Firing in defense...does it hurt???

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GregM

New member
Catchy title huh?? I'm curious to hear from anyone who's ever had to fire a larger caliber firearm in defense...what did having to shoot do to your ears?? I have shot my Beretta 92fs without hearing protection a few times and a Glock 21 ONCE without hearing protection and it HURTS! My ears rang for hours after the glock! I can only imagine anyone that's ever had to shoot someone inside their house felt after their adrenaline subsided and their ears were numb! Anyone care to comment? Just how loud is the .40, .357sig, .45, 10mm in comparison to each other??

GregM
 
I've never had any first hand experience with this, but I've heard it said in the heat of the moment you never even hear the gun go off.
 
Let us just say that I have been in enclosed areas where several firearms were being fired and during all the excitement of the moment the sounds were all deppressed. i.e. the noise that would have hurt elsewhere did not there. The damage to my and others hearing was the same as it would have been w/o ear protection, I am sure, but at the time it was not noticed.

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Ne Conjuge Nobiscum
"If there be treachery, let there be jehad!"

[This message has been edited by Jim V (edited March 13, 2000).]
 
My partner fired six .357's in a small room over my head ( I was on floor where I landed when only one hinge of the door gave way) and I never heard them. I SAW the slugs hit the guy in front of me. He then fired back after taking 6 hits to center mass with a .38 S&W and I didnt hear those either. I SAW the flashes as such. My partner swore he fired blanks or loads that dribbled out of the barrel. They went through the thug and hit a fridge behind him and went through the appliance and came apart mostly entering a wall. One of the .38 S&W's hit my partner in the knuckle and lodged in his wrist.
Known as auditory exclusion you don't hear the shots. In car accidents people don't hear the collison. The mind shuts down four of your five senses leaving you only with weapon threat fucus (tunnel vision) to defend yourself with. Hearing can be damaged from the harsh concussion of air but that is rare as the mind shuts off the electronics that move information from the ear to the brain. This also is a reason many don't recall conversations in heated moments as the hearing moves in and out of this concept and you miss much of the information. HUD (heads up displays) are becoming popular for pilots as they often lose thier hearing in an emergency. Hard to imagine until you experinece it from a shooting, accident or other cause.
 
Funny you should bring up this subject. In trying to recall situations when incoming and small arm fire is rather intense, I don't remember hearing it. Of course that was years ago,and maybe I just forgot.
 
Like others, I have experienced this situation. The sound of the guns (.45's and 9mm's) going off, (mine and theirs), was not an issue. Oddly, my ears did not ring afterword either.

But, last time I fired my Glock 30 .45 without protection (I was hunting, rather than defending my life) it really hurt my ears and they rang for a long time.

The other day, I fired my 9mm +P and my .357 Sig while in the same exact hunting elements as the Glock 30 .45 and they did not hurt my ears at all. No pain, no ringing.

From my conclusions:
#1 loudness of the gun is a moot point when you are defending your life and it probably won't damge your ears either.
#2 .45's are damn loud (especially short barreled ones).
#3 I don't care what anyone says, the .45 is one loud sumbitch and the .357 Sig just ain't that loud. The .45 literally damaged my ears for a week, probably permanently, and the .357 Sig didn't even leave me with any ringing at all.

Cops have been using magnum loads for defense for almost a century and I have never heard of one complaining about the noise in a shooting. To answer your question, it won't be an issue at the time or afterword.



[This message has been edited by Red Bull (edited March 13, 2000).]
 
Greg!

Why the question when you know the answer?!
I guess your trying to flush the rabbits out of the hole! YES it can hurt...I once had to fire a .38 derringer...due to the position I was in my arm was not fully extended...Badaboom! Fire jumped out of that non-existant Barrel, the attackers scampered off and my ears hurt...yah some dammage must have occured... next time I know that I am not going to miss on purpose for the pleasure of the pain!

Peace
:cool: IZZY
 
The first gun I ever had that my dad bought me was a model 29 S&W .44 mag. I was young and dumb and used to shoot it without ear protection. (WHAT? HUH?) made my ears ring for a few hours. I didnt know you were supposed to wear ear plugs, I mean I didnt wear them when we went hunting. Now I wear earplugs even when I shoot my .22 rifle. Still dont when I hunt.
 
I used to have a Ruger Black Hawk .44 Mag that was magnafluxed for safety because I used loads WELL beyond normal pressures in it.

I was walking the Everglades at the time --usually days or weeks from any road. There are lots of predators and dangers there.

One day a gator or crock roared unexpectedly a few feet from me. I spun and fired all 6 rounds as fast as I could. I did not hear the shots nor did I have any ringing in my ears. In fact my hearing was super keen immediately as I strained to listen for any more motion in the sand and grass around me. I do recall hearing the mosquitoes as I listened.

It was a few seconds later, when I went to reload, that I found that all six rounds had been fired. I don't know how I did it. I've often wondered if I fanned them western style or what. I was only accustomed to firing the single shot Ruger very slowly and carefully... A few minutes later I was shaking from the overload of adrenaline in my system; and I continued to listen VERY carefully as I got myself to the closest open sand.
 
Try this for selective hearing. In a house that a tornado is taking apart and hearing every breaking 2x4, but never hearing the wind. I am told the noise from 4 blocks away sounded like a giant jet engine mounted on a freight train. I still don't remember hearing any wind, but I can replay the sound of the house coming apart in my head right now.
 
To IZZY

I ask what happens when you are in a "gunfight"....when I was shooting it was target shooting. I'm a hunter and i've noticed that shooting targets with my rifle it hurts my ears and whallops my shoulder, but when taking aim on my prey I don't feel a thing...its still loud though. I am curious if even though the shot doesn't seem loud during the heat of battle if there is any hearing damage since anything over a certain decibel level will cause damage.

I also agree that the .45 is one loud sumb*tch!! I shot 1 time without hearing protection and will never do it again!!!

Greg
 
Is it possible that different ammo of the same caliber can vary in the noise they produce? I'm not talking +p and non +p i'm talking 2 different brands. I ask because i've noticed that when I shot UMC 9mm it was not bad on my ears; shooting american eagle cheap junk rounds 9mm it was a very loud crack and bothered me. Am I imagining it or is it possible?

btw...my dad has selective hearing everytime my mom asks him to do something around the house!! hehe

GregM
 
Re: Really stupid file

Last year, I forgot to replace my ear muffs when returning to the line at the range with my Colt Commander .45.

I realized my mistake after the first round (duh), but was too embarrassed to stop after one round and put the muffs on, so I FIRED THE ENTIRE EIGHT ROUND MAGAZINE WITH NO HEARING PROTECTION, thinking "How bad could it be?"

Ears rang 'til I woke up the next morning.
 
Fired 4 rounds of 12g slug w/my partner sholder to sholder w/me firing 10 rounds of .40 S&W at a (person) who had just fired at us. His rounds sounded like little pops and mine sounded even quieter. No noticeable ringing or loss of function immediately afterwards. Dave Grossman does a good job in his seminar talking about the physiological changes during a deadly force encounter. You gotta wonder if the body has ways of protecting itself we don't even know about. Oh, catch Grossmans seminar if you can. Good stuff.

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Vern
 
You will neither hear the rounds going off nor feel the recoil of the weapon. You'll be concentrating too much on the opponent's weapon (which is why so many LEOs are shot in their gun arm during a firefight) to worry about the "little things." You're body will react to the threat and block everything else out and once the threat is identified, the noise is irrelevant to it.

However, depending on the caliber and the number of rounds fired, you probably will suffer hearing loss. If the noise is above a certain decibel level, some degree of hearing loss is almost guaranteed and most rounds are above that level. The "auditory exclusion" factor mentioned earlier will not prevent hearing loss because it only concerns how the brain reacts to the information from the ears. The hearing mechanism in the hearing (which consists of extremely small bones and nerves) will react to the noise the same, whether the brain recognizes it or not.

All in all, it's not something to worry about. Hearing loss is less important than protecting your life.
 
FWIW, I knew a cop who fired his hot-loaded .357 in an 8 foot wide, brick walled alley. He was in real pain.

I don't doubt that there is a hearing "shut down" in stress situations; there is too much evidence to support it. But I think the level of shutdown varies. In addition, the noise behind the gun is less than the noise in front of the gun, so that shooters often are not bothered much, even though their ears are taking a beating.

Jim
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by pluspinc:
Hearing can be damaged from the harsh concussion of air but that is rare as the mind shuts off the electronics that move information from the ear to the brain.[/quote]

I'm sorry, pluspinc, but that's nonsense. The damage that occurs has NOTHING to do with "electronics" of the nervous system but with the purely mechanical damage to your ear drum. Thus, even if your sensory system blocks it off, and you don't actually hear the shots, the damage to the ear drum is still there and is exactly the same as if you do hear the sound.

BTW, I'm a physiologist by profession, so I know what I'm talking about.
 
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