A Beginner’s Guide To Shooting Glasses

Aaron Spuler is a firearms enthusiast and recreational shooter. Follow more or his work at The Weapon Blog

Introduction

If you’re headed to the range, then you’ve made sure your AR-15 is sufficiently lubricated, your AR15 magazines are all loaded, and you have your hearing and eye protection because safety is the single most important thing when it comes to shooting.

With every single shot you take, it’s smart to wear both eye and ear protection. So, today, we’re going to talk about eye protection as a first step to shooting more safely. After all, you cannot shoot what you can’t see, so it’s vital to protect your eyes.

We’ll start things off by discussing ratings of eyewear and how to tell whether or not any particular pair of glasses or goggles is right for you. From there, we’ll detail several distinct types of eye protection, their use cases, and a few drawbacks of each.

Rating Systems

First and foremost, ignore every single piece of marking description when you’re looking at glasses you intend to use at the range and, instead, look for the rating of the lenses. If the lenses you’re looking at happen to be ones also issued to militaries, you want to look for the MIL-PRF 32432 Ballistic Fragmentation Standard.

This will mean that the lenses are meant to withstand fragmentation of the kind you would get from a ricochet or a malfunction that would cause debris to make its way quickly towards your eyes.

On the civilian end, look for ANSI Z87.1 or Z87+ ratings. Again, these are standards set by the government that indicate that the eyewear will stop debris from entering your eyes, and, vitally, will be highly unlikely to shatter upon impact.

When looking for ballistic glasses, this should be the first consideration. While form-factor, style, and comfort all come into play, the thing that matters the most here is retaining your ability to use your eyes.

While some ballistic glasses might not be the coolest-looking frames on the planet, form has to come a distant second to function when it comes to safety.

Clear Ballistic Glasses

The most common type of protective eyewear that you’re likely to see are simple, clear ballistic glasses that take the form-factor of sunglasses, but replace the lens with a clear (and certified) ballistic lens.

These are ideal for shooting at indoor ranges since you’re going to want to let as much light through as possible to be able to see well. And, if you’re indoors, there’s no glare from the sun to worry about.

When shopping for these, finding a model that has an anti-fog coating on the lens is nice if you want to avoid having to clean them often in cold or humid conditions.

Also, it’s a good idea to look for models that have slim arms that will fit well under over-the-ear hearing protection: indoor ranges have extremely loud, concrete construction most of the time, and anything you can to do avoid letting extra noise into your ears is worth doing.

We recommend, to start, finding a cheap model of these that you like and get enough of them so that you keep one in every gun bag you have, wherever you keep your firearms, and a spare in the glovebox of your car.

That way, neither you nor your buddy who forgot his glasses are tempted to go without this vital piece of safety kit.

Polarized Glasses

Assuming that you’re only looking at glasses that are ballistic rated, any pair will do for keeping your eyes safe from debris. But, debris is far from the only threat to your eyes. If you plan on shooting in the bright sun or outdoors for any period of time, it’s worth considering some glasses that have tinted lenses.

Over time, UV light from the sun does long-term damage to your eyes: this is not great for your shooting career, especially if you plan on spending a lot of time using magnified optics that make the sun seem even brighter.

With this, a feature that we often look for are lenses that are polarized. Polarized lenses aid the wearer in seeing in water, which makes them great for fishing, but also in environments where there are a lot of shadows.

Since we’re fans of being practical, it would make a lot of sense to spend a little more on a single pair of glasses that would be good for the range as well as fishing and general use as sunglasses.

Goggles

At first glance, goggles seem like a bit much for most shooters, and you might well be right. Generally, goggles have larger lenses that wrap further around, and a gasket that makes some kind of seal around your face.

For normal range use, this leads to a seriously sweaty face, and if the seal is not adequate, they can also fog up badly. But, in certain cases, we think that goggles make a lot of sense.

People who shoot suppressed often have one major complaint: that hot gas and unburnt powder come back at their faces. This is especially true of folks who shoot ARs suppressed for more than a few rounds at a time.

If you plan on shooting anything with the potential of an overgassed gun, we think it’s a good idea to invest in goggles. Not only will this alleviate the danger from the unburnt powder, but it’s also a lot more pleasant to shoot without your eyes watering from the hot gasses blowing back at your face.

Also. goggles with straps often fit a lot better under ear protection than glasses with arms, which makes them great for wearing for longer periods of time.

Conclusion

So, which kind of glasses are right for you?

As long as they’re ballistic-rated and you will actually wear them, any type listed here can be extremely useful. We recommend that everyone keep at least some inexpensive spare glasses in their range bag, for themselves or for others, to make sure that everyone has eye protection.

Beyond that, clear lenses are great for indoor ranges, and tinted ones with polarized lenses make a good outdoor companion. Goggles are worth considering for people who shoot suppressed firearms but are a little hot for regular use for most folks.