Ever shot without ear protector?

Forty five years ago I had some friends over to practice at some empty soda pop cans and one of the fellows shot off a .44 magnum before any of us had time to put on our hearing muffs. We were talking in a small circle and the fellow who was just 2 feet away raised the pistol and started to shoot. I had my left ear facing his direction and the next day after the intense ringing slowed down I had lost a lot of hearing in that ear. I went to the ear doctor and had lost 40% hearing in that ear just from that one shot. I always wear protection even for .22's One does not realize how preciuos good hearing and sight is until you lose it.
 
When staying alive is top priority, hearing loss is not even on the list.
I have about 50-60% hearing loss especially high frequency but I'm alive to hear what I can versus the alternative.
This comes up now and then. Hell yes, I've shot a truckload of ammo w/o hearing protection. I've also spent untold hours exposed to the whine of unmuffled turbocharged diesels and open station machinery of all kinds. In the 50's, 60's, and 70's, darned few tractors had cabs and the ones which did had little accoustic baffling.
Protect your hearing when it's convenient but don't fiddle with it when your life is in danger-use common sense.
 
ever shot without ear protectors?

I have shot at clay pigeons using a 12 gauge with pheasant loads that was okay. I was watching a show on history channel called the ultimate sniper I don't know how they did it in vietnam lying in the brush being real quiet waiting hours to take one shot just listening and waiting they gotta be able to hear the sounds around them. There was one sniper in Iraq who said he was deaf in one ear, he was sniping with a .50 cal ouch!:eek:
 
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Once.

The first round through my first pistol, S&W .357 686, with that 6" barrel. Just wanted to see how loud it was. This was way out in the Mojave Desert, actually on the former ranch where they filmed some of 'The Right Stuff.'

One shot, outside, DANG!!!

Set it gently down on the hood of my jeep, staggered around a bit, put the headphones on, made it a habit. Now it's soft plugs and hard covers, all the time on the range.

I like hearing those high notes.
 
It's called auditory exclusion. In many cases you won't hear the gun because your body is shutting down functions that don't directly relate to your survival. The body does things to help you focus, time displacement, auditory exclusion, tunnel vision. It's all part of being human.
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No, I don't believe humans are capable of time displacement. Some folks experience the persception of time dilation, but not diplacement. The notion of time dilation may be an actual memory effect and not and actual event effect.

Auditory exclusion does occur for some, but it is also mental, not physical. Damage to the auditory structures does still occur.
 
Yep I've done it a lot, still do if outside with a .22 or the occasional .45 ACP rounds. A couple times in college on a rifle team I forgot to put in plugs, inside range concrete walls, didn't take long to get them in after that first shot. Hunting I don't and have no plans to wear hearing protections being able to hear is important to me whether bird hunting or deer hunting. Any other kind of organized shooting I will wear plugs and if possible muffs over them. Hearing once lost doesn't come back the damage is permanent. I wear plugs when mowing, weedeating, running a chainsaw, and generally if i know I am going to be on the tractor for long periods of time. Though all the while growing up I simply didn't know better and you didn't see foam ear plugs just everywhere. Hearing if and where possible is great, will even reduce the "apparent" recoil on rifles but certainly not something to worry about in a self defense situation. I'll trade some hearing loss, for not losing my life.
 
I used to, when I was young and stupid. Fortunately I don't seem to have any hearing loss and I am tested every year at work. I got lucky.
 
I use to do a lot of shooting indoors. By a lot, I mean 2 to 3 times a week. Nothing powerful, just 9mm and below. However, I did not double up on hearing protection - only ear plugs, although they were the good ones with high DB reduction rating. It never really bothered me the noise indoors, but since I shot a lot (by my standards), the little bits of damage added up. My ears started ringing a few months ago... It's not bad during the day, but at night when it is real quiet, it is a constant low sounding high pitch noise.

These days, I always double-up with hearing protection. I want to hear as much as I can for as long as I can.
 
Ever shot without ear protector?
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Say what? Oh, ear protection.

Once, when I was 18 or so, I got a Hawes .44 magnum SA revolver. And of course a box of .44 Magnums. I fired one round without hearing protection. Ears were ringing for a week!

I wear muffs ALL the time when I shoot.

Deaf
 
One shot from a 4" bbl .357Mag revolver. I'm partially deaf in my left ear as a result. I consider myself fortunate that it doesn't ring much.
 
1 time, without protection 31 rounds through my PSL, My ears rang for a solid 12 hours. It's not a mistake I will make again.
 
I was stupid in my younger years, but not all my shooting without ear protections was avoidable.

Of course in SE Asia, we didn't use ear protection. The worse incident was when we were building Firebase Bastonge. We built positions and would switch out with other units in the field.

We were building our bunker and figured we had it heavy enough to withstand any mortar or B40 rockets.

We didn't count on the Leg Arty putting an 8 incher behind our bunker. When they started sighting it in, the first round cause it to shake, we de de'd the bunker as the muzzle blast from the second round caused it to cave in.

Screw it, we didn't need a bunker anyway, we just dug a hole. But the muzzle blast did a number on my ears. That wasn't the only one but it was my worse.

Fast forward a few years. I was the weapons Sgt in a NG SF unit. We were going to St Lawrence Island to teach the Native Guard Members about some older US and Forgien weapons.

We couldn't get any military '06 ammo so I rounded up every piece of brass I could find to load '06 for some BARs and 'A6 MGs. Since the brass was hard to come by (in those numbers) I wanted to save it. We were shooting on the ice of the Bering Sea.

So there I set, next to an 'A6 machine gun catching brass as it came out without any ear protection what so ever. But I saved most of the brass which would have sunk in the snow and ice.

Of course my years in EOD with the police department or nearly 40 years shooting competition didn't help my hearing very much either.

Even with electronic hearing protection I have to get a tap when shooting because I can't hear the shot timer.

Don't count on hearing aids, they are "aids" not fixes for lost hearing.

Nothing will bring my wrath like seeing my kids or grandkids shooting without eye and ear protection.

Even with double ear protection, I recommend no one get near anyone shooting a brake on their rifle.

I'm a firm believer in legalizing suppressors for rifles. I think they should be mandatory on organized rifle matches. They would go a long ways keeping people ears from being like mine.
 
Yes, I grew up hunting without ear protection. I had some 18-20 kHz hearing loss earlier in life than most (pretty much everyone gets high audible-range hearing loss at some point). It stunk when I worked in audio. I was always secondguessing myself when recording highhats, flutes, and stuff.

I wish I could toss some electronic 'muffs into a time machine for my younger self.
 
When i was young at camp we got to shoot .22lr bolt action rifles. I was 9 years old. My camp allowed certain visitors at a seperate range not too far from ours and I managed to venture there to get the first blast report from a .357 mag revolver. I covered my ears after that,- and I'll remember that moment. The camp only used subsonic ammo out of the the old bolt actions. Must've been atleast 21 inch length barrels. We weren't advised to use protection, and there wasn't much of a pop.

Only time I don't wear any hearing protec. is when shooting my 10/22 with the CCI Quiets- very low velocity 710 fps... Made one mistake with a friend shooting out doors when I purchased my first .22lr ruger 22/45 pistol, thinking.... ahhh it'll probably sound close to a rifle,- can't be anything like a 9mm..... but atlast again, the first shot suprised me- even it being a .22lr- it made a high pitch crack that didn't feel good to my ears. I've been lucky for still having most of my hearing.

I get sad seeing all the dogs hiding and scurrying on the youtube videos with the owners shooting off their high powered rifles an such:(
 
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It wasn't until the early 1980s that I learned about ear protection availability. I inherited from my grandfather a 38 spl. S&W snubbie with a six shot cylinder. I shot that gun a lot for about two years. I should have figured it out for myself but I didn't and no one taught me. Then I played in rock bands in the 70s without hearing protection. I suffer from tinnitus every minute of my life. When I use plugs and muffs at the range or even when using a weed eater, I hear the ringing so loud that it seems louder than the noise that I am blocking, almost. At night I usually have to run some kind of fan to mask the ringing. I just didn't know. To make it all worse, I am a musician and rely on my hearing for my living. Double up if you value your hearing. It worsens with age anyway. Why make it unbearable for yourself?
 
I double up when shooting. Our work is borderline being mandatory HP per OSHA and we get tested 2x year. I wear the foam ones at work even though not mandatory. Its a good reminder how fragile hearing is when the muffs go quiet during a test.
 
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