You remind me of a shooting experiment I tried many years ago. I’d just purchased a S&W Model 19 .357 magnum at Marshall Field’s in Chicago. It was delivered to my parents’ home in Homewood, a Chicago south suburb. At the time (1968) there was still a lot of open land around near where they lived so I took it out to a group of sand hills to try it out. Since I’d never fired a .357 I wanted to know what it really sounded like. I put two full powered .357 rounds through it at 4:00 p.m. My ears were still ringing at 10:00 p.m. that night. I’ve never again fired any type of firearm without ear protection.
We had to wear earplugs in basic training, and since then I’ve worn them every time I fire a weapon of any type. Well, I do fire .22 without earplugs at times.
I used to be on our unit pistol team, and I’d wear plugs and ear muffs at the matches. With your weapon (45 cal), and one on either side, it was very loud.
Do you feel lucky?