Importance of Hearing Protection

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Dragline45

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I know there is a sticky at the top of the thread but I figured I would make this post anyway. I had an incident about a year ago where I fired a .357 snubby without ear protection, March 22nd coming up will be a full year since it happened. Was at the indoor range which I had to myself so every now and then I would slip off my ears. Well I forgot to slip em back on and fired a single shot of a hot .357 round out of my S&W model 60 snubby. Immediately my ears started to ring like a smoke alarm was going off in my head. Packed up my stuff, went home, and figured when I wake up tomorrow ill be fine. Well tomorrow came, and the next day, and the next day... and the ringing never stopped. Went to the ENT, thankfully suffered no noticeable hearing loss except at extreme high frequencies which I am not really concerned about, but the ringing persisted, just as bad as the day it happened. He pretty much said if it doesn't clear up in 12-14 months then I will be stuck with it.

To set up a brief timeline, the first 2 months the ringing was unbearable and literally was on the verge of driving me crazy, completely ruined my life. My ears were still very sensitive to noise so I couldn't drive with the windows down and had to shower with ear plugs. After those first 2 months the ringing slowly started to subside but at a snails pace. The good news is my right ear cleared up buy my left ear was still ringing like a broken tv. As the months went on the ringing continued to slowly subside but it still made life pretty difficult at times. To have your ear ring that bad constantly is literally torture and its impossible to wind down and relax, complete hell on earth. It took a good 6 months before I was adjusting to the ringing and it subsided enough where it wasn't driving me off the wall. As the months continued to where I am today the ringing subsided significantly and I would say I am about 98% back to normal, although even before the incident in extreme silence I heard a faint ring.

My point of this post is to hopefully prevent someone from going through the same thing I did. It was easily the lowest point in my life, and untill it happens to you, you have no idea what kind of toll it can take on your life. It is literally torture, and I would not wish it on my greatest enemies. I am normally not the type of person to let things bother me or get me down, but this was like nothing I ever experienced. Some of you may be saying its just ringing it cant be that bad, well it wasn't so bad the first few days, but when it wont stop and you cannot escape the sound, it will drive you crazy if you let it. I have been talking with another member on this forum through e-mail who is going through the same exact thing I did. Coincidentally he also fired a .357 without ear protection, which is why it is no longer my carry round. So make sure you wear proper ear protection and be safe, because believe me you do not want to be stuck with permanent ringing in your ear.
 
Well I forgot to slip em back on and fired a single shot of a hot .357 round out of my S&W model 60 snubby
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It was an accident and such things happen to all of us.

I started hunting before anybody even thought we might need to protect our hearing. So I have cicadas 24/7.

Sorry you've had to experience this. I would say you get used to it. But you don't, not really.
 
Sorry you've had to experience this. I would say you get used to it. But you don't, not really.
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Thanks, when I was going through the bad ringing I did realize that you don't really get used to it, you sorta just learn to live with it. Thankfully mine pretty much cleared up to the point that I have to plug my ears to even notice it these days.
 
I have had a couple incidences, only one of my own making. When I was younger (16) we were out in the desert shooting snakes and tin cans, someone we met when we were shooting the tin cans asked my buddy if he could shoot his 44 mag, then lit one off before I was even out of the way let alone had my hearing protection. That was so bad I felt sound, I didn't hear anything for weeks..yes, even though I was really young that took almost a year to go away.

Then 8 years in the US Army and 18 months of Vietnam didn't help anything either.

Now I'm retired and I had a case where I considered (and then did) using my CZ52 (7.62X25mm) to scare a bear out of our garage....problem was, all my hearing protection was where the bear was....I should have reconsidered..That was two years ago and I can still hear it at night, and yes, it was at least 6 months where driving my Audi (a very quiet car) was actually painful. (we have 5 miles of gravel before we hit pavement)
 
That was so bad I felt sound, I didn't hear anything for weeks..
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When I was growing up we used a 12 gauge, an old Marlin Goose Gun, to shoot squirrels (not very sporting, but they were pests in fruit trees and my dad thought the neighbors were too close for a .22). When I was about 15 I was going after one squirrel that was running towards the woods... it perched on an old wooden picnic table that had been flipped on its side and I fired from about 20-25 feet away. The blast ricocheted off of that table and hit me like a punch, and I almost dropped the shotgun. Ears rang for an hour and I guess I'm damned lucky something didn't get permanently damaged.
 
I suffer the results of my military time and the lack of hearing protection as mentioned by another poster. In Nam, it was not just the sound of gunfire but numerous explosions to include many incidents of boby traps. The combat engineer unit I served with was jungle clearing, and we endured a lot of the above plus the noise within the enclosed cabs of a D-7 Catipillar.

I have been wearing hearing aids for over ten years, and the prognosis with aging is not good.

There has also been a recent study reported in the New York Times indicating those suffering severe hearing loss are at a significantly higher risk of alzheimers. The premise is based upon the amount of energy and concentration required to interact with others with hearing loss. I can relate to the energy it requires to listen to others while in a conversation. It is very tiring and causes one to withdraw from social activites which is linked to the dreaded disease.

It is not a pretty picture. :(
 
Was at the indoor range which I had to myself so every now and then I would slip off my ears. Well I forgot to slip em back on and fired a single shot of a hot .357 round out of my S&W model 60 snubby.
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I've had this happen a couple of times which is a big part of why I now own a very nice pair of electronics muffs with gel comfort pads.

When there's no shooting going on, I can hear what's going on around me via the electronics and the gel pads make the muffs comfortable enough to wear all day. So no good reason and very little temptation to slip them off before I'm done shooting for the day.

I wish I had spent more on hearing protection when I first started shooting. I suffered with crappy muffs that hurt the top of my head and didn't block the sound very well. Then I switched to plugs which don't block sound transmission through the bones around the ears as well as muffs do.

By the time I finally bought a good pair of electronic muffs and fixed them up for maximum comfort, I had already damaged my hearing pretty badly. It would have been so much less costly to pay for good equipment up front. Instead I'll be paying the rest of my life.
 
My ears ring 24/7 from loud music, loud cars, working on semi trucks and trailers and occasional shooting sans hearing protection. If there's ambient noise the ringing isn't real noticable but when it's quiet the ringing is extremely annoying. I'm very careful to use hearing protection now days to preserve what hearing I have left, I deeply regret that I didn't start using protection sooner...
 
I was lucky that my time with Uncle Sam didn't result in any ear damage and several bouts with earaches in my youth didn't either. I have been wearing plugs and muffs since the 1970s, wear ear muffs when I operate power tools and even when I use the vacuum cleaner.
 
I have a slight ringing in my right ear and it's been there since I was a out goose hunting and a buddy was sitting on other end of blind and shot across my face barrel about 3 feet from my head. The blast blew my hat off I hit the ground and thought I had been shot. To this day everytime I see him he appoligizes for it he was trying to get a follow up shot on a bird he had clipped. I k ow things like this happen in the heat of the moment bit the ENT dr said I will never regain that hearing lost and the ringing may never go away. That's was 2.5 years ago.

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As I'm typing, the ringing is there as it's been for the last 4-5yrs. As with Black_Sheep, it bothers me more when things are very quite. I used to be able to hear a rat pee on cotton. But now when I'm hunting and the woods are exceptionally still, its hard to hear slight sounds.
 
I have always been very careful with my use of hearing protection, including for example, wearing earplugs while driving on the interstate with my windows open, lawn mowing, doing carpentry and hunting.

I'm 54 now and for the last 25 years, I have been a blacksmith. As careful as I have been, some noise gets through here and there. I have just a touch of tinnitus, but nothing like a lot of smiths I know.

When shooting, I always use good plugs, placed properly and double cup Peltors. For any young people new to high noise level activities, I tell them that their ears never forget anything they hear. Noise comes back to haunt you.

I've heard people who work in high noise environments say that they, "just get used to it." Well, actually, that particular level of frequency of hearing is just gone. Forever.

Hearing really matters. Take care of it as much as you can.
 
Ear Protection

Without going into details. You younger guys have no idea of the misery you will face and the hearing problems you will have if you do not protect your hearing. A vacum cleaner has a sound to it that puts me up the wall. I hear noises that my wife swears I have made up till later proven correct. But I have to have the subtitles turned on for the tv if I want to enjoy the show I am watching. I do not understand 1/2 of what my soft spoken grandchildren say. I say is listen to the voice of experience. I know the really young say Never Happen To Me, you are wrong. And I am not just talking about the range, the lawnmower, the leafblower, the gas powered lawn trimmer, the jack hammer, alarm siren all have made me as miserable as I am today. Nuf said
 
I agree with what has been said about safeguarding your hearing. Nevertheless, I can only imagine what it must be like to enjoy quiet. The jet engines have been running in my ears as farback as I can remember. I even hear it over the noise of driving a busy freeway with the windows open. If I ever go crazy, you'll know what happened.
 
My head is a clear as a bell. In fact, I can hear it ringing now.

I hear bells, buzzers, dings and whatnot all the time but just like all the others here, it doesn't bother me except when it's quiet. So, in a sense, it's never quiet. When it is, however, and there is a sound like the telephone, it's like a fire alarm going off.

Also, like the others, it probably started in the army. I didn't wear earplugs on the range (the Brits call them "ear defenders") because I couldn't hear the range instructions. I guess they would have worked if I'd worn them. Then they sent me to Ft. Sill to learn to shoot a 105mm howitizer. That was a long time ago and I'd swear a .357 is louder. I've also owned .44 magnums and .41 magnums and I don't think they're any louder.

Of course, I do other things, too. Do you have any idea how piercing a sound genuine Swiss yodeling (jodeln) is or how loud I can play Bettina & Patricia's harmonikas on my car CD player?

Yee-ha.
 
Okie
Anything with a high pitch sends me into orbit. Vacuums and shop tools seem to be the worst. My ears hurt right now just thinking about it.
 
I suffer the results of my military time and the lack of hearing protection as mentioned by another poster. In Nam, it was not just the sound of gunfire but numerous explosions to include many incidents of boby traps. The combat engineer unit I served with was jungle clearing, and we endured a lot of the above plus the noise within the enclosed cabs of a D-7 Catipillar.

I have been wearing hearing aids for over ten years, and the prognosis with aging is not good.

There has also been a recent study reported in the New York Times indicating those suffering severe hearing loss are at a significantly higher risk of alzheimers. The premise is based upon the amount of energy and concentration required to interact with others with hearing loss. I can relate to the energy it requires to listen to others while in a conversation. It is very tiring and causes one to withdraw from social activites which is linked to the dreaded disease.

It is not a pretty picture.
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I doubt many Americans realize what guys like you experienced and are currently experiencing. We are eternally indebted to your service and thank you for your sacrifices on our behalf.
 
Wow .... Really made me reconsider everything!
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I'm looking for some quick hearing protection to use while hunting.

You can't hear a deer walking with ear plugs in. Also, you could spook the deer while trying to put them in.

I shot a bobcat two years ago with my 7mm rem mag and then a month later shot two deer about 35-40 seconds apart with my 308.

The ringing only lasted a few hours and I didn't notice it until after getting back to the camp each time. I guess from being excited about the kills.
 
Use electronic muffs (or possibly plugs). They will actually amplify the sound of the deer, but will revert to normal muff or plug mode if noise exceeds a specified dB level.
 
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