Leaderboard

The main problem with mesh is the shadows it creates across your vision. If you haven't worn any, you will not know what I mean and unfortunately most cameras do not work the same way as the human eye so you cannot replicate the effect in pictures without some very expensive equipment. without any doubt Herosharks are the toughest mesh goggles available - they do not claim it, but i have no doubt that they would stop 00 buckshot. They also have the largest holes of any commercially available mesh - this is a two edged sword, because yes, they do let more light in than the common small hole perforated sheet "mesh" that many manufacturers use, but the bits of metal that remain are also amongst the largest... When you are wearing mesh, your eyes attempt to remain focussed beyond it, which means that whatever you can see of the mesh between your eyes and their point of focus is very blurred and, if it is small enough, it disappears completely. The threshold for this seems to be about 1.1mm, ie if any dimension of a shape of metal is longer than 1.1mm, then it will never completely disappear from your view and will instead leave a very blurry dot of shadow (and since they come in rows there will be rows of these blurry dots of shadow). This is where Herosharks fail - the quasi-triangular shapes left between the offset perforated holes leave about the worst rows of shadowy dots. You totally do get used to them being there and your brain adapts to looking beyond them, however another problem is that any sudden movement nearby, or if you attempt to glance down at your chest by just moving your eyes, even sudden noises that make your eyes involuntarily move, can all cause your eyes to attempt to refocus on the inside of the goggles. The larger the shadows, the more often this happens, plus, as Esoterick says, if they are unpainted or white on the inside, this makes it happen more often. So what? The trouble is that it takes a while for your eyes and brain to readjust to focus purely beyond the mesh again and not bother about the shadows, so basically the bigger the metal the more time you cannot see... Still, your eyes will refocus, whereas fully fogged/rained out polycarbonate is a trip back to the safezone hoping you don't fall over something in your path on the way. In my experience mesh made from interwoven wires, like those Kingrin's, makes the smallest shadows and they can completely disappear from your view. However, in the Kingrin's I personally bought from firesupport.co.uk, the mesh was pretty badly inserted into the frame - there are many of the last bits of wire missing so there is less substance actually holding the mesh in place than there ought to be, which does make me question their safety. The same style ACM ones, like these, have never given me any pause and i have been shot in the face full auto whilst wearing them at least 4 times. You could also consider doing what I did to a pair of polycarbonate lensed goggles which fit your face well - swap the polycarbonate for mesh you buy yourself. You can then bend the end of each wire to loop around the last wire it crosses, or a boundary wire, to form the edge of the mesh insert. This adds strength because it means that the wires cannot be pulled into the centre of the mesh by deforming pressure - if the wire cannot move, the only way to deform the shape of the holes and thus penetrate the mesh, is to actually stretch the wire - personally i do not believe it is possible for an AEG, BASR, gas or even HPA, propelled plastic BB's to deliver enough energy to a hit to actually stretch 0.7mm steel wire, especially when it is also supported by the friction between each crossover. I also added to the strength of mine by making the mesh replacement bulge out way more than the original lens did, which gives the shape more room to flex and spring back than if it was simply flat. Mesh Modified ESS Advancer V12's ...when I'm wearing these, it only takes seconds before it feels as if there is nothing at all between my eyes and the world. The mesh is #8 0.7mm SS316 and you can buy/blag sample sized pieces which are well big enough to do any twin lensed goggles and, from some companies, just about a ski mask type.

For the darkness thing, here's a comparison between some cheap mesh goggles and some Herosharks. Notice the herosharks have larger holes, so I imagine the darkness issue shouldn't be much of an issue.