The Dangers of Wearing Mesh Goggles

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The Dangers of Wearing Mesh Goggles

Postby Tactical Church » Fri Aug 19, 2011 11:53 am

On monday (8/15) i was practicing with my team at an indoor arena. During the practice i was wearing my mesh goggles like i usually did either indoor or in outdoor play. The goggles have always held up during any game i have used them in. They have been shot on multiple occasion and nothing has gone wrong. This time i got shot in the center of the right goggle. The BB exploded on impact and fragments of plastic went through the mesh and directly into my eye.

In all honesty this wasnt too painful. Felt like when i used to play on a jungle gym and if i fell i would get a piece of barkdust in my eye. Because it wasnt too painful i thought nothing of the damage done, so i continued the practice as planned and had a great time.

The next day is when the pain really started. I would feel amazing amounts of pain when ever i moved my eye or closed it. Because of this i called my doctor and he told me to go to urgent care. Urgent care gave me some solution to put in my eye to make it feel better and then they sent me on my way.

Still in alot of pain i called my doctor again. He then connected me to an eye specialist. The specialist told me i should have been in the emergency roomy yesterday and should go now.

I spent 8 1/2 hours at the ER. The finally retrieved 2 small pieces of BB from eye that had been hiding deep under my eye lid. So after the wonderful torture that they put me through i went home still in pain. My eye wont recover for at least 4 more days because of the scratching and irritation.

So here is the point of this post. In no way am i saying that none of you should ever wear mesh ever again. I just want to be a friend and tell you all about my own experience so you dont have to go through this amazing pain and doctor bills just because your goggles dont fog up.

BTW here is the link for the goggles i was wearing
(http://www.airsoftoutletnw.com/index.ph ... &Itemid=28)
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Postby Shadowsta13 » Fri Aug 19, 2011 12:05 pm

Sorry to here that. Hope you get better. Never really liked mesh goggles anyway so this doesn't really change my stance on them.
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Postby code789 » Fri Aug 19, 2011 12:32 pm

some CQB fields ban mesh goggles because of this, for OP games where the average engaging distance is about 40-60ft mesh should be fine
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Postby Bircher » Fri Aug 19, 2011 12:33 pm

i wear mesh now i dont want to go to res IV because of you!
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Postby Variable » Fri Aug 19, 2011 1:09 pm

That makes me sad. I like mesh.
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Postby Chachi » Fri Aug 19, 2011 1:32 pm

Sorry to hear that Tac, I hope everything works out ok for you. I do wear mesh, the ESS Land Ops converted to Bitter End steel mesh, and I have taken hits in the googles to no effect. Now, I will say I have a built in extra layer of protection in that I wear eye glasses underneath the googles, so an exploding BB shouldn't bother me. But if you don't have that, I can see how it could be an issue. I wonder about the quality of BBs and how that effects the shatter factor at all. Does anyone have experience to speak of with various grades of BBs and if they all shatter?

Anyways, I hope the eye gets better bud, as an eye is not something you want to lose. Well, you really don't want to lose anything, but an eye would really suck!
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Postby Snowman » Fri Aug 19, 2011 1:32 pm

What brand bbs were you using? FPS of gun that hit you?
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Postby Catch22 » Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:27 pm

Bio bb's and tracer bb's can sometimes break at close range. It's never a good idea to use mesh goggles for CQB.
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Postby CommieHunter » Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:29 pm

Snowman wrote:What brand bbs were you using? FPS of gun that hit you?


FPS was between 300-340 or so. Dunno the brand, but maybe if we track down the shooter, he may know.
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Postby xxGhostxx » Fri Aug 19, 2011 2:45 pm

I reposted on one of the websites Im home to. Sense where I play we have a very large barn we frequently play at and most of our players wear mesh style goggles.
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Postby Chachi » Fri Aug 19, 2011 3:09 pm

No, they are listed as "wire mesh". I don't know why, but after examing both wire and stamped, I have to say that stamped is much stronger. Of course vision may be worse or something like that, but I feel better with the stamped. That may only be a "feeling" rather than an actual difference in the googles though. It would be interesting to see tests between the two actually. Mythbusters with their high speed camera?
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Postby ogrejager » Fri Aug 19, 2011 4:01 pm

Do realize, though, that it was the BB that shattered. The goggles held up.

I'll stick with my safety glasses, I think.
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Postby Minerva » Fri Aug 19, 2011 7:22 pm

Goggles aren't even that expensive and neither are safety glasses so the point is moot. I'm assuming most of us have seen that mesh mask that use to be at the Cage?
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Postby Junto » Fri Aug 19, 2011 7:50 pm

This is hardly a new phenomenon. I cannot wear solid lenses at all because of how much I sweat, so I knowingly take the risk. It's a rare day that I get shot in the face, much less the eye-pro, and an even more rare day that I get to do any CQB.

This is the first time I've heard of the fragments making it into the eye and I'm sorry to hear that, but I know two other people who have had BBs shatter on their eyepro just to go check, brush some bits off their cheek, and keep playing.
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Postby CommieHunter » Fri Aug 19, 2011 9:58 pm

To those asking about the glasses: They're perforated steel. They're not the wider woven mesh. Also, the glasses held up fine.

It wouldn't have mattered if it were mesh or perforated steel.
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