You and I have had similar experiences. Those BB guns sting! Paintball made the BB gun wars obsolete.
Paintballs and cheap eye protection glasses has probably saved a lot of kids eyesight.
When I was growing up we had some neighbors, country neighbors who lived about a mile away. They had five red headed boys who were wild as could be. I enjoyed playing with them but never would have gone hunting with one of them.
I was not too surprised when one day I heard one of them had shot his brother in the eye with a BB gun. He lost around 60% of his vision in that eye.