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Darker tints, such as gray, green, or brown, are suitable for bright outdoor conditions, reducing glare and brightness. Amber or yellow lenses enhance contrast and visibility in low-light environments, making it easier to spot targets. You can get shooting glasses with lenses that are tinted to suit different environments and purposes.Ĭlear or lightly tinted lenses are ideal for low-light conditions or indoor shooting ranges. Your eyes can actually get sunburnt, just like your skin, and if the idea of sunburned eyes isn’t horrifying enough to make you invest in UV protection, prolonged exposure to UV radiation can lead to long-term eye damage. If you’ll be shooting outdoors, look for shooting glasses that provide 100% UVA and UVB protection. Passing this pair of testing standards means that the glasses have met the standards to be APEL certified, but haven’t been put on the relatively short list for whatever reason. If the glasses pass both ANSI testing and MIL-PRF 32432 Ballistic Fragmentation standards, they’ll do the job. However, just because a pair of safety glasses is marked ANSI and not APEL doesn’t mean they’re not adequate. That’s just fine for working with power tools in your garage but doesn’t guarantee adequate protection for shooting. In contrast, regular hardware store safety glasses, while a popular choice for eye protection, are instead tested on ANSI standards, which are for industrial safety.
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That means that they’ve been tested against military and law enforcement standards for fragmentation and high-speed impact. The best of the best are APEL (Authorized Protective Eyewear List) certified, meaning they’re approved for use by US military personnel. All of the shooting glasses we recommend here are ballistically rated.
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