Got hearing protection?

[getitdone1]

How's your hearing? Mines poor on the left and not so good on the right. Always use a phone with my right ear--and turn the volume up.

The major source of my hearing impairment is my lack of good judgement when shooting without hearing protection. Now I usually use hearing protection--but it's too late and my judgement is still not 100%! I'll bet when I soon fork over 3000 or more for hearing aids, primarily so I can enjoy music more (that's my other big hobbie) I'll be more consistent in using hearing protection so the expensive hearing aids continue to do their job!

I'm sure my biggest hearing loss came from shooting a 44 magnum handgun from the prone position. The blast hit the ground and then my left ear. It really hurt! Other causes are farm tractors, a big bulldozer and grinders--all, most of the time, without hearing protection.

I've never been near someone shooting a powerful rifle that has a muzzle brake on it but I'll bet that's about as loud as it gets. Well....I had to edit here and admit I didn't consider the huge guns in the military.

Don

[gamekeeper]

Mine is about the same as yours, only 12 gauge shotguns, together with a stupid lack of earing protection are what done for me.

[Otto]

Even though I have tinnitus in my right ear, at 43 my hearing still tests better than most 19- and 20-year-olds. I have never liked loud music (even though my favorite band is AC/DC) and use earplugs to mow the grass. My father makes fun of me. Of course, he is completely deaf in one ear and very nearly so in the other. He still makes no effort whatsoever to protect what little hearing he has remaining.

[FWiedner]

I always use hearing protection when I'm at the range, but seldom use it in the field. Luckily, always had it available in the military. I've been "right there" when a few AD's have occured, one inside a closed stand, and I worry how that might have affected my hearing. I was working and we had to go inside a 2MW generator enclosure while the engine was running and I didn't have hearing protection. O.M.G.

Then there is the driving long-distance with the top of the Wrangler down. Semi-deaf for hours.

[J Miller]

Say what ............. I didn't hear what you said.

Back in 96 or so I got a genuine hearing test with a specialist. At that time I was told I had great hearing ... for a 70 year old. I wear hearing protection when ever I shoot or use power tools.

Joe

[Old Time Hunter]

67% tone deaf in my left ear, with tinnitus (sp?) constant ringing. 33% tone deaf in my right (lower tones). Doc said the left ear was most likely damaged from driving a couple of million miles with the driver's window down, along with working in a can plant before OSHA (right ear had my transitor radio ear plug), and driving stock cars for almost twenty years (right ear had my radio plug). I think old age is affecting my right...then again that's the one the kids always whisper in to ask for money...I sit with my left ear towards the wife...

Put my electric noise cancelling ear muffs on, holy moly, I can hear a bunch more.

[jeepnik]

I'm sure I did some damage shooting as a younster with out hearing protection. But then a stint in the USAF hanging around helos, fast movers, and every other kind of loud unpleasant sounding aircraft didn't help. A couple three years in a ship yard, and then twenty in the oil industry. The only place where hearing protection became common/madatory was my last few years in oil. Today, I wear it religiously. My hearing is shot, but I want to keep what I have.

[Malamute]

I always, always, always carry 3 foam ear plugs in my pocket. I lose one now and then, but with 3 generally always have a pair when I need them.

I've ruined my heari ng enough with all the shooting, loud motorcycles and tools, and other dumb stuff I've done. I won't shoot game without ear plugs in, there isnt any animal worth losing any more hearing over. If I miss the shot because I'm getting the plugs in, oh well. I usually used plugs at that time, but I made one shot with the 338 at a deer without protection and lost noticable hearing in my left ear. Never again!

I've heard that many don't "hear" the shot when hunting or whatver, but I'm not blessed with that, and the damage is still done, even if you don't notice the sound much.

[fordwannabe]

I have very little hearing in my left ear and wear a hearing aid in my right, much to my wifes chagrin because she can hear a fish fanny burp under 15 feet of water, a quarter mile away. Ear infections as a child, guns with no hearing protection,stock cars for a couple years and drag cars for the last 20 or so, and then as a teenager I came up with the bright idea to imitate Steve Martin and the arrow through the head joke, so I put one chopstick in the left ear and one chopstick in the right, while saying "I'm a wild and crazy guy" and my younger brother thought it would be fun to whack that chopstick in the right ear....lucky to have any hearing in that ear(and if my kid ever did that I'd beat him, but hopefully he is smarter than me)dad was soooo proud of his little Einsteins. Many years later I took the dumb hearing test and the young lady sat in one room and I in the other as she spoke single words, with me looking at her through a window.....NO PROBLEM only missed one or two(HA deaf you say, only missed one or two). Next test exactly the same EXCEPT she put a piece of paper in front of her mouth as she was saying the words.....duh, uh what?? err? ah ? I only got one or two right this time, it seems I had been reading lips for a long time and didn't even know it. Take care of what hearing you have, being this impaired is miserable, and I don't even have it that bad. Tom

[awp101]

I'm sorry, can you type a little louder? I'm deaf in one ear and can't hear out the other...

OK, it's not THAT bad but I've noticed things get muddy if I'm in a crowd or if there's some other background noise going on.

Too many loud concerts, loud cars, loud stereos (another AC/DC fan along with Motorhead, Iron Maiden, et al), airshows, power tools, yard equipment, etc. Oddly enough 99% of my shooting has involved protection. Go figure.

I'm sure my biggest hearing loss came from shooting a 44 magnum handgun from the prone position. The blast hit the ground and then my left ear. It really hurt!

Nah, that's nothing. Try being tasked to work a M2 .50BMG range and forgetting your ear plugs in your other GoreTex jacket. After the second or third shooter my ears were too numb to hurt....

[COSteve]

A few 105mm M-60 main gun rounds in Germany and a lot of 90mm M-48 main gun rounds in RVN produce a mighty blast and as the TC, my left ear took the brunt of it. Then you add my Ma Duce on my M-48 on the cupola right in front of me that I so enjoyed using to 'recon by fire.'

All the while we're in a tank that so noisy that you need a headset just to talk to someone you can tap on the back with your toes. A real cacophony of load sounds. And no, those headsets didn't protect my hearing at all! By the time I got out in 1970 at the ripe old age of 23, I could already tell my hearing had suffered.

Since I took up shooting again some 15 years ago, I've used some custom fitted silicone earplugs always as well as traditional muffs many times when exposed to the really load stuff but the damage was already done. Recently I've noticed a constant ringing and the crowd and background maladies that other posters have described all have come home to roost. Oh well, what price freedom.

[El Chivo]

My hearing is not too bad but my ears are sensitive and it's painful to get slapped with loud sounds. I wear earplugs a lot, even driving to work with the window down is loud out here - loud stereos, special exhaust pipes that boom, huge trucks. One bonus of wearing earplugs, my 1986 Volvo feels like a Lincoln Town Car.

Since starting to shoot I've always worn ear muffs but have started to double up with plugs and muffs both. Seems to be ok, but you always get these people popping off big guns right next to your ear at the range. When hunting I wear earplugs now - they make me feel stealthy.

Before I started to wear earplugs while hunting, I had an AD where my thumb slipped as I was letting the hammer down. Muzzle direction was safe but I was standing next to a rock cliff, and I could feel the sound wash over me.

That ear has become more sensitive than the other one, perhaps from this, but another factor is loud music, I used to play the clarinet in the car just about every day. That's a loud instrument and in a small space, and I think that had some cumulative effect.

So I like sounds very low and can hear them but sometimes have trouble with understanding speech. I think I'm in ok shape but I'm very aware of the problem. I even put on my muffs to step on aluminum cans.

[JReed]

My ears are toast for my age. Loud music in my teens and twenties, been around firearms my whole life, used to work as a auto mech with air tools, Oh an lots of time on 50 cal ranges. Tinnitus and the constant sensation of having my ears plugged make conversations difficult forget trying to hear someone talk when there is a crowed. I have found that I watch peoples lips a lot when talking dont try talking to me if I am not looking at you. Not bad for being 36 So needless to say I am obsessed with ear plugs. I wear them on motorcycles, while riding the lawn mower, and anytime I am with in 50 yards of of a hot range.

[shooter]

My hearing is great as far as I can tell, maybe a little too good. My ears are sensitive. I have to wear ear plugs when I sleep because all the little noises of the night keep me awake because I can hear EVERYTHING!!! The fan, a/c, crickets, etc. I have always worn ear plugs when shooting, except for in the field. I can't stand ear plugs when I'm hunting, as I like to hear every little sound. 9 times out of 10 I can hear a deer long before I see it. I probably should when dove hunting, but the shotguns don't hurt my ears. It probably still does some damage, so it may be something I start doing.