Ever shot without ear protector?

freebird72 said:
How good of hearing do you think some of the gunfighters from The Old West had?
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My guess would be that the vast majority of the "gunfighters" in the old west, and non-gunfighters too, fired far fewer rounds than many of us do now.

We probably do more damage with 10, 15, even 100,000 rounds over our lives even WITH protection than they did with the amount of shooting they did.

There are probably individual members of The Firing Line who have fired more rounds in their lives than the combined total of every western gunfighter we've ever heard named.
 
Forty + years ago I put plenty of rounds through M2, M60, and M16 with no hearing protection. Hearing protection was the last thing to be desired under the circumstances, considering that the enemy may have been within whispering distance. So far no problems. That being said, I do no shooting now without muffs.
FWIW
YMMV
 
I don't hunt much, so could count on one hand the number of times I've shot hunting without ear protection. Startled me a little. I've always used hearing protection at the range. If I'm indoors I double up.

Unfortunately I've been around machinery since I was a kid. I'm 40. I can hear my ears ringing right now, been that way as long as I can remember, well before I started shooting. My wife constantly reminds me to use my inside voice.
 
Firing without ear protection is something I've only done a few times but never again. I have a constant ringing now.
 
I never thought this subject would get 5 pages of legs.

If you suddenly wake up and hear broken glass and heavy foot steps through the glass-which are you going to grab first your hearing protection or your weapon? The bottom line is that self/family preservation will be your number one priority.

The physical long term effects to your ears will become moot.
 
I've done it twice with pistols. once i emptied 6 rounds of full power .357 mag out of a S&W model 28 4 incher into a flower pot.....that was not fun and then shot a couple mags of .40 in my M&P. never again
 
I agree with camar. What do u think you'll grab? Does your hearing mean more to you then your life? I doubt it. Personally I'd blow the meth addict away first and then worry about small things like hearing/the vase he broke/the flowers he walked over while he broke in. :cool:
 
If you suddenly wake up and hear broken glass and heavy foot steps through the glass-which are you going to grab first your hearing protection or your weapon? The bottom line is that self/family preservation will be your number one priority.
The physical long term effects to your ears will become moot.
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I think most of us would agree that in a crisis situation we wouldn't go groping around for hearing protection... but when someone deliberately shoots at the range without ear protection or casually fires off a few rounds without it, they are gambling with their hearing. Tinnitus is awful according to every report I've ever heard.

You need to distinguish between those scenarios.
 
The physical long term effects to your ears will become moot.
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They're not moot, by any means, but they do rank much, MUCH, MUCH lower on the scale of priorities when compared to losing one's life or facing the serious injury or death of a family member.

Of course, as Sparks1957 points out, no one is suggesting that hearing protection is a must in deadly force encounters, just that it doesn't make sense to go without it during practice.
 
I never used hearing protection on any of my tours in Vietnam and on retirement physical from the Army found I had a hearing problem, most likely not caused by gun fire, but the noise from the helicopter's transmission/engine noise. I do now use hearing protection at the range, not that it matters now.
 
I think I wore ear muffs twice or trice... They never met my realism requirements so I wore them only the couple/few times I paid to shhot at an indoor range...

The ringing in my ears can and does drown out small caliber arms fire... Wifey cannot get it thru her head that she "MUST GET MY ATTENTION" before commencing a conversation or I am oblivious... not ignoring her...

No I cannot listen to the voices in my head... The ringing drowns out those too..

Brent
 
july 4th 2012 2300 i was in between my house and thenext door neighbors, 1 m&p9mm fmj on my hip another clip in the pocket, first shot all i remember was RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG, THE NEXT 33 WERENT BAD-PROLLY CAUSEOF PERMANENT DAMAGE BY THE FIRST


lesson learned aways ear protection
 
Tinnitus is awful according to every report I've ever heard.
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Oh believe me it can really suck. I have grown pretty much accustomed to it though, and 90% of the time I don't hear it anymore. The only time it really bothers me these days is when I drink since alcohol temporarily increase the intensity of the ringing. Be smart and wear hearing protection whenever possible, tinnitus ain't no fun at all and there currently is no known cure.
 
I've been deaf on one side for over 15 years because of a tumor. By definition I can't damage my hearing on that side. Mechanically everything through the middle ear still works but the inner ear pretty much died.

Out of idle curiosity, I did some shooting without protection on my deaf side while being sure the good side was well taken care of.

Never again.

The sound/pressure wave was strong enough to cause some real discomfort in my ear. I could get a real sense of the damage that could be caused that is overlooked because folks notice how their hearing is immediately affected and miss the underlying cause. The underlying was all I had.

So, if someone who is (half) deaf won't go without protection what excuses do the hearing have?
 
I fired an 8mm Mauser in my grandfathers basement when I was kid didn't know any better (He should have). I couldn't hear anything for several hours and my ears rang for several days.

We never wore hearing protection as kids out plinking, but I wouldn't think of shooting without protection these days. Deer hunting is the one exception.
 
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