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My howitzer was a 105, but it still could ring your ears if you were too close to the muzzle brake.
Still have my cannon crewmember handbook showing where the 'safe' areas around the howitzer were.
Being that I did RTO, kept track of the record of fire, and sat pretty much on the sight box semi-in front of the gunner catty-corner next to the wheel, I was the crewman closest to teh muzzle brake.
Ear plugs were a necessity.
I'm going to have to dig up a diagram of what this would look like, probably, but basically the wheel is in front of the gunner, and looking from his seat on the trails I would be slightly in front of him and to his left facing him.
One of our crew made the mistake of not having one earplug in during a mission, and he was standing behind me when we fired.
From what I heard, he still has a permanent ringing in that ear.

But there's nothing in the world like feeling the thump in your chest and smelling the smoke when a howitzer fires.
(And you can ALWAYS tell the artillery types when a howitzer fires. They have a gleam in their eyes, whoop, shout, yell, beat their chests and or howl wildly or inhale the smoke with a huge grin. Those NOT cut out for artillery try to get away from teh howitzer as quickly as possible..)