I gotta admit, I probably wouldn’t do so myself because I’m stubborn, but God was kind enough to make my vision so bad I wouldn’t know which end of the gun was which, without putting on my glasses first, so ever since polycarbonate lenses became the norm, I have at least that level of protection, always.
Someone related to me….who let’s just say, inherited my stubbornness and nonconformity, wasn’t blessed with poor vision, so doesn’t have to wear glasses. He’s a perfectionist and can’t find goggles that he thinks are clear enough or sturdy, enough or whatever, so he still waiting to get a pair that suits him.
This is what happens when you are too close to a steel gong and the gong ‘shoots back’…
(…I accused him of trying to imitate Trump…
)While I was stitching up the left ear (sideways picture above), we noticed his wrist was bleeding, and there was a jacket fragment, there, and a couple small ones in his forehead.
One thing that actually does help as far as gong ricochets is to suspend them with bolts, instead of just looping wire or chain through the holes. That causes them to tilt slightly forward, so ricochets are more likely to hit the ground rather than come back at ya.
I’ve often knocked goings down by the bullet simply fragmenting and pieces of it shearing the exposed wire, but bolt heads are much less vulnerable to that. Occasionally, a direct hit will blow a bolt right through the hole of a hardened gong, though; the one above came close.
I have no idea why all of these photos appeared to be tilted to the left 90°. I promise I’ve not been listening to NPR….!
