47 and I still have that scar. Without the glasses, I would have definitely been blinded - at the young age of 16 or 17... I was lucky.

[Throckmorton]

you'd be amazed how far lead can fly from shooting hard surfaces.Not with great force,but an eye is not all that reisitant to falling objects.
At a large cowboy match once,the vendors row was many yards from the firing line,and lead was falling on their tents and in the commons area.
At my home range,the rifle house is a good 30 yards from the pistol house,and my splatter can be heard hitting the metal roof of the shed.
Saftey glasses on and OFF the firing line is a good idea.

[ghh3rd]

Just think of how many times things like that could have happened and came close that you didn't notice.

Back in my younger foolish days I set a quarter about a foot from a cement wall in my basement and shot at it with a fully charged .22 pellet rifle from about 20 feet away. I wore the imprint of that quarter on my forehead for several days :-|