Another Person Hit In The Eye By A Ricochet

[Ian_Gere]

So basically a full face mask will protect your eyes,teeth,lungs and help prevent obesity and tooth decay.

Thats the best bit of advertising ever.

Must say though the "trap door" sounds like a good idea.

Lol, you missed out preventing forest fires!

 

Now that i think about it, i remember that i refined the idea a bit further: rather than using stiff wire like a hamster cage to make a frame, hinges, and a spring latch for the door, i decided that copper wire would do for the hinge and velcro would make for a much easier way of making it open easily/lock closed.

[jcheeseright]

While this guy was unlucky to get hit in the eye (clearly crossbows don't fit his face properly) he's not 'lucky' to have kept his sight.

 

I have personally shot someone directly in the eye from 15' away, no eyepro, hit them in the middle of the lens full force and while it was a bad time for everyone he can still see. Albeit having had a cataract operation to replace the lens of his left eye.

 

Granted, if it were a 500fps bolt action rather than a 300fps AEG things may have been different.

 

Eyepro is a personal choice, I wear shooting glasses most of the time as I find them more comfortable. I chose my frame and lens shape specifically to fit my face with the proviso that at no point around the edge of the lens should there be a gap bigger than a BB. In CQB however with the reduced engagement ranges I tend to favour full seal or even full face.

[Sacarathe]

Yeah, gotcha. It's kinda the same for me, but not as wide as you're describing. My plan is to try to hammer at least 1 of them over a spherical steel something-or-other, sorta like an anvil, but again, haven't got one of those round tuit thingumajigs...

 

That's exactly the same conclusion I came to.

[Fumps]

I'm glad your ok Ian that pic makes me wince.

 

When I was a whipper-snapper apprentice, back when health & safety on building sites was in place but more of an after thought, I was walking past a builder who was cutting a bit of steel with a 9" grinder, as I passed I suddenly got what I thought was a wasp sting in the corner of my eye, the pain was seriously intense, I'm not much of a wimp so my reaction caught the attention of the site manager, who asked to have a look, I took my hand away from my face & he went white as a ghost & called for an ambulance.

 

When I was waiting for it to arrive the pain was getting more intense & some of the guys on the site came over to have a look, one dude looked like he was about to faint in front of me, basically I'd got a shard of red hot steel that had pierced my sclera (the white case that all the soft gooey stuff is kept in) and it was bleeding like a tap. I didn't realise it at the time but my eye simply turned off & I could not see through it at all.

 

The really scary bit was when I went into casualty, I asked if I was going to be able to see again & the nurse looked at me & said "I don't know" I don't mind admitting I shat my strides when she said that. It turned out the injury wasn't as serious as it looked, after the shard was extracted and a fair whack of pain, lots of painkillers and a few out patent appointments all came back to working normally. Although during the healing process I got a feeling for what its like to be blind in one eye & that scared the brown stuff out of me.

 

Ever since I've never risked my eye sight for anything. If there is a gap bigger than 6mm in your eye pro, plug that gap

 

I mean it guys when I say, you can be macho for 5 mins but your blind for life.

[K@rl]

Really can't believe people don't wear sealed or full face.

[n1ckh]

I wear mesh goggles sometimes & the last time I did I had a bb break up & a bit did go in my eye so I swapped over to my goggles & mesh mask combo. Even goggles that seal tight to the skin all round don't always stop a bb from entering due to freak things

 

Another thing for me is somehow on 2 occasions, I have caught a bb in my mouth, don't know how & somehow wasn't going fast enough to break any teeth

[Ian_Gere]

While this guy was unlucky to get hit in the eye (clearly crossbows don't fit his face properly) he's not 'lucky' to have kept his sight.

He is lucky to have not had a much more serious injury however, given how close the hit was to his iris; one which could have compromised his eyesight to some degree permanently, and given what he does for a living, i'm pretty sure that would have spelled an enforced major shift in career direction at the very least, but perhaps being let go. Would the Navy keep you on in your current role if you had a permanent floater in the middle of the vision from one eye, for as long as it took to be able to get whatever operation/s needed and recovery time?

I have personally shot someone directly in the eye from 15' away, no eyepro, hit them in the middle of the lens full force and while it was a bad time for everyone he can still see. Albeit having had a cataract operation to replace the lens of his left eye.

Wholly didn't see that one coming, Batman! WTF? HTF did that happen?

 

I'm glad your ok Ian that pic makes me wince.

Not me in the first pic in the OP. The geezer asked me to redact his name as he works in a sensitive post.

 

When I was a whipper-snapper apprentice, back when health & safety on building sites was in place but more of an after thought, I was walking past a builder who was cutting a bit of steel with a 9" grinder, as I passed I suddenly got what I thought was a wasp sting in the corner of my eye...

 

Ever since I've never risked my eye sight for anything. If there is a gap bigger than 6mm in your eye pro, plug that gap.

This is so typical of how it goes though, eh? Unless it happens to us, or somebody we know, so many of us are very willing to take unnecessary risks. Personally it's about my teeth - i have such a phobia of dentistry that i am at least as worried about getting teeth shot out as i am about secure eyepro!

 

I remember seeing a documentary about risk perception a good few years ago in which they presented stats for accidents at railway crossings in Canada (iirc, could have been the USA) and they found that removing the barriers completely reduced the accident rates, because people would perceive the risk to be much more considerable and drive more safely, but with the barriers in place people apparently did attempt to race trains, either to get through before the barrier came down or to drive around them on the opposite side of the road at crossings with just a single barrier from each direction, both of which led to cars getting stuck on the crossing and wiped out by oncoming trains. I mean... really!?! I shit you not...

 

I wear mesh goggles sometimes & the last time I did I had a bb break up & a bit did go in my eye so I swapped over to my goggles & mesh mask combo. Even goggles that seal tight to the skin all round don't always stop a bb from entering due to freak things

 

Another thing for me is somehow on 2 occasions, I have caught a bb in my mouth, don't know how & somehow wasn't going fast enough to break any teeth

Strangely enough, considering what i've written above, I clipped a single crossing of wires out of a face mask to leave a very small hole right in front of my lips through which i was hoping to be able to smoke (and trust me on this, my odontophobia is a serious condition for which i have had to have treatment when tooth pain has become so severe that, after months, i have had to face the fact that i had no choice but to go to the dentist because my entire life had fallen apart - just goes to show you how bad my nicotine addiction is too )... Well, it kinda worked on the smoking front, but not sufficiently well for me to have not wished i hadn't bothered But one time i ended up with a BB in my mouth which must have made it straight through this hole without hitting the mesh, because there was no sound. As with your experience though, no tooth damage, nor even a stung lip. I retrofitted a piece of stiff wire back across that hole though!

 

It is this variability in our individual perception of risk which leads me to thinking that all round seal goggles should be mandatory though. Because, in the same way that someone choosing to massively increase their risk of a serious injury in a car crash by not wearing a seatbelt is not just about them, a serious eye injury in airsoft would not be just about the victim.

[n1ckh]

I agree Ian, the times I got a smack on the lip, the nose & cheeks was a enough to make me say "Fuck this" my left eye muscle is so weak that I might aswell be blind in that eye so if my right eye went then I'm screwed. I smoke aswell & nothing like a battlefield smoke I like to smoke before a game but I can't with a mesh mask

 

It is all personal preference & I prefer to protect my ugly mug as much as I can

[jcheeseright]

 

While this guy was unlucky to get hit in the eye (clearly crossbows don't fit his face properly) he's not 'lucky' to have kept his sight.

He is lucky to have not had a much more serious injury however, given how close the hit was to his iris; one which could have compromised his eyesight to some degree permanently, and given what he does for a living, i'm pretty sure that would have spelled an enforced major shift in career direction at the very least, but perhaps being let go. Would the Navy keep you on in your current role if you had a permanent floater in the middle of the vision from one eye, for as long as it took to be able to get whatever operation/s needed and recovery time?

Thankfully the RN are a pretty good employer in that regard, so long as I could meet the medical standard required (e.g. deny the floater existed!) I'd be able to carry on, recovery time wouldn't be an issue either. There are people I know who have been off work or on light duties with injuries for literally years waiting to be back to 100%.

 

 

I have personally shot someone directly in the eye from 15' away, no eyepro, hit them in the middle of the lens full force and while it was a bad time for everyone he can still see. Albeit having had a cataract operation to replace the lens of his left eye.

Wholly didn't see that one coming, Batman! WTF? HTF did that happen?

Stupid mistake back in 2002, me and a couple of mates were shooting targets in a corridor in our accommodation at university (no eyepro for us either) and at the end of the corridor was a locked door. We didn't hear the lock open and my friend Alex walked through the door at the exact moment I fired a BB and it hit him square in the centre of his eye. Queue panicked phone calls to ambulances and armed police arriving (several minutes after the ambulance had already taken him away!). 3 days in the eye infirmary for Alex, followed by a cataract operation. He's regained full sight in that eye, but has to wear glasses now.

 

I now take my eyepro pretty seriously, but not so much as to think that only full-seal meets the safety requirement for airsoft skirmishing.

[Fumps]

 

Not me in the first pic in the OP. The geezer asked me to redact his name as he works in a sensitive post.

 

This is so typical of how it goes though, eh? Unless it happens to us, or somebody we know, so many of us are very willing to take unnecessary risks. Personally it's about my teeth - i have such a phobia of dentistry that i am at least as worried about getting teeth shot out as i am about secure eyepro!

 

Ha my mistake I must have mis-read your post or failed to spot that bit.

Anyway glad he is ok.

 

Yes mate I agree its often hard lessons learned too late in life, the above happened to me when I was 17 and thought I was invincible. Tbh I still thought I was invincible but learned that some parts of me are not so took the fact that I was lucky as a sign & didn't question it from there on. I think my son thinks I'm a nagging dad but he listens to me & does what I ask.

 

By the way Ian I'm also a dental phobic & feel your pain bruv. I am still struggling with my own phobia I'm glad I'm not alone in this

[Ian_Gere]

Thankfully the RN are a pretty good employer in that regard, so long as I could meet the medical standard required (e.g. deny the floater existed!) I'd be able to carry on, recovery time wouldn't be an issue either. There are people I know who have been off work or on light duties with injuries for literally years waiting to be back to 100%.

Oh I expected they would be for people wounded/injured on the job, but not so much for an accident in civvies. I think there are a lot of employers who would worry about their on site insurance if they employed someone whose eyesight may be compromised and that person's job involved anyone else's safety though. I'm sorry but i've pretty much forgotten what you actually do - fettling helicopters for ops kinda rings a bell... and if so it's an alarm bell, mate !

 

Stupid mistake back in 2002, me and a couple of mates were shooting targets in a corridor in our accommodation at university (no eyepro for us either) and at the end of the corridor was a locked door. We didn't hear the lock open and my friend Alex walked through the door at the exact moment I fired a BB and it hit him square in the centre of his eye. Queue panicked phone calls to ambulances and armed police arriving (several minutes after the ambulance had already taken him away!). 3 days in the eye infirmary for Alex, followed by a cataract operation. He's regained full sight in that eye, but has to wear glasses now.

Wow, you must have felt fucking terrible! I accidentally broke a mate's nose at uni - we were dicking around light contact Shotokan (me) vs Shukokai (turns out to be the weaker karate) sparring while we were waiting for some people to finish plugging a stage-full into the FoH desk and, even though i was pulling the punch, he was stepping forward right at that moment - instant Steven Fry off to his right. I felt soooo guilty...

 

But it got worse when it turned out that he was secretly more than a bit vain, so when we got in front of a mirror, just the 2 of us, he started crying and trying to make out like it was just the pain making his eyes water again. But even that isn't the worst of it as I had to persuade him to let me manipulate it so it would start to set straight, because i had had experience with my own after my step-dad butted me in the face when i was about 14 but i didn't want to go to the hospital because my mum was working there in A&E and if she found out that it'd actually come to blows between him and I, while she was at work, it would have been just too bad to contemplate, so even though i did get a Dr. to look at it the next day it was already too late to get it completely straight unless he broke it some more.

 

You see my mate (who shall remain nameless in light of the severely unmanly blubbing over a wonky konk) was refusing to go to the hospital also, mainly because we had an assessment of a multi-media live performance coming up and he didn't want to leave me in the lurch building sets & then trying to run video at the same time as i had the front of house live mixing of a few bands one after another to do (and during 1 song all the members of 1 large band except the drummer and bassist stopped playing their instruments and pulled out kazoos, so they all had to have a vocal mike as well, which created a potential mare for feedback) so if the show was going to go on, i totally did need him, although TBH i was willing to just fuck the talent off, take a referral and go for a C grade at a later date - that's how bad i felt about it. I lost touch with him when he moved back to Germany, but a few years after the event I got one more twist of the dagger: he had come over to the UK for a mutual friend's wedding and it turned out that he was about to have surgery because although it had healed pretty straight, his breathing through 1 nostril had never been the same and it made him not only snore like a chainsaw but prone to infections in the sinuses

 

Somehow i think i'd have felt worse if i shot somebody in the eye though (and that's totally not me telling you how you should feel btw, i mean it was an accident, i just know i'd have been horrified at myself if it were me).

 

I now take my eyepro pretty seriously, but not so much as to think that only full-seal meets the safety requirement for airsoft skirmishing.

See now that i just don't get... you've seen the evidence: you know ricochets do hit people in the eyeball past shooting glasses and you have a pair of Profile Turbofans, ffs!

 

 

I think my son thinks I'm a nagging dad but he listens to me & does what I ask.

Well that is something to be grateful for. If airsoft had been around when either my father or step-wanker and I had been around each other i'd have spent the entire skirmish days looking for ways to shoot either of 'em in the most painful place i could manage i say "lol" mind: i'm not really joking...

 

By the way Ian I'm also a dental phobic & feel your pain bruv. I am still struggling with my own phobia I'm glad I'm not alone in this

Dunno how old you are, but take this as consolation if you're not yet in your mid 40's - since being about 44 when pieces of my teeth come apart now they don't hurt much: the nerves are pretty much all dead. I haven't actually been to a dentist since '99 when at the very end of what had turned into prolonged maxillofacial surgery to sort out problems which had developed over the previous decade or so, I needed a simple filling and what with all the psych, tranquilisers to get me through the door, sedation during the treatment, and mates supporting me, I had gained a degree of confidence. The dentist who had undertaken most of the work on my teeth, as opposed to the surgeon who did the work on my broken roots, gums, bones, etc., was the head of the practice and on the day I was due to have this last little thing sorted he had to deal with an emergency patient...

 

So, feeling this newfound quantum of confidence, I allowed myself to be persuaded to let another dentist who had just joined the practice do it and without sedating me. Thankfully the mate who was with me at the time is an ex-marine and sometime bouncer, because i would need to be held down in the chair or i think i may have killed this dentist - during the work, and bear in mind that i was physically trembling the whole way through and just concentrating like mad on not pissing my pants, the head of the drill came off in my mouth and rattled round the inside taking a couple of, albeit small but nonetheless actual, chips off other teeth and making my tongue bleed. TBH i really should have sued, but after Mark had sorted my head out, I just ran out of the place and never went back (strangely that tooth with the 1/2 finished hole in it is 1 of the few i have left).

 

Turns out he was left handed and there is such a thing as a left handed dentist rig, but since he was new to the pracice his hadn't yet been delivered from wherever it had been previously, so he went ahead and used the rig that the previous bloke had left behind in the room he was taking over. I mean what an absolute cunt, right? Anyway, since i haven't seen a dentist i don't know if the reason for the nerve death is damage due to various abscesses I've had over the years (which do still hurt on the odd occasion i get one btw but i get antibiotics from my GP), or something which we can all look forward to as a consolation for old age. I'm pretty sure it's not the result of the peripheral neuropathy i suffer from though, because mouths are hardly peripheral, eh so you may get lucky.

 

Wow it's all coming out this evening

[Fumps]

 

 

Dunno how old you are, but take this as consolation if you're not yet in your mid 40's - since being about 44 when pieces of my teeth come apart now they don't hurt much: the nerves are pretty much all dead. I haven't actually been to a dentist since '99 when at the very end of what had turned into prolonged maxillofacial surgery to sort out problems which had developed over the previous decade or so, I needed a simple filling and what with all the psych, tranquilisers to get me through the door, sedation during the treatment, and mates supporting me, I had gained a degree of confidence. The dentist who had undertaken most of the work on my teeth, as opposed to the surgeon who did the work on my broken roots, gums, bones, etc., was the head of the practice and on the day I was due to have this last little thing sorted he had to deal with an emergency patient...

 

So, feeling this newfound quantum of confidence, I allowed myself to be persuaded to let another dentist who had just joined the practice do it and without sedating me. Thankfully the mate who was with me at the time is an ex-marine and sometime bouncer, because i would need to be held down in the chair or i think i may have killed this dentist - during the work, and bear in mind that i was physically trembling the whole way through and just concentrating like mad on not pissing my pants, the head of the drill came off in my mouth and rattled round the inside taking a couple of, albeit small but nonetheless actual, chips off other teeth and making my tongue bleed. TBH i really should have sued, but after Mark had sorted my head out, I just ran out of the place and never went back (strangely that tooth with the 1/2 finished hole in it is 1 of the few i have left).

 

Turns out he was left handed and there is such a thing as a left handed dentist rig, but since he was new to the pracice his hadn't yet been delivered from wherever it had been previously, so he went ahead and used the rig that the previous bloke had left behind in the room he was taking over. I mean what an absolute c*nt, right? Anyway, since i haven't seen a dentist i don't know if the reason for the nerve death is damage due to various abscesses I've had over the years (which do still hurt on the odd occasion i get one btw but i get antibiotics from my GP), or something which we can all look forward to as a consolation for old age. I'm pretty sure it's not the result of the peripheral neuropathy i suffer from though, because mouths are hardly peripheral, eh so you may get lucky.

 

Wow it's all coming out this evening

Yep sounds familiar mate.

I'm 39 and used to box as a younger me. I also made a few bad decisions in my life and sustained a fair few injuries to my mouth (Sovereign rings are not good for the teeth I found out one friday night).

I'm now in the same boat as you, I dont think I have a tooth in my head that does not have a crack or hole in it.

 

I have a fight reaction to fear so dentist's are a real problem for me lol

 

I have spent years taking 400mg Ibuprofen/Paracetamol combinations to manage pain & suffering that I go through.