.357 mag too loud for home defense?

I've touched off a .357mag indoors (while shooting a coyote out the back window). Same goes for a .30-30 and a 6.5x55 Swede Mauser. Is it loud, yes. Do I use muffs all the time now, another yes. Would I drop the gun and hold my ears and go to the hospital? No.

I doubt there's a louder load out of the .357mag than the 125gr Federal Classic JHP, and that's what I used. It was a small room, probably 10'x12', and I was standing back from the window about 4 or 5 ft (window was open about half way) so most of the noise would be concealed in the house. Makes the neighbors happier that way.

The military comment is probably one of the best arguements. How many .30-06's were fired off inside or in enclosed places during street fighting in Europe during WWII? I've never heard of any of them dropping their rifles and letting the enemy kill them because their ears hurt that bad. Ever see those pics of the Germans firing their MG34's or 43's? One guy standing up, bent over, with the barrel over his shoulder holding the bipod against his chest while the other guy fires. That's a quick way to go deaf with the muzzle less than a foot in front of you, but I never saw a pic which was snapped after that with the German crying and holding his ears.

I find that officer's story a little difficult to believe.
 
I'm of the opinion that yes, a magnum revolver is going to do serious hearing damage if shot indoors. Although it's extremely unlikely you'd need to ever use your gun in defense, why not pick something less damaging for that contingency, given the vast array of choices? Anything indoors is going to be bad, but combined with a cylinder gap blast, even worse. I have a .45acp pistol and a 12 ga shotgun with 2.75" shells for HD purposes, FWIW.

I've never heard of any of them dropping their rifles and letting the enemy kill them because their ears hurt that bad.
Click to expand...

Dude. That's not the issue at all. That's entirely missing the point. The issue is, when you're in your golden years, will you, or will you not, have to say, "Huh?", "What?", "Huh?", "Say again", over and over and over and over when listening to your grandkids? Because many veterans do, and it's not fun - it's irritating for both speaker and listener - extremely in fact. It's a quality of life issue. Hearing damage is cumulutive. Young people think they're invincible. I think it would be VERY enlightening for y'all to post your age with your opinions on this subject.
 
I always wear ear and eye protection when shooting, even .22s....

But, I can recall........ .38 and .45 in a bedroom (not at the same time), no problems. .30-30 in a living room, no problems. 9mm (+P) in a great room, no problems. Six .357s in a car (critter control out the passenger window)... No problems. Lots and lots of time hunting with shotguns and rifles, no hearing protection.

I just went through a military physical with zero hearing problems and little degredation - mainly some high frequency loss. I'm 45 years old and have been shooting since I was 10 or so.

I wouldn't get too worried about this issue, especially as it relates to self-defense.
 
FWIW... I have *extremely* sensitive hearing (too sensitive, in fact, sometimes I have trouble distinguishing sounds in very busy areas, it's too overwhelming, and I *appear* deaf because I end up asking people to repeat themselves. Wait till I'm listening to a quiet conversation 35-40 feet away though :) ).

The one time I set off a .22 colibri indoors out of a walther P22, without ears on, I got ringing ears for a couple minutes.

I couldn't imagine doing the same with anything larger without *some* kind of protection... but if it comes down to protecting my home or body though, that shot gets taken with or without hearing protection regardless of the damage.

I'm not so concerned about my hearing that I'd give up my hide to keep it.
 
I always wear eye and ear protection when I'm at the range, or am engaging in "discretionary" shooting, with the exception of hunting. SD/HD? I'd rather lose a few cillia than end up dead. I've actually got a little bit of high frequency loss, from when I was working at this one factory as a forklift operator and figured it was more important to hear the warning shout of somebody than not hear because I had on ear protection and ran them over. And, when I was in the Army, I was a mortar gunner for part of my enlistment, and I found that if I had my ear protection on I couldn't hear the fire commands from the FDC some 50 feet away, so I found that I had to "cheat", and not seat the earplugs completely. Oh, well, nothing to be done about it now.

Oh, and my age is 48.
 
As the Cajuns say watch the penetraysheeon! A 357 will penetrate your walls and may injure a neighbor. A good 38 spl +P hollowpoint will be better than a deafening flamethrower that will make you "nightblind" and deef from the muzzle flash and blast and unable to take followup shots. You may also think about Glasers.

Also under stress in the dark with an intruder your best bet is a Surefire flashlight and a gun you and your wife is not afriad to shoot. Looking for earplugs under lifethreatening stress wont work!!

Maybe buy a 45 acp and it will take care of the issue.

Lower noise, lower flash and less penetration with Hollowpoints or frangibles
and good stopping power.
 
There is NO round that will not damadge your hearing.

You will almost always experiance permanent ear damadge from firing a 357 without protection. This is probably the case even with .22

I would put in ear protection if you have time in a fight but I fear prosecuting attorney would use it to prove I had intent which is I guess is fairly true.
Probably scare the bad guy though, sticking in ear plugs.

"A clap of thunder from a nearby storm (120 dB) or a gunshot (140-190 dB, depending on weapon), can both cause immediate damage."
http://www.dangerousdecibels.org/hearingloss.cfm

http://www.freehearingtest.com/hia_gunfirenoise.shtml

.25 ACP 155.0 dB
.32 LONG 152.4 dB
.32 ACP 153.5 dB
.380 157.7 dB
9mm 159.8 dB
.38 S&W 153.5 dB
.38 Spl 156.3 dB
.357 Magnum 164.3 dB
.41 Magnum 163.2 dB
.44 Spl 155.9 dB
.45 ACP 157.0 dB
.45 COLT 154.7 dB
 
I, too, use hearing protection EVERY time I fire a shot at the range, in the backyard, or anywhere, except hunting, no matter what I'm shooting, including .22's. That includes .22 shorts out of a long barrelled Remington Targetmaster. I just don't take a chance.

But, putting hearing protection on when your main concern is protecting you life, at home or otherwise, just seems like a completely rediculous thing to do, IMO anyway.

If you feel your life is in that much danger that you have to fire on someone, quite possibly taking their life, even thinking of putting in hearing protection kind of seems like a concern that shouldn't even enter your mind.

The electronic hearing protectors mentioned above are useless in a defensive situation. Yes, you can hear most of the noise around you, but, you can't tell which direction the noise is coming from!!! Concern yourself with your and your family's life. That's what's important!
 
Mr. Keenen,
As I re-read my post, it became obvious that I was not very clear in what I said. You are absolutely correct. However, what I intended to say is that while the #6s will, in all probability penetrate to the next room, they will have lost most of their velocity and penetrative ability while doing so. Tried it at the range a few years ago, and using low brass #6 at 15' I found that the wall section did stop a decent percentage of the shot if the wall was hit at an angle. A large number of pellets were found embedded in the second piece of 'rock. On square on hits, most of the shot passed through both pieces, but much was found on the floor on the far side of the test piece. On the other hand, unless it hits a stud, a .357, will hardly even slow down going through a sheetrock wall.
I guess we're sort of both right. You possibly more than me.
I still think that the 12 is the safer option for me, and most dangerous for the intruder. This being said, you use what you got, and pray you never need to.
 
My folks used to have a rent house. One month, no check showed up and they went to collect.

The house was empty (vacated) and when they checked it over, there had obviously been a shotgun discharged in the house.

It went through the closet door, it penetrated whatever was in the closet at the time and came out the back wall of the closet into another room. It traveled across the room and stopped in the outside wall.

So, it penetrated a hollow core door, closet contents, 3 layers of drywall and stopped against the brick. I don't know the gauge, but 12 is a good guess. The shot was small--some kind of birdshot--but I didn't measure it.

Had anyone been hit by the shot pattern in the other room (after it went through the closet) they would have been injured severely. If birdshot is that penetrating, I'd hate to see what would happen with larger shot.

Picking a 12ga because it's a very effective weapon makes a lot of sense. Picking it because it won't shoot through walls doesn't.
 
I have the same gun, never did that at the range. You know why? It's not the same thing as firing for your life. Of course you'll hear it full blast, but it's different when firing for real. Your body blocks out the sound due to the danger you're experiencing at the moment. You can't recreate that type of fear and you'll just damage your hearing. Why do people insist on doing these types of experiments?
 
I agree with the suggestion others have made to use .38 Special +P rounds in your revolver for HD. There are very good self defense loads commerically available that offer sufficient penetration and expansion to the point that you aren't really gaining much effectiveness in going to a .357 Magnum. Yes it is certainly more powerful, but the increased blast, flash, noise, recoil, etc... make the more controllable and less noisy .38 Spl +P a better HD choice IMO.
 
Range test

Without going into a great deal of needless detail. the test at the range was, in fact, part of an investigation that was taking place at the time. The full results of the tests were used in the trial which followed.
Nothing further
 
AttackTurtle said:
.25 ACP 155.0 dB
.32 LONG 152.4 dB
.32 ACP 153.5 dB
.380 157.7 dB
9mm 159.8 dB
.38 S&W 153.5 dB
.38 Spl 156.3 dB
.357 Magnum 164.3 dB
.41 Magnum 163.2 dB
.44 Spl 155.9 dB
.45 ACP 157.0 dB
.45 COLT 154.7 dB
Click to expand...

Very interesting.
Not to pick on anyone, but saying not to use a .357 magnum because it's too loud, but then talking about the 12-gauge you use, doesn't really make much sense to me.

You want to use the revo? Use it. Don't not use a very effective gun/ammo combination because it's a little louder than another choice. Yes, I think a big bore revolver in a lower pressure chambering (read .45 Colt) would be a better choice noise-wise, but the gun on my nightstand is most often a magnum.
I DO keep electronic hearing protection IN THE SAME PLACE, right near thwere the HD shotty and levergun are (real close to wher the maglite and handgun are when i'm in bed. Most likely I WOULD have time to get them, as the psycho mutts will be raising hell long before anyone gets to the door. If not, oh well, I'll lose some cillia.

But really, how often do you think that you'll get into shootouts in your house? Go with what you have the MOST confidence in.
 
.25 ACP 155.0 dB
.44 Spl 155.9 dB
.357 Magnum 164.3 dB



I find that fascinating...

As once again I go through the "perfect" defense gun argument in my head..drop the 3" 65 back into the safe and reload the 696 with 250 Gr Kieth loads...

Sigh....is there no end?
 
Call me paranoid, but I sleep with earplugs that let human voices and other noises through, but high decibel sounds do not... makes for sleeping better too it seems.

I did have a home invasion attempt years ago, my mother had bought me a Python, my first revolver, which I had loaded with Black Talons, and I was still sleeping with those earplugs in, I heard him enter the house, but when I fired a warning shot for him (since I saw no weapon on him to warrant deadly force), the sound was a muffled boom, just like the range. After that I heard myself yelling "Freeze a**hole" and taking him "hostage" if you will at gunpoint to grab the radio and call dispatch.

Glad I had the plugs for the apartment I lived in at the time was a little small for the giant blast.
 
Ooh boy... Guess I better fess up. I once had a AD with a 125 .357 indoors. Went through the wall (two sheets of drywall) through the custom woodgrain formica cabinet door in the kithen on the other side and bounced off the dishwasher and landed on the floor. The blast was not that bad. At least not in my small bedroom. I noticed that one shot isn't that bad on the ears. Rapid multiple shots will mess you up though. In truth I think all those Kiss concerts did more damage than any of my shooting did.
Trust me I was able to hear every word of my ass chewing from the wife that night. :eek:
 
357mag for hd

Put .38 special in your .357mag and use frangile bullets. I saw a great show on the police and their tools on the history channel, frangile bullets one that breakup when they hist something, federal hydroshock are also some nice people stoppers. They make a nice crack in wood out of my marlin 1894C 357mag.
 
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