Posted on 02/17/2013 9:28:56 AM PST by LouAvul
I've damaged my hearing from unprotected shooting. Now, everything I've read insists I wear both earplugs and muffs while shooting.
I also read that people are using electronic muffs for hunting so they can hear game movement.
If muffs and plugs are necessary to protect our hearing, how is it that electronic muffs, alone, are sufficient?
Thanks.
Also, I have a pair of Howard Leight Impact Sports muffs and wore them yesterday for coyote hunting.
I discharged my 223 and must not have had a good "weld" on my left ear because there was a slight "ringing" after the shot that didn't last long.
I say it didn't last long because it blended in real well with the nonstop "ringing" (tinnitis) I have anyway.
I have tinnitus in both ears. The damage to my hearing was caused by industrial noise when I worked as a computer technician in a manufacturing environment. We never wore hearing protection back then. It wasn’t till later in life when my hearing began to fade. The hearing in my right ear is only about 20% and my left about 65%. When it comes to shooting I wear a good hearing protection. I use the Peltor Sport-Tac II headset. It does a great job of dampening the shot noise. You’ll never be able to reduce the noise by 100% due to bone conduction noise but the sound you’ll hear is below 80db which is consider normal hearing. Don’t take chances with your hearing, buy the best you can afford. Your ears are worth it.
According to Board Certified Audiologist and TInnitus Doc, and a shooter:
At over 130dB, there is sufficient time delay in the activation of the electronic hearing protection, to warrant wearing the foam plugs too.
NEVER USED HEARING PROTECTION! NEVER SAW A REAL NEED!
Eh?
sound like you treat your parents like $hit also...sad
and any ENT will tell you not to put anything in your ears other than your elbow!!! and I bet one day you also will be deaf..so enjoy your life...
p.s. wish your parents knew about cochlear implants..they really are wonderful for those of us who lived in a silent world..WE HEAR YOU NOW...becareful what you say...it can come back to bite you in the butt...
‘Wud eh say?’
Mark of a soldier to have some/a lot of hearing loss right around the decibel range of an M60. They used to call it machine gun ears.
All joking aside, you don’t want a constant ringing in your ears for your entire adult life.
fewer rounds are discharged when hunting,
Plus at ranges you typically have hard surfaces (walls, floors, etc) and they are typically enclosed. Even outdoor ranges have more hard surfaces then normal hunting areas. Thus in a hunting environment there is less sound bouncing back at you; it can disburse.
Most people use no hearing protection when hunting, with no ill effects.
I’ve been shooting for years; not familiar with the muffs you mentioned.
Normally we stick with foam plugs. Roll them between your fingers till they’re thin, then insert into your ears until they’re just inside the canal that a q-tip normally stops at. If they fill that inner canal after expanding you should be fine. Have never used both at the same time, and have yet to meet a round that requires it (including 12 gauge, 223, 454).
If you don’t like (or can’t use) the foam plugs correctly, find a $30-$50 (bare minimum) pair of electronic muffs. Using the electronic aspect is optional, but if you get into that price range they should be good enough that they “weld” to your head.
There again you run into complications if you have an oddly shaped / too big / too small head, so it may take some experimenting. It’s easy to know when they fit however; you’ll get some suction on your ears when you take them off.
Electronic muffs over foam plugs work quite well, if you turn the volume all the way up. Range commands can still be heard through the plugs due to the amplification, but you have added protection from the damaging sound levels. Quality electronic muffs are a must.
Outdoors I wear one or the other, usually, because the sound disperses a bit better. Indoors, I always wear both, although I can never hear anyone talking to me. I went to an indoor range once and only wore muffs. I literally couldn’t sleep that night for the ringing in my ears. My buddy who went with me had the same issue. I believe it’s because the sound is more concentrated indoors.
It might sound odd, but I recommend ‘Earplanes’.
These are made to prevent problems with your ears on an airplane...not specifically intended as hearing protection. But they do offer great hearing protection.
Essentially, they look alot like a typical earplug - but once you put them in your ear, you ‘pump’ them. There is a little b-b check valve, which allows this pumping to create a vacuum between the plug and the ear.
The result is either you have an air tight seal...or you don’t. And you will be very aware if the seal is no good. The vacuum aspect of this also prevents them from shaking out, as you walk/shoot.
Here’s the skinny...
First off, if you have hearing damage/tinnitus like I do, find the highest NRR rated muffs you can find. I use 37db muffs.
NRR rating means that under the best circumstances, you can lower say a 150db sound to about 113db. It does not mean you lower sounds to 37db.
Second, double up on the protection. I use 26NRR rated foam plugs. But importantly, doubling up does not mean a 37+26NRR gives you 63db noise reduction. It helps a bit, but more than likely you aren’t getting more than 45NRR at best, probably less.
Third, bone induction. This is the physics of sound energy. It will travel through your cranium and jaw bones to the ear and can cause damage. There is no real way around this unless you wear a full noise reduction helmet.
I read alot of recommendations for this or that hearing protection. You should simply be concerned with NRR ratings and less the brand. But make a choice between quality of construction and cost, I’ve found some cheaper brands with higher 30+NRR as nice as some more expensive ones with low 20NRR ratings.
Last, Electronic muffs are usually a big compromise between a lower NRR rating and their ability to hear normal volume sounds. Electronic muffs DO NOT cancel all sounds out as some believe. Useful for some scenarios where its really important to hear commands, etc...but in most cases you lose alot of NRR protection. For continuous range shooting I avoid these and just increase my situational awareness.
My Dad lost the hearing in one ear in WW2 from the guns on his ship.
I’ve never met a Vet who doesn’t have some hearing loss.
A cost of war almost completely overlooked.
They work off of the active canceling principle.
That’s about all I really know on them.
When I was in the military, the state safety office said that 85 db protection was the best anyone ever made. Get triple flange protection, as they also stop the pressure blast better than ear muffs. I use both when shooting targets and triple flange only when dove hunting.
WOW ! Ok, yeah... you read me wrong.
I said that OTHERS treat the deaf like shit. Not I, I love my parents and you would be lucky to have a son such as I.
When I lost my hearing for a few days, I saw the effect it had on strangers. When you ask someone to merely repeat themselves they flip a switch and turn into @$$es.
As far as implants, I support my mother on her retirement, and dementia is difficult to deal with from all sides. My father has extensive technology in his ear, and his profession as a 25 year firefighter affected his decision to have a cochlear implant, although he and I have worked at the workbench to design and develop a subdermal hearing aid. We will probably continue when he retires.
So, Please take a moment to read into a post before exploding at me. Thanks.
As a child, my Mother used to sit on her grandfather’s knee and listen to his Civil War stories. He could hardly hear her though for he was mostly deaf from gun and cannon fire. I have a photo of him holding one of those old fashion horns to his ear. He died in 1928 at age 92.
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