im glad you posted that js,i always wear eye protection its very important.anyone that doesn't is just dumb...imo

Good post JS. Safety is paramount.
I like the cool, calm, collective response of the shooter.

Quick Q though. When at the range should I opt for range googles or am I safe sticking with my everyday glasses?

Originally Posted by LaSalle

Quick Q though. When at the range should I opt for range googles or am I safe sticking with my everyday glasses?

Are they rated to ANSI specs? I mostly shoot outdoors and wear my Oakley sunglasses which meet ANSI standards.

I don't know. They are just plain presciption glasses. How would I find out if they are rated to ANSI specs?

Would anyone mind explaining what happened in this video?

Glasses that meet ANSI standards normally have an almost-invisible "watermark" etched in the corner of the lens that reads, as I recall, "Z87." Unless you specified safety glasses with a minimum lens thickness when you filled your eyeglass prescription, though, you almost certainly do not have specs that meet ANSI standards.

All that said, standard polycarbonate or hi-index plastic is impact-resistant enough for shooting. The inexpensive CR39 plastic and unhardened glass are not safe for shooting, however.

Mike (whose family business used to be opticianry)

Originally Posted by Mike Barham

Mike (whose family business used to be opticianry)

YOU USED TO RAISE BIRDS??

Originally Posted by LaSalle

I don't know. They are just plain presciption glasses. How would I find out if they are rated to ANSI specs?

If they aren't "safety" glasses, probably not.
I wear some Uvex safety glasses that fit over my prescription ones.
I have clear and tinted, works well for me.
Regards
James

That's scary. Any clue what the hell happened there?

That's scary. Any clue what the hell happened there?

Backfire. From the sound of things they were using reloads, and not very good ones. Heard something about "bad primer", or maybe they were talking about the charge on the rifle. In any case, either an underloaded round lodged a bullet in the barrel that the shooter then accidentally tried to shoot through, or an overloaded round exploded in the chamber. Either way the hot gas and shrapnel comes back out the ejection port and can burn or blind.

Digging up an old thread here, but I had my first backfire today and thought I would tell people about it.

I am not sure what exactly happened, and that is the answer I am looking for in my post. Here is what happened.

I had just gotten to the range and had about 3 magazines ran through my XDm, so the gun was nice and warm. All of a sudden, about half way through my next clip BAAAAM! The gun kicked differently, the sound was much different, and a lot of debris I am assuming was gunpowder game back really hot and fast right into my entire face. It hurt like a son of gun and scared the hell out of me. I was at the range all alone, but I gathered myself and immediately set the gun flat on the bench, pointed down range. Once I had myself gathered up I dropped the magazine out of the gun, and realized there was a casing lodged just to the side of the barrel opening. I opened and locked the slide. Next I disassembled the gun and quickly realized the problem was with the cheap ammo.

Moral of the story...always always wear eye protection. I am very confident that my eyes would be hurting really bad right now if I had not been wearing my safety glasses.

What might have caused this?

Few things could have happened here.From what i hear in the video ,this is reloaded ammo,u can hear him say i didnt reload these some one else did.If so many things could have been at fault.

1.If they reloaded 5.56 NATO brass with civilian reload specs thats a disaster waiting to happen.5.56 NATO brass is thicker so if you reload a heavy load there isnt enough room in the 5.56 case as would be in a civilian case,such as Remingtons or Winchesters case.Thus you can create a huge amount pressure.

2.If this brass was just reloaded alot it could have gotten to thin.Everytime a case is resized it gets thinner and thinner.Could have even had a hair line crack in it that wasnt seen.Alot of things can go wrong when reloading.Could have even had a double powder charge which can be real bad news.Wrong powder,hard to tell,just have to be carefull and always wear the proper protection.

That will make me think twice next time I go shooting at my range