casing in face shooting lefty?

[ticker]

Twelve days ago, I was shooting my M1 in standing position, along with some other league shooters. At one point, I felt a pain in my face, let-out an unintelligble noise ("Argh!"), lowered my rifle, and clawed at my face, and pulled-off a casing.

It seems that a flying casing knocked my safety glasses off (3M 1760), and stuck to my eye socket. I found my glasses about 3 feet forward of the firing line. I had three light burns: on my cheekbone, corner of my eye, and on my eyebrow, all in a vertical line where the casing had stuck. They scabbed-over, and the scabs peeled off two days ago, so they were just "superficial". Still, it wasn't much fun, and might have been dangerous if I hadn't been shooting single-shot.

I shoot lefty, so I'm used to having casings bounce off my head from right-eject shooters. In this case, the fellow left of me was shooting a Norinco SKS... I thought it was ejecting down or up (don't recall). Also, I had an empty chamber after the incident, so either I got hit by his casing after I fired, but before I lowered my rifle, or else the casing which stuck me was my own.

I'm thinking it was probably my own casing, or I would have had a loaded rifle, not an empty one. I was wondering if other lefty shooters have caught a casing in the face from their own Garand? I'd say about 1/3 of my M1 casings land at about 2 yards away @2 o'clock, and the other 2/3 land at 2 yards at 3 o'clock.

Information

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[WarPig1976]

Well, 7.62+39 is too short to cause that much damage to your face so the SKS is out. I doubt an empty 30.06 has enough force to knock your glasses off and stick to your face long enough to cause said wounds. Are you sure the case didn't become stuck between your face and the glasses and when it started to burn you didn't fling them off? Which has happened to me shooting pistols more then once.

[jmoore]

M1 Carbines often throw empties at my forehead, but have not had any problem with M1 rifles or M14 types whilst shooting LH.

[Rick Cummelin]

If you are/were shooting single-shot as you mentioned, the spent case will likely NOT eject forward to the 2:00-3:00 positions, and is MORE likely to eject straight up or even possibly back towards the shooter. This is because the hump on the op rod does not hit the empty case as the op rod is coming forward in semi-auto mode. In addition, there's no potential/possible interaction between the ejecting clip and the eighth case as there's no clip used in single-shot mode. What I'm saying is that it's quite possible that the case that burned is from your own rifle, which sucks of course.

[limpetmine]

My M-1 drops the cases about 15 feet at 4:00 oclock. Once in a blue moon it'll shoot it straight up, and land on my head or shoulders.
You might look into glasses that fit a little tighter to your face. Cases are hot, but not so hot to stick to your skin. I'm with the theory that the case was wedged between your face and glasses.

Now, the AR- platform is a different story.......

[ticker]

It's very possible that I pinched-up my face in a way that actually held the hot brass wedged in-place. My memory is:
- ouch! pain!
- shout!
- pull pain from face!

...and not much else.

The up-side is that I shot an "X" as my next shot.

The brass might have come up under the glasses. I have a narrow face, and normal glasses leave big gaps.

[Bob Womack]

Do Garands operate at lower temperature than other guns? I've had .22 casings from a Ruger MKII , 9mmm casings from a Ruger P-95, and casings from an AR-15, all stick to me, as has my wife. BTW, because of this my lovely wife always wears high-neck blouses when shooting. I haven't at this point been hit by a casing from a Garand, though I'm left-handed and the day is young!

Bob

[Col. Colt]

I have not had this happen either, and have been shooting M1's and M1A's left handed since 1966. I would put a new ejector spring and plunger in my M1, if I were you - and probably never have another problem. CC

[ticker]

If you are/were shooting single-shot as you mentioned, the spent case will likely NOT eject forward to the 2:00-3:00 positions, and is MORE likely to eject straight up or even possibly back towards the shooter. This is because the hump on the op rod does not hit the empty case as the op rod is coming forward in semi-auto mode. In addition, there's no potential/possible interaction between the ejecting clip and the eighth case as there's no clip used in single-shot mode. What I'm saying is that it's quite possible that the case that burned is from your own rifle, which sucks of course.

I think Rick got it right. This week I was shooting slow-fire prone, and all but one case ejected between 3 o'clock and 5 o'clock. One case flew back, bounced off the bill of my cap, then my forehead (but didn't stick). Not a single case went forward of the firing line. In the weeks since late June, I'd only shot rapid-fire, and most cases flew forwards of the firing line. I wonder if using a SLED would fix this.