If you’re an avid hunter or target shooter, you already know that shooting glasses are an absolute necessity every time you handle a firearm, whether it’s at the shooting range or in the field. There’s no mystery surrounding why shooting glasses are a critical accessory – your eyes are precious, and you need to protect them. Yet, there can be some confusion around the many lens color options you have to choose from for your shooting eyewear.
Lens Color Matters
All of the eyewear in our shooting glasses section are ANSI Z87.1-2015 certified, so does it really matter whether you want amber versus gray lenses? Oh, yes, it does! Different safety glasses lens colors enhance your vision in various lighting conditions, improving visual clarity and depth perception. Two characteristics that every shooter needs.
Let’s break down your shooting glasses lens color options:
Yellow/Orange Lenses: Yellow and orange-tinted safety glasses tend to block out “blue light,” such as the diffused haze on a cloudy day, but bring out the orange color of a practice target. These colors increase your contrast and depth perception, which improves accuracy.
Amber Lenses: Amber lenses are a popular choice for shooting glasses. They also block blue-light and work best in low light, cloudy days. The amber tint creates an excellent contrast between colors, helping the target’s orange stand out to you, even on those dreary days.
Purple/Blue Lenses: If you’re at a shooting range with a backdrop of beautiful trees around you, you’ll want the help of a purple or blue lens tint. These colors contribute to improving contrast, particularly against greens (trees/grass) and oranges (the target), keeping your eyes focused on the target, and only the target.
Brown Lenses: Some hunters and target shooters prefer brown lenses because they increase the contrast of orange-colored targets. They work best in fields or other open areas, and particularly in bright sunlight. Many hunters find brown lenses are “soothing” and reduce eye strain, keeping them alert.
Gray Lenses: Gray is the “all-around” color. Gray lenses reduce the amount of light around you, allowing you to see a balanced tone of color. It’s ideal for bright conditions and helps you get a level sense of contrast and depth.
Lens colors can have a direct impact on a hunter’s vision. Choosing the correct lens tint for your environment and light conditions can improve your accuracy.
To Each His Own
Which shooting safety glasses lens color is perfect for you, and why? Every shooter has their preferred color they feel most comfortable with and would recommend, and we’d love to hear from you on the lens colors that work best for your shooting conditions.
Start taking notice of the different lighting and landscape conditions around where you shoot and match these characteristics up to the lens color that would be just right for you. Let us know what you discover in the comments section below.
We Want To Hear From You
Do you have a question or comment about this article? Please leave a comment below.
I am a wingshooting instructor and would like a recommendation on what color lenses you would suggest to enhance seeing the shot cloud? Sunny day blue sky v;s cloudy day
Nick, my apologies for the delayed reply. I went back and forth in my mind about this question, and ultimately presented it to someone from Randolph. This was their take on it:
There are lenses that are designed to highlight specific colors, and sometimes against specific backgrounds, but since the shot cloud is more or less an absence of color (shadowed underside of shot pellets), there isn’t a lot to work with. We need to separate that from the sky background in both sunny and cloudy conditions. You might start by trying to reduce blue light as much as possible. Doing this will sharpen your view. The more blue you remove, the sharper your view should be. Everyone knows pale yellow/amber will do this, but not as much other colors like bronze or brown, and nowhere near as much as known blue-blockers like copper or orange. The drawback to copper or orange (especially orange) is the overall color distortion. But since your goal here is to make a distinction between the shot cloud and the sky, perhaps color is not important. Obviously brighter skies will warrant darker lenses, but the idea is the same.
We carry the Randolph line if you’d like to check that out. There’s also this Ducks kit that has it all. If you try any of these, I’m curious how it works for you. Good luck.
I have just bought a green tinted lens that is 100 percent uv. These glasses are amazing. Details jump out they are incredibly relaxing to wear. Glare is gone. They are clearly blocking some kind of irratating light. So far i have not found out what rays. Long ago before uv blockers green tinted glasses were common. Now you rairly see them. Do you know what light rays they block?
Hi Larry,
Thanks for posting your question.
With Green tinted lenses it is not so much that you’re blocking a particular wavelength of light. Our eyes love the color green and are the most sensitive to that portion of the light spectrum. Green lenses transmit more Green light which increases your visual acuity and feels soothing to your eyes. Green lenses offer multiple benefits over traditional Gray and Brown lenses, such as providing better contrast than Gray lenses and better color accuracy than Brown lenses. With these advantages, its surprising the popularity of Green lenses has gone down.
All your info was a great help. I’m getting back into trap after a hiatus of 30 years. Would regular optical houses have the lenses I need? Yellow and Vermillion?
Ron, most offer a variety of tints that you could choose from, with most being in the area of traditional sunglass tints. But you should still be able to find tints like that that are ideal for shooting.
Thanks for breaking it down in a clear, succinct manner. Glasses matter so much for shooting well.
Great job!
Thank you, Carla.
I am thinking of using an amber lens for evening trout fishing. The issue is seeing your fly on the water in low light. Often fly hatches come off in low light. You can see the fish rise, but it is difficult to see where your fly is.
Thank you for your comment, Seth.
This is a unique challenge as I’m not familiar with fly fishing. What color is the fly? I may be able to recommend a lens tint that helps “highlight” the fly’s color.
I have recently ordered a pair of prescription glasses from my optometrist with yellow tinting and AR coating on both sides of Trivex lenses for indoor collegiate volleyball line judging where the environments are lighted with bright fluorescent and LED fixtures. We have to make split-second in/out decisions on hard-driven or deflected balls coming down near 2″ lines usually painted on smooth, polished hardwood gym floors where glare can also be a challenge. I’m looking forward to trying them out this spring and summer at workshops and putting them to the test in the fall volleyball season. Have you ever heard of this application and what were the outcomes? Thanks in advance for your opinion.
Thank you for your comment and question, Brad.
Admittedly, I’m not familiar with your specific application. However, yellow tinting is usually a good choice when dealing with fluorescent and LED lighting, especially the variety that produces a bluish hue. The AR coatings will also improve the clarity of your lens which should enhance your visual acuity.
Im looking for something that will enhance the gray or rust color of a ruffed grouse against the green of the pine trees and multi colored yellow Aspen in the fall here in michigan.
Thank you for your question, Mark.
In my opinion, when dealing with a rust-colored grouse, a vermillion lens tint is a solid choice. The vermillion color will highlight the rust-colored target and neutralize background green colors. In regards to the yellow Aspen tree background, I’m leaning towards a light brown or light copper lens. The brown tint will improve contrast and clarity because it blocks blue light, and still helps to highlight the rusty color.
I hope my suggestions help guide you in the right direction. Let me know if you have any other questions.
I just had my cataracts fixed and don’t need glasses for the first time in over 50 years. Now I need shooting glasses. It would be great if I could get a pair that could be worn as sunglasses at other times too. I was wondering if there is some measure of how dark glasses are in addition to the color. I got a Dollar General pair of sunglasses and I have to take them off indoors because they’re too dark to see. What color/density is best for all around wear?
Thank you for your question, Jerry. I’m glad your cataract surgery went well.
It’s difficult to recommend a specific VLT (Visible Light Transmission) because everyone’s light tolerance is different.
Traditional Gray lenses have a VLT between 7% to 25% and are generally regarded as the “best” overall lens color because it doesn’t adversely affect color recognition. With that said, you may want to consider Light Gray lenses, which are around 30% to 50% VLT. You should have better visibility indoors. However, you may find Light Gray lenses are not dark enough for bright sunny days.
Another lens color option would be Bolle Safety’s “Twilight” lens color, which, besides being a brown/copper color, has some interesting features. Here’s Bolle’s explanation of the Twilight Lens.
Hopefully, these suggestions will point you in the right direction. Feel free to leave additional questions/comments or contact me directly.
I wear smaller frame plastic lens glasses every day. My trap shooting range is switching to neon green birds. I’m told that I need blue glasses to see green birds. Is this true? If so, do you have a pair of such glasses that will fit over my daily-wear specs like my shop safety glasses?
Thank you for your question, Robert. Yes, a blue lens would help green birds stand out against the background better than other lens colors. You may have to experiment with different shades of blue until you find your preference. We do stock the Elvex OVR-SPec III in a light blue lens. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Playing in an outdoor pickleball tournament. Ball will be red. Recommendations?
Thank you,
Meri West
Thank you for your question, Meri.
A brown or light brown lens tint would be ideal. Brown lenses highlight the color red, which should prove useful in your pickleball tournaments.
I would like to know your lens color recommendation for shooting orange targets against a white (snow) background on a gray/cloudy day. I have several colored lenses but none seem to make the target jump out. I shoot trap.
Thank you for your question, Len.
I would recommend a light yellow lens for the environment you’re describing.