Front sight, sight alignment, sight picture – there is common theme here; sight. Shooters need to be concerned about their sight, there sights on their firearms, identifying their target and making all of this work together. When at the range there is always some potential for a malfunction or ricochet that could permanently damage the shooter’s eyes. The solution of course is wearing eye protection, which many ranges make mandatory. Serious shooters also know that the $5 special for safety glasses at the hardware store are not going to cut it at the range. My solution is Sawfly Shooter’s Kit from Revision Military.

Whats in the box

• Frame with adjustable arms
• Lenses; clear, smoke, and vermilion
• Head strap
• Microfiber pouch
• Case
• Anti-fog cloth
  

  Sawfly Shooters Kit

Sawyfly Overview

Revision was founded in Montreal in 2001. In 2003 Revision was awarded a contract to supply the Canadian Forces with their Sawfly glasses. Later Revision opened a state of the art manufacturing facility in Vermont, and was awarded a US Army contract. Sawflys have been added to the U.S. Army’s Authorized Protective Eyewear List (APEL).

Revision manufactures Sawflys in three sizes to better fit the shooter. Several kits are available with different lenses. The Military Kit contains clear and smoke lenses. The Shooters Kit has clear, smoke, and vermilion lenses. The Deluxe Kit contains clear, smoke, and yellow lenses. Most lenses are available individually for about $20. I selected the Shooters Kit in the Regular size. The vermilion lenses provide higher levels of contrast and are great for shooting clays.

The Military Kit is available for about $100 and I was able to have the prescription inserts fit with lenses for my prescription for another $100.

Ballistic Protection

The Sawfly glasses exceed ANSI Z87.1-2010, EN 166, and MIL-PRF-31013 standards. Basically this means they will stand up to most ricochets and some shrapnel. Sawflys are far more impact resistant then off the shelf safety glasses. The design of the glasses provide a full wrap around and extend past the wearer’s cheek bones. They are also scratch resistant on both sides. Revision goes so far as to demonstrate the ballistic properties of the Sawflys by shooting them with a 12 gauge shotgun loaded #6 shot at 5 meters. They do take damage, but they do not fail, and it appears that none of the pellets penetrate the lenses. This is an impressive demonstration, but not one I’m willing to try and duplicate.

Optical Quality + Prescription

The lenses are easy to swap into the frame and the prescription insert snaps on and off the nose piece on each lens. The lenses are distortion free vision. The lenses are made optical grade polycarbonate 100% protection from UV A, B and C rays. The lenses are treated on both sides to be scratch resistance and they are also designed to stand up to a variety of chemicals, including DEET. As some one who has had kit melt because of bug spray this is certainly a nice feature. Saying the lenses are crystal clear is an understatement.

Fit

The arms are adjustable for length and thin enough to work comfortably with over ear hearing protection. I wear my Sawfly’s almost exclusively with a pair of Peltor noise cancelling headphones, the glasses do not interfere with the headphones. The nose pad is soft but I find that the glasses sometime slip down my nose over long durations of wear. Revision includes a retention band, but I do not wear it as I’m not undertaking “high activity missions”.

These glasses are fantastic for range wear. They provide a great deal of protection and the ability to comfortably wear prescription lenses is hugely important to me. With my prescription they cost about $200 for the Shooters Kit. The kit has everything I need at the range for a price that’s similar to regular prescription glasses. My only issue is that sometimes the glasses want to slide further down my nose as the day goes on. I’ve worn these glasses for several dozen range sessions over the last few months including eight hour or longer days at matches and courses. Be safe at the range, and look badass while doing it, because if you can’t shoot the X ring you should at least look like you could.