The Importance Of Protective Eyewear

[ditto1958]

I got a somewhat scary reminder today of how important it is to wear protective eyewear when shooting firearms. I was shooting a 1911 at the range today when I had a kaboom. Still not sure what happened. When we got everything unjammed there was a spent case stuck in the chamber and the case head had ruptured.

I got a hand that was black with soot out of the deal. Also, I received three small shrapnel wounds to my left cheek, one of which was just below the lens of my glasses. If that had been a bit higher, and if I hadn’t been wearing glasses, I’d have lost an eye.

***EDIT: I looked at my glasses today when I was cleaning them. I small fragment did hit my left lens and left a small nick. That one would have been in my eye. ***

The gun escaped serious harm. It was really dirty inside, which took a long time to clean up. The magazine looks to be a casualty, though, although I may end up being able to fix it.

When I’m on duty at the range, I encourage everyone there to wear goggles if they don’t wear glasses. We loan them out for free. I’m often surprised, however, when people don’t take me up on it.

[Abnermal]

Glad you escaped serious injury! Scary experience-I've had .22s fire out of battery before. That was scary enough!

[CT_Shooter]

If you are able to explain this later, I'd appreciate an update. In the meantime, I'm glad you are well enough to describe to us a real world experience of how and why eyes (and ears) need to be protected while using firearms. Thanks.

[BrokenolMarine]

Could the bullet have been set back in the case?

It doesn't take much to cause a dramatic overpressure, which can cause the blowout of the case head you describe. Many years ago, I experienced exactly the same thing in a Glock 30 45.

[ditto1958]

I was shooting my handloads. 230 grain LRN’s over 4.6 grains of Red Dot. Alliant lists that as the starting load. They say 5.1 is max.

Could it have been a double charge? It’s possible, but not real likely. I use a Lee turret press with the Pro-Auto Disc powder measure, and it is very reliable at dropping consistent powder charges. A bad piece of brass? It’s possible. I’m not sure what the headstamp was. I will check it tomorrow.

[RanchRoper]

Yup, only got 1 set of eyes. Look after them.

[BrokenolMarine]

I WAS wearing eye protection, which looked as if had been sandblasted. A piece of shrapnel hit me just above the bridge of the glasses and cut my forehead. The mag release blew out the side of the gun, never to be found again. The half full mag blew out the bottom, and struck the top of one sneakered foot hard enough to leave it sore and bruised for ten days. The poly grip had swelled, but returned to it's proper shape. The slide assembly remained intact and on the firearm, but non-functional. My strong hand was bruised and blackened, but not broken.

Just prior to the kaboom, I had experienced a double feed. I cleared this failure, and reloaded the round that had jammed against the other in the top of the mag and when that round fired... boom. Lots of excitement.

I sent the firearm back to Glock for their inspection.

I wrote a letter to the company that made the shooting glasses, thanking them for vision from that day forward.

I called my Rabbis in the competitive shooting game, and they came over before I shipped the Glock, and determined the likely cause from our end. Qualified? Ah... yup. Both custom gunsmiths, both running their respective department police ranges and firearms training programs. Both agreed it was most likely a compressed load.

Reactions?

Glock found no failure in the product, but offered a replacement at factory cost. Perhaps my membership in the Glock Shooting Sports group, Status as a Glock armorer and department armorer, and the number of personal Glocks in my safe influenced this choice.. perhaps not. I have always found Glock to stand behind their products.

The eye protection company?
The owner called me and told me my letter had been matted, framed, and hung in the main corporate office. A copy had been included with every employee paycheck with a personal reminder from the owner that the work really makes a difference. He said a box of swag and new glasses were on the way.

Me? In more than twenty years, I have never reloaded a questionable round back into a firearm, nor allowed it done on my range, or one I am running. When reloading, I check the drop often. Safety first.

[RetiredSeabee]

Ditto, glad you still have both of your peepers.

[Steve51]

Glad you are okay. At our sportsman club range, safety glasses and ear plugs are required. We do not have an on duty range officer but cameras are recording all activities.

[daytime dave]

I'm glad you came out more or less ok ditto. You can tell people over and over, but stories like yours and Marine's set the tone. Thanks for sharing your experience here with us.

[ruhler]

Glad your OK could have been a lot worse. Thanks for sharing the experience as a reminder of what can happen to anyone.

When I started to reload 9mm in my dillon 650 ive discovered several brass that cracked at the bottom of the case on 2 of 10 cartridges. I identified the problem and the brass was not whole lenght calibrated so the brasscase was wider halfway down of the case so when i used the crimptool the case was pressed down a little by the crimptool resulting in a a little crack in the case this was with Lee deluxe kit 4dies. Took a while to identify the problem for me, can only imagine what could have happen if I fired a round like that. A progressive reloadingpress is good but it makes it even more important to take the time and check the cartridges closely through the different stations and check every cartridge before adding them to the ammobox. I also check cartridges before loading them into the magazine aswell on the shooting range. Better safe than sorry.

Never had a incident with reloads, but factory ammo have been click, too hot loaded and the worst too low load. A friend of mine shot factoryloaded ammunition on a competition with a 44magnum S&W, stressed by the timelimit he didnt notice one round was a squibload that probably must have been stuck a little in the muzzle but the second round he fired it went BOOOM gunpowder residue allover the place the bullets never reached the target. He was alright no injuries but a pain from the recoil in his hand and he was really shaken up, the gun was later on checked by a gunsmith and it was nothing damaged, after that incident he never ever bought a factoryloaded round.

[BrokenolMarine]

Ruhler,

Your problem with cases is why I have a Dillon case gauge for every caliber I load. After every run, all the rounds are dropped in the case gauge before the go in the bins. Failures go in the trash. I don't try and recycle. My ammo trash is a Foldgers can with 3" of oil in the bottom. I sink the few rejected rounds I get these days in that. Kills the primers and powder, eventually. Lol.

[CT_Shooter]

I use the Lee Carbide Four Die set for .38/.357, which includes their Factory Crimp Die.

The Full Length Resizing/Decapping Die squeezes the brass case back into SAAMI specs as it pushes out the primer. I always inspect the case after this process.

The Lee Factory Crimp Die performs the very same resizing function while crimping the bullet, eliminating the need for a case gauge. At this point, I inspect the case and crimp before boxing the cartridge. I've never had one fail to chamber in either my revolver or rifle.

Lee 38 Special/357 Magnum/357 MAX Carbide Factory Crimp Die sizes the cartridge while being crimped so every round will positively chamber freely with factory like dependability. https://leeprecision.com/carbide-factor ... 8-357.html

[Sir Henry]

I always wear eye AND ear protection.

[GFK]

Glad all is well. I recently joined a sporting club a few months ago. Part of the orientation was to wear hearing and eye protecting when on the range. I typically just wear my glasses. During the safety brief, it was pointed out that glasses do not provide protection on the sides. So, I purchased a pair of eye protection that did.

I am glad I purchased the eye protection. It was cheaper than buying glasses. This proved to be true when I failed to snug the butt in my shoulder during a bench rest shot. I have a new appreciation for eye relief now.

[clovishound]

Let's see, metal frame, fully supported chamber, eye protection. Gun survived the dreaded Kaboom. More important, your eyes did too.