Like many active sports, shooting has the potential to cause personal injury. The careful shooter takes steps to avoid these injuries by wearing personal safety protection:
- Sight protection
- Hearing protection
Sight protection
- There is a risk of eye injury in shooting.
- Shooters going through thick brush can be injured by twigs and branches.
- Target shooters also risk eye injury. This can come from ejected cartridge casings. It can also come from cartridge casing fragments and other debris ejected during firing.
- To avoid these hazards, shooters should wear safety glasses made of impactresistant glass or polycarbonate plastic with side shields. They also guard against firearm malfunctions, stray shotgun pellets or bullet fragments.
Hearing protection
- Continued unprotected exposure to shooting noise will cause hearing loss. The noise level of a gunshot is similar to that of a jet engine taking off at close range. The need for hearing protection is obvious.
- Several types of hearing protection are available. On the firing range, shooters should always wear headphone-type hearing protectors. These protectors provide reasonable sound protection. They can also be used for years with minimum maintenance.
- Earplugs are available in several types. Disposable earplugs are made of foam or wax, but they can only be used once.
- There are also reusable earplugs made of rubber available in several sizes. They require care and cleaning after use.
- For maximum hearing protection, it is highly recommended that both earplugs and headphone-type hearing protectors be worn.