A topic that everyone in the firearm community can agree on would likely be gun safety; firearms are potentially dangerous tools after all. The topic of gun safety entails several elements, from the way you stand while shooting to choosing what you wear on the range. The different aspects of safe firearms handling play a fundamental role in keeping yourself  or others safe. Wearing eye protection, or shooting glasses, is one of the most important safety precautions a person can follow while shooting. 

Appropriate eyewear keeps your eyes safe from injuries caused from hot brass, gun powder or fragments. Besides the physical barrier that shooting safety glasses can provide, the color tint of the lens can affect your targeting abilities and depth perception. In other words, lens color can determine the overall shooting experience.

Let’s explore a few different lens tint color options below. That way you can figure out which choice works best for your shooting style.

Clear

While technically not a “color,” clear lenses are a popular choice amongst many shooters. Clear shooting glasses are best used in low-light conditions and are ideal for indoor ranges. Clear lenses do not alter the color of the wearer’s environment so they give shooters quite literally a “crystal-clear” picture of their target and what lies beyond it. One downside with clear lenses however, is their lack of UV protection. They also cannot filter out glare, which can lead to eye strain.

Yellow

Shooting glasses with yellow lenses are similar to shooting glasses with clear lenses because they are ideal to shoot with in low-light conditions. This is true especially on cloudy days or in shaded areas. Yellow-tinted lenses are also useful during activities such as hunting, skeet and target shooting since they allow a shooter to easily spot targets and provide a sense of “visual brightness.” Yellow tint is excellent for filtering out blue light which can improve depth perception. Cutting out blue light also helps to prevent eye fatigue. 

Orange

Shooting glasses with orange lenses are another great choice to seriously consider–especially if you are hunter or skeet shooter. Like yellow tint, orange tinted shooting glasses are made to improve depth perception. This makes them quite useful when tracking moving targets like clay pigeons. Additionally, orange lenses block out blue light. Overall they work similar to yellow lenses but they also have the added capability of working well in bright light in addition to overcast or cloudy conditions.

Vermillion

Red, better known as vermillion, is another type of color tint that filters blue light. Like yellow or orange, it allows shooters to not strain their eyes in order to keep shooting for extended periods of time. Vermillion lenses are able to brighten the environment around you. This tint tends to work best in cloudy or hazy conditions. Moreover, vermillion lenses improve contrast of targets with a green background, making them another solid option for shotgun sports. 

Bronze 

If you need eye protection that can be used in bright and sunny conditions, bronze lenses are a great option to consider. Bronze lenses are quite effective at UV glare reduction. Bronze lens tints are also known to make orange targets more visible and help improve depth perception. However, one disadvantage to keep in mind about bronze tints is that they can distort certain colors. Greens can appear more “brown” while reds can come off as “orange.” 

Gray

Shooting glasses with gray lenses are great to wear in bright, sunny conditions. On the flip side, they aren’t the best to wear in hazy outdoor environments. Gray lenses can help prevent eye fatigue and strain by reducing glare from UVA and UVB rays. (Are you seeing a pattern here about the importance of tint and eye strain?) Gray lenses also help improve color perception, making it easier for shooters to identify their targets.  Finally, gray lenses are great for those with light sensitivity issues.  

Blue

Blue tints are known for their ability to improve visual contrast, especially on orange targets against green backgrounds like vegetation. This popular lens color helps reduce glare from sunlight and is best for bright, well-lit conditions. 

Purple

Purple lenses are designed to filter out green light. In turn, they suppress green and brown backgrounds. Purple tints also enhance pinks, oranges and reds. This improved contrast helps shooters track fast moving targets, making them excellent to wear during shotgun clay shooting.  

Being Safe & Looking Good

In order to find a suitable shooting glasses lens tint, it’s highly recommended to evaluate different lens colors firsthand. See which ones work and “look” the best for you and your shooting needs. 

Whether you pick clear, yellow, orange, vermillion, brown, gray, blue or purple lenses, you can confidently know that the right tint will only improve your shooting performance. More importantly, the right tint can also have you looking and feeling at your best while being safe.