Do you wear ear plugs while hunting?

I use a set of these. Properly adjusted, there's no problem hearing or locating sounds. After a while you forget you have them on.

Won't hunt without them. Tinnitus never stops.
 
I have to admit I don't wear protection while deer hunting, but I do wear them for dove hunting, shooting, etc. And I know I should, been listening to jet engines for 15 years, and early in my career (read young snot nosed kid) I didn't wear anything, but now I wear DOUBLE hearing protection at work. I am interested in getting a set of the muffs like the above post, and heck another thing is I bet they help keep your ears warm also.
 
I wear hearing protection when shooting at a rifle range or even sighting in at a make-shift farm range. I don't wear hearing protection when hunting. My hunting rifles are not that loud when compared to others.
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Your choice of rifles may not be as loud as some others, but unless you are shooting suppressed, virtually any centerfire hunting rifle is going to produce ear damaging noise.
 
Barrel length makes a huge difference.

Some ammo makes some difference too.

Surroundings........If you shoot across the bed of a pickup, you really need earplugs due to the sound bouncing off of the rear window.
 
Surroundings........If you shoot across the bed of a pickup, you really need earplugs due to the sound bouncing off of the rear window.
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Even worse if you shoot from inside the cab. :eek:
 
I'll be 38 in March and I have to turn my head to the right sometimes when people talk to me. I never wore protection when I was a kid. Started wearing them in the military when we went to the range or on the flightline (turbine engines are LOUD!) I never used to wear them when I would hunt for the same reasons already listed. Then I started noticing hearing loss. Now I wear the game ears. They shut off when you shoot. Or foam ear plugs when I forget the electronic ones.

Never tried the muffs for hunting. Usually one shot one kill and I don't notice it.
 
Won't hunt without them. Tinnitus never stops.
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I used to not be too picky about wearing ear protection while hunting, and I regret it. This past dove season I developed very noticeable tinnitus in my left ear following a shot from a partner 15 feet to my right. I intend to wear some sort of protection for every non-emergency shot for the rest of my life. The ringing on the left is unpleasant, and I don't want it to get worse, or start up on the other side.

You don't have to break the bank to do something about this. For a lot less than the electronic muffs linked above, you can get ear plugs with baffles. My birthday present this past year was fairly inexpensive electronic ear plugs that allowed me to hear pretty well while blocking loud noises.

Tom
 
Short answer, no. I've tried e-muffs and they're a pain in the butt while hunting.

Handguns are a differnet story. I would wear muffs or ear plugs while handgun hunting but then again that's the reason I no longer hunt with handguns.

Range or high volume shooting (doves) muffs and/or plugs with anything besides a .22lr rifle.

LK
 
I don't normally were ear protection while hunting big game.

I do pack a pair of ear plugs along while hunting big game in case I get a chance to set up a shot from my pistol, but that would really be the only time I wear any ear protection while hunting.

While target shooting, I always have plugs or muffs, or both. But, while hunting I like to be able to hear what is going on around me, and despite what some people will claim about the electronic ear muffs, I prefer my naked ears for hunting.
 
By the numbers, 7 doesn't sound like much. But based on experience and a bit of dabbling in sound testing at work, you have to understand that the NRR values are weighted, and based on a broad spectrum sound measurement. These play fair with everyone else by providing a NRR rating. From 20Hz to 20,000Hz, the overall reduction may only be 7, but in the range that matters as pertains to a muzzle blast, they work pretty darn good! I'm not playing favoritism... just think you might be surprised. I was.
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Speaking of which...
Where can I find the standards and procedures for establishing the NPR rating?
I was trying to find some information last week, but couldn't find anything online.
 
FrankenMauser: Speaking of which...
Where can I find the standards and procedures for establishing the NPR rating?
I was trying to find some information last week, but couldn't find anything online.
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Most of that stuff stays buried in ISO standards; sometimes you can luck into finding copies of this stuff for free online. It does take some digging. One thing that you won't find much of is pertaining to sound quality; I think that generally speaking, a single dB rating across a broad spectrum is pointless. 6dB at 20Hz is nowhere near as noticeable as 6dB at 4kHz, which is right in the middle of our peak sensitivity. A weighting corrects for this, but it still doesn't quite get it right.

Here's some of them:

ISO 1999 (1990). Acoustics – Determination of occupational noise exposure and estimation of noise-induced hearing impairment.

ISO 11904-1 (2002). Acoustics – Determination of sound emission from sound sources placed close to the ear. Part 1: Technique using a microphone in the real ear (MIRE technique).

ISO 4869-1 (1990). Acoustics – Hearing protectors – Part 1: Subjective method for the measurement of sound attenuation.

ISO 4869-2 (1994). Acoustics – Hearing protectors – Part 2: Estimation of effective A-weighted sound pressure levels when hearing protectors are worn.

ISO TR 4869-3 (1989). Acoustics – Hearing protectors – Part 3: Simplified method for the measurement of insertion loss of ear-muff type protectors for quality inspection purposes.

ISO 4869-4 (1998). Acoustics – Hearing protectors – Part 4: Measurement of effective sound pressure levels for level-dependent sound restoration ear-muffs.

ISO/TR 3352 (1974). Acoustics – Assessment of noise with respect to its effect on the intelligibility of speech.
 
I currently do but to be honest I hate it. I all ways get a weird "plugged" feeling when I wear hearing protection. Its kind of like having a bad head cold.

I am looking in to suppressing one of my 45/70s and see if it can be hearing safe.
 
Yeah, I hate it too but I hate it less than the ringing in my ears that I'd REALLY hate if it got any worse. I just wish I'd known better 20 years ago. :(
 
No, I don't wear them when hunting; one or two shots don't bother me plus there's a bill currently in the GA legislature to allow people to use suppressors/silencers due to hearing loss considerations. The bill passed out of the house committee on Friday and passage in the senate looks good.
 
RangerHAAF said:
No, I don't wear them when hunting; one or two shots don't bother me plus there's a bill currently in the GA legislature to allow people to use suppressors/silencers due to hearing loss considerations. The bill passed out of the house committee on Friday and passage in the senate looks good.
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The bill passed today, I'm kind of surprised the GA is in the forefront with this type of thing, but it's great news.

I wonder what this will do to the price of suppressors here in GA, something usable on a .270 or the like has been $800 - $1200 plus the $200 stamp.

It the price comes down to a more reasonable level, I'll certainly have one on my deer rifle.
 
It might create a new industry. From what I've seen it doesn't take a genius to make them.

Plus the Democrats don't really want to pick a fight about this or guns in general.
 
Do I were ear protection while hunting? Depends what I'm hunting. I hunt quail and dove in relatively open canyon areas. I use light Wally World loads (6 to 8s) and I find that a don't need to cover my ears. However, while sitting in the duck blind, if I do not at least plug my left ear (I'm a right-handed shooter) after shooting off heavy 3" loads, I get an instant headache
accompanied by a ringing in my ears. Have yet to hunt deer, but my 30.06 and Mosin's are louder than my shotgun, so I will be protecting my eardrums while shooting these rifles.
 
Anytime there is a chance I may pull the trigger I have some form of hearing protection.
I guess it doesn't bother me too much because I have to wear them at work 100%.

I also shoot USPSA competitions where it is required.

While hunting I wear the $29 electronic muffs peetzakiller mentioned.
They magnify sounds below 85 db and shut off on any sound above.

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Yes, in Summer they can get a bit warm and if they aren't sitting just right they will irritate my ears some after 4 or 5 hours!

BUT...
... after watching my Father, who NEVER wore any type of hearing protection while hunting or working, struggle to hear normal conversation, blast the volume on the TV or ask his Granddaughters "HUH" over and over, I can deal with hearing protection! :o

I work with a guy who has 95% hearing loss in one ear and 100% in the other! He fights with his hearing aids all the time. His loss was due to injury. But I can prevent my hobby from doing ANY damage to mine.

I choose to wear hearing protection some of the time now so I don't have to wear them all of the time later!!:D
 
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