all shooters beware

I must admit. When shooting outside, I do not wear eye protection. When chance of ricochet i do though.

Not just the ricochets that one needs to be concerned with. Once in a great while a band will break at the fork, because of a flaw or whatever and slap the fool out of you. You want to have your eyes protected when that happens! -- Tex-Shooter

I was hit in the right eye from a tube that slipped off the fork (not my slingshot, but could have been).

It blinded me in that eye for a few weeks and is still not back to normal, after 2 years. Won't be fully healed ever.

This happened during a rubber stretch test, no projectile was in the pouch. I just drew it out to check how strong the bands are.

It hurt like nothing else, had to take strong painkillers for weeks.

It's not worth it. Wear safety glasses when you play with or use slingshots. Always.

Jörg

Lucky for me (I guess) is that I'm so blind without my glasses that I don't even get out of bed without putting them on. The lens are not glass (too heavy), but the high index plastic is much stronger and shatter resistant than normal safety glasses. However, I always have safety glasses in my slingshot bag for others to use. And they don't get to use one of my slingshots without having the safety glasses on.

It's good to have reminder threads like this. thanks for starting the thread. Accidents are relatively rare, and it's human nature to start thinking "It won't happen to me", or "I've broken bands before, no harm done, no big deal". It certainly CAN be a big deal though.

Had a band break at the fork bout a month back gave me a Nice slice on my right cheek

I am a big advocate for wearing safety glasses while working, hunting, fishing, or playing. I work as a laborer in masonry and I wear safety glasses 100% of the time even when not required.
Twice when bow hunting I have snagged a contact lens out on a twig. Twice when working and wearing safety glasses I have scratched my eye. I know 3 people while working that lost an eye and they were not doing anything that required eye protection. One personal friend of mine lost an eye when a bungee cord he was hooking up bent and went through his eye glass lens into his eye (he lost his dominate shooting eye). Prescription eye safety glass lenses at walmart cost $40 I get them in all my eye glasses now. Safety glasses for shooting are more comfortable than a glass eye for life. Sorry to be so long winded.

We are supplied with safety glasses at work that are actually fairly stylish. We have both clear or dark available, and all of us choose the dark. We wear them as daily shades.

but serously she got her eye shot witrh a bb gun

i bought a pair from A+ but they are too big for me and slip off.

I used to wear glasses but got my corneas lasered. Sadly, this soon nearly resulted in my losing the sight in one eye as I was not in the habit of reaching for safety goggles when working the grinder; the spectacles had always done that job. Eyesight is very useful, and like many body systems you don't really appreciate it till it's impaired. Wear those safety glasses.

Parallax error or not im wearing eye protection and thats it. Im not sure you can shoot and hit what you want to with one eye.

You are pulling two very powerful stripes of rubber straight at your eyes, every time you pull back you are playing Russian roulette with you sight. These bands WILL FAIL, how they do may change but they will fail. Don't wear safely glasses and Murphy will prove you wrong.
Death, taxes, and band failure. wear glasses!

Yep, had it happen with a wrist rocket tube that was not dry yet when I was a kid, I was lucky. Now I wear over the glasses safety glasses, a real pain but twice the protection. Everyone who comes over to shoot gets a pair to use! The force is going to go one way or another, one time back is enough to remember for life.

ZDP-189 said:

I used to wear glasses but got my corneas lasered. Sadly, this soon nearly resulted in my losing the sight in one eye as I was not in the habit of reaching for safety goggles when working the grinder; the spectacles had always done that job. Eyesight is very useful, and like many body systems you don't really appreciate it till it's impaired. Wear those safety glasses.

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In case there is any confusion, regular glasses aren't sufficient protection for slingshots. For one thing, they could shatter and sends shards of glass into your eye. Heck, you can even still hurt your eyes wearing safety glasses, but they're much better than nothing or glass spectacles.