My first post; A question on handgun shooting/hearing loss.

from a long time shooter with tinnitus and hearing damage.

Never shoot a firearm at the range without hearing protection.

Always use eye protection also.

In fact you need to consider it for all activities that have high noise levels.
 
Wear hearing protection every time you shoot. There is zero reason to suffer long term damage when it's very easy to avoid any damage at all.
 
I would never shoot without hearing protection with one exception; using a handgun with a suppressor with sub-sonic ammo, and then I'm still likely to wear hearing protection!
 
I wear 33db plugs and 33db muffs together when shooting, even with the .22lrs. You can buy lower rated; however, this combination is far better than the lower numbers. Spend an extra couple of dollars now as an investment in your hearing future.

I carry a plasitic container with a pair of 33 db plugs in my pocket everyday. Also carry extra muffs in my Jeep. (You would be surprised just how often this can come in handy over the course of a year!)

I try to get my hearing protection on before shooting when hunting; doesn't always work out, and I attribute those times to the small hearing loss that I have now.

My dad was one of those "macho we don't need no stinkin' hearing protection guys" back in the day, and now it is challenging to have a conversation with him; he misses darn near every other word.
 
PADave,
You'll be fine.. you'll feel back to normal in no time. Just imagine you went to a concert and were close to the speakers.

You may have done some damage to your ears, but not much. I've done at least 100 times more damage to my ears, and I can still hear fine.

I've been to concerts where my ears felt funny for more than a day afterwards. And done some shooting without ear plugs just for the sake of "seeing how loud this gun is". And your ears always go back to feeling normal. But it does do damage each time you expose yourself to that kind of stuff.

If your ever without ear plugs, but you still wana shoot. Or your at a concert and things are just TOO loud. I learned all it takes is a bit of toilet paper, or napkin, or anything really, that you can stick in your ears. And it will dramatically reduce the amount of sound getting to your ear drums. Enough in most cases to prevent any real damage.
 
I just had the same thing happen to me today. I went shooting with a buddy of mine in the desert. We shot quite a few rifles and hand guns for 2-3 hours. I had ear plugs on. When I went to take them off, i'm having hard time hearing from my right ear now, I feel fullness like there's something inside. I'm paranoid now that I might have done some damage. Any word of advise for me? This never happend to me before either.
 
Thank you, Mellow C. Youre response was the best so far. Not that the other responses were bad, but most said "Don't shoot without protection" & that I already knew. I just wish the faint ringing would go away, that's what's scaring me. This past Wednesday evening is when I took those last 3 shots, the next day going to bed I noticed the very faint high frequency ringing. I'm afraid of having permanent Tinnitus.
 
Best advice to give you would be to tell you to read this entire thread. It is one of the most complete on a very serious subject, here on TFL.

I'm not going to blow sunshine up your skirt and tell you it'll be OK. Even you must know there has been some damage. The above thread will tell you more.
 
I've read the thread before, it didn't answer any questions I had. I've read those who've shot alot over years without protection having hearing loss/Tinnitus. I'm just having a very, very hard time believing I'm going to have this faint ringing tone in my ears until the day I die over 11 rounds fired, and not in one day, over 3 seperate occasions. Also, after doing reading I've found that most who have gotten Tinnitus after unprotected shooting have had a very different experience. They were almost impaired by the blast, leaving them deafened & with a loud ringing for quite some minutes after the initial shot. I've never had that sort of pain, I've never lost hearing temporarily after a shot either, none of the shots 'bothered' me. I am in no way saying I didn't suffer any damage just because the shots didn't bother me, because I'd be wrong. I'm just saying, I'm struggling to believe that 11 unprotected shots will leave me with this tone or "Tinnitus" forever.
 
You are probably right in believing that 11 shots will not leave you with ringing forever but, you have suffered some damage that will not go away. In the future, lawnmowers, chain saws, gas powered weed eaters, sirens, loud music, loud anything must be avoided unless you are wearing hearing protection. Be a good scout and be prepared for the unexpected. Plugs are easy to carry 24/7 for the times that they are needed. Having grown up in the 1940's and living close to a gun club, my love of guns and shooting drew me to the ranges where I shot everything for many years while young during a time period when nobody used hearing protection. Today, my ears ring constantly and I need hearing aids and try to read lips when in a conversation with others. I wish I had a dollar for every time I say "what" during a normal day.

oldhunter
 
The problem with hearing loss is that you can still hear people talk, you just can't understand what they are saying. The ability to hear high frequencies goes first and with it the ability to distinguish the consonants in speech. T's sound like B's sound like V's. F's sound like S's etc. That's why hard of hearing people read lips, to fill in the missing information from what they hear.
 
Suggestion.

Buy a pack or two of foam earplugs and throw them in the glovebox of your car or cars. It's cheap, you'll have 'em with you, and (in my experience) you will also appreciate having them when you unexpectedly find yourself in other high-noise situations.

I have lost count of how many times I've gone back out to the car for plugs when eating out at clubs and stuff where they love to CRANK the music up so damned loud.
 
Welcome Dave, I have not even bothered to read any of the other posts yet. But PLEASE do not shoot any kind of firearm without proper hearing protection. I did this for too many years and at 62 I'm suffering from Semi severe hearing loss which can’t be repaired, please believe me hearing loss is not fun and as much as I try and make lite of it, it's a pain not only for me but my wife and friends.
 
I've read those who've shot alot over years without protection having hearing loss/Tinnitus. I'm just having a very, very hard time believing I'm going to have this faint ringing tone in my ears until the day I die over 11 rounds fired, and not in one day, over 3 seperate occasions.
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Well, believe it. Everybody's experience is different. Some have had lifelong tinnitus from just one good blast. You must keep in mind, though, there are other things in motion with different people. Medications, including good old aspirin, can cause tinnitus, or can exacerbate mild almost silent tinnitus into what is far worse, scaring hell out of people that thought they had it beat. Once said med is removed, ringing is back to normal. You may have it for days, weeks, months, even years and it may go away. It may also come back, even though you have been vigilant in wearing your hearing protection. (Myself) Having it 24/7 is simply no fun at all, though. None of us can stress enough that protecting what you have, whatever that level may be is paramount. That's why the attitude of gee, it was only a few shots is met with such gruff impatience from those of us that are there and can't go back to right our wrongs of the past.
 
I think I'm losing my mind. When I go in silence I can't hear it. As soon as I turn my attention to something, it comes over as background noise. Like, when I 'think' about it, bang there it is, but when I don't I can't hear it. It's as if it's playing games with me saying "Haha, can you hear me or not? You don't even know!" Is this typical of Tinnitus? Or am I seriously losing my mind? I'm going through immense stress right now, my life's falling apart & my mom just had surgery for breast cancer, I really can't take much more before I crack .
 
I even wear earplugs at the movies because the commercials are so darn loud.
Wear them riding motorcycle, chainsawing, snowblowing, etc.


I cringe to think of the instructors who taught rifle shooting in WWI and WWII working all day w/o hearing protection of any kind...... would have been torture until you go permanently deaf.
 
Is this typical of Tinnitus? Or am I seriously losing my mind?
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FWIW one of the prominent theories regarding the cause of tinnitus is that it's actually a sort of ghost tone generated by your brain to fill in the aural spectrum lost to damage to the cilia. Basically your brain 'expects' to hear sound in that range, and when it doesn't fills in the missing tones. This is a bit like the way that your visual perception will compensate for blind spots in your vision by filling in the visual field in those regions.

I have pretty serious tinnitus resulting from significant damage to my hearing as a kid, due to my ear drums rupturing multiple times. It occurs at multiple frequencies and can be very loud. But what I'd learned to do as a kid was to focus on the tones and dampen them until they stop. At this point, I can turn them on and off and even shift their frequency. Apparently many people with mild tinnitus do the same thing unconsciously. So from my experience, what you're describing doesn't sound so strange. You're probably not losing your mind. My advice would be to not focus on the problem right now. It sounds like you're under a lot of stress, and stress will play havoc with your senses. You may not even have any hearing loss, and are just freaking yourself out. This might be one of those rare instances where ignoring your problem really will make it go away. If it's still an issue once things clear up, then you can worry about it.
 
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The stress you are experiencing is no doubt raising your blood pressure, something that exacerbates tinnitus, also. Do what you can to remain calm; if you have permanent tinnitus, there's not much you can do about it other than try to minimalize it. For myself, the rising and falling of intensity preceded a return to what is generally normal. For me though, normal is not really exciting, the sound of rushing water, just better than a constant ring.
 
This is a good thread. Really good. I have tinnitus and the VA service connected it at 10% and it was filed many years after discharge. I remember what we were told in training before deployment to Vietnam - "Don't worry about it. Your ears will toughen up..." Yeah. They toughened up.
 
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