When spent casings attack!!

I was at the range today, and the weirdest thing happened. I have a set of safety glasses that fit over my regular glasses so that I can still see what I am shooting at. I was about halfway through a box of .45ACP and about three shots into a 7 round magazine when one of the casings somehow found its way between my safety glasses and my right eye. Let me tell you that SOB burned like you know what. In case you were wondering I still had a loaded pistol in my right hand so by the time I dropped the magazine and cleared the weapon, was almost ten seconds. As you might have guessed, the casing was no longer hot...figures but my eyelid was burning. So my glasses did the job and protected my eye, but by wearing the glasses, they provided a means to entrap a spent hot casing between my face and the glass. Will I continue to wear the glasses...absolutely.
What I feel I need more practice on is my clearing procedure in case this happens again.
Safety.
Anybody have something like this happen to them?

sparkman2 said:

...Anybody have something like this happen to them?

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Yes. Fortunately, a loaded pistol was designed to be held with one hand when necessary.

Most indoor ranges, on a busy weekend, have at least one lady with a loose collared top, sandals, or both.

One needs to be very careful with female recruits when a casing drops down the front of their shirt. They tend to start pointing their firearm all over.

Nightmare said:

Yep. Real® Land Rovers (1960 88" 1200 cc MOWOG) had vent flaps below the windscreen. I drove through a bee swarm - bad enough - but a bee became lodged between my sunglasses and eye. No harm, no foul. But it could'a been.

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Oh my.

I've never had an incident quite like that, but I've had a shell casing hit my safety glasses, strong enough to knock them loose on my face. I thought to myself, well, I'm never skipping safety glasses while shooting again...

Nightmare said:

Yep. Real® Land Rovers (1960 88" 1200 cc MOWOG) had vent flaps below the windscreen. I drove through a bee swarm - bad enough - but a bee became lodged between my sunglasses and eye. No harm, no foul. But it could'a been.

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"Was ya ever bit by a dead bee?"

stay safe.

JTHunter said:

Maybe it is just me but I don't see a problem in an emergency such as this, to simply laying the pistol down on the bench and pull your glasses off.
As near-sighted as I am, I am NOT about to risk any damage to either of my eyes. The gun goes down immediately and the glasses come off. Then I will clear the gun and, if necessary, go somewhere to either see for myself or have someone else check my eye.

Vision first, clearing gun second.

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That is one way to do it. At the time I wasn't worrying about my eye more than I was worried about shooting the guy in the next stall. All of us have had a casing at one time or another come back and cook us a little bit. Think about it...where are your thoughts? Lot of stuff going through one's mind while a piece of hot brass is cooking your skin.

JTHunter said:

Maybe it is just me but I don't see a problem in an emergency such as this, to simply laying the pistol down on the bench and pull your glasses off.
.
.

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A lot of shooting is done on ranges and in places that don't have a bench handy to set your gun down on.

Now, this is yet to happen to me (knocking on wood as I type this), however it has always been a concern for obvious reasons.

Each range session I have whomever comes with, at a time of their choosing while I'm firing, yell "Hot brass". At this point, my goal is to simultaneously stop firing, lower my weapon while removing my finger from the trigger, while my other hand slightly pulls my glasses forward to let the obstruction fall.

Again, all of this is done in one movement.

I hope my training has been sufficient.

Of course, I think the reason it hasn't happened to me yet is because I wear a hat. I have had a few shells bounce off my head, though.

Have not caught my own brass but been hit by plenty of others peoples brass who have been standing next to me.


Funny thing it never happens when I m shooting my revolvers. LOL

The only similar occurrence I've ever had was many years ago. Cars ordinarily did not have air conditioning back then, so all my windows were down. A pesky wasp got into the car unnoticed, went up my britches leg, and got well up before he decided he didn't like me.

Now, all of this would have been fine if I had been out in the country; but, no, I was in the heart of downtown Mobile, Alabama right next to Bienville Square. It is possible to simultaneously stop the car, shift to Park, hit the parking brake, open the door, jump out, and remove one's trousers. I know, as that is exactly what I did. The cop who was standing there got just a tad stuffy about me doffing my trousers in public.

Hot brass can also be a very educational experience for both shooter and any observers. I told one of my young female soldiers (she fired left-handed and, yes, it makes a difference) repeatedly to button the collar of her fatigues to keep hot brass out. She didn't listen and, every time I turned away, would unbutton that top button. When the hot brass did find that opening, she treated everyone on that range to a most interesting exhibition!

Firearms Iinstuctor said:

Have not caught my own brass but been hit by plenty of others peoples brass who have been standing next to me.


Funny thing it never happens when I m shooting my revolvers. LOL

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LOL...if your revolver starts ejecting casings you might have bigger problems than just a hot casing.

b0neZ said:

Now, this is yet to happen to me (knocking on wood as I type this), however it has always been a concern for obvious reasons.

Each range session I have whomever comes with, at a time of their choosing while I'm firing, yell "Hot brass". At this point, my goal is to simultaneously stop firing, lower my weapon while removing my finger from the trigger, while my other hand slightly pulls my glasses forward to let the obstruction fall.

Again, all of this is done in one movement.

I hope my training has been sufficient.

Of course, I think the reason it hasn't happened to me yet is because I wear a hat. I have had a few shells bounce off my head, though.

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THIS would be MY method!

Revolvers, problem solved.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39Byz0HqUcQ

I was introducing a female friend to my AR-15 at an indoor range when a casing bounced off the partition and landed on her collarbone. The mistake she made was pulling her shirt collar away from her body and her bra strap came with it... causing the still hot casing to fall into her bra. Quite a "hot brass dance," but to her credit she never let the muzzle move away from straight downrange. She still carries two small burn marks from the experience (or so I'm told -- I not THAT close a friend).

Sig P320 and 240, both, are BAD about throwing brass on the shooter. My daughter got burned by hot brass a few times, but no more.. I let those weapons go. We run M&P and they throw the brass far & right, like a weapon *should*.

So yes, we had similar, but not any more.

EB

ElevenBravo said:

Sig P320 and 240, both, are BAD about throwing brass on the shooter. My daughter got burned by hot brass a few times, but no more.. I let those weapons go. We run M&P and they throw the brass far & right, like a weapon *should*.

So yes, we had similar, but not any more.

EB

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Unfortunately, "far and right" at an indoor range means that many spent casings bounce off the partition wall and then down the open collar of my shirt!

Yep, been there and done that!:shocker: