Pros & Cons Of HD Shooting Using Ear Protection

Griz,

I've accidently shot my SKS and multiple .22s without hearing protection.
Yes, I forgot my muffs and then sat there wondering why the heck things were so loud. I actually thought something was wrong with the SKS. The SKS was a bit harsh. The .22s don't bother me at all, which is bad because it's still loud enough to cause damage over time, and apparently, I need reminders to put my muffs on.

Yet, two shots off a revolver with .38 special +p and I was deaf as a post for about 20 minutes. Don't ask me to explain, but how sound waves eminate from diffrent guns changes what you hear and how. Revolvers are the worst. There's nothing between you and the sound.
 
If it was a 2 1/2 inch revolver it was because the sound was closer. Most short barrel rifles and pistols sound loader.

I too doubt that anyone will have time to get prepared with hearing protection. You could just buy a pair of those rubber shooting plugs that go into the ear and have a valve that shuts when a loud sound goes off. They let you hear normally under most conditions and shut off incoming sound when you fire.

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/690766/sportear-sport-plugz-xp3-medium-ear-plugs-nrr-19db-tan

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/45...-ear-plugs-nrr-22-db-1-pair?cm_vc=subv1690766

Or you could just get a Class 3 sound suppressor and not wake up your neighbors, now that would be considerate.

Jim
 
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Quote -Glenn E. Meyer -If you are at home - unless you are faced with a breeching team - a properly thought out house should give you enough time to retrieve a gun, light, muffs and maybe call the law.
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You think only a "breaching team" can be in your home in a hurry?

Most common doors take 1 solid kick to open. and many home invasion guys have a pretty good pattern down.
 
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Don't have a common door. It's that simple. Move into a new house or an old one and get folks to fix up your doors.

The statement if you have a 'common door' proves my point.
 
Don't have a common door. It's that simple. Move into a new house or an old one and get folks to fix up your doors.

The statement if you have a 'common door' proves my point.
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Many of us are renters or in situations where we cannot install a beefed up door so we have a "common door" just like the majority of America so we make do. You are talking about special doors maybe your tactics work for special people but many of us like to train for common scenarios because we are common people in common homes.

The only point you are proving is you are detached from the reality that most of us live in.
 
There are ways to strengthen apartment doors. But many folks do live in houses.

If you don't, not my business.

It is clear that gun shot noise can be dangerous to your hearing, despite denials of such. It is not clear that the reality we live in means that you face an rapid break-in as compared to hearing something in the night, most of the time.

Even in an apartment, you can lock the bedroom door and make it harder to breach - unless you face a team.

If you do face an organized home invasion as you fear - you probably don't have time to get your gun either. You will be overwhelmed and stabbed multiple times.
 
I switch out my magnum rounds for much quieter .38s at night, I'm willing to trade the extra power of the .357s for the chance of less hearing damage on the gamble that an intruder isn't going to be wearing armor and I'm not gonna have to shoot through media.

I'm more comfortable with a handgun than a shotgun for HD, even my pistol-gripped light-equipped Mossberg Persuader is a bit clumsy indoors compared to having a pistol in one hand and flashlight in the other.

So for me, the only step I take to avoid hearing damage is to load with lighter rounds. At the ranges I will encounter inside my house I'm willing, literally, to bet my life on that.

Ivan
 
357s won't make it through standard armor. If an average person faces home invaders in body armor - you are probably not going to carry the day unless you can get to a long arm.

How many times does this happen?
 
Setting aside the important issue of permanent noise-induced hearing loss for just a moment, there is the critical risk of having substantially impaired hearing immediately after having fired shots inside one's house.

The ability to hear the assailant's accomplices, one's family members, and/or arriving first responders could make a lot of difference in the outcome and the aftermath.

Not having hearing protection and using unnecessarily powerful firearms are things that one can and should try to avoid.
 
My wife has 90-95% hearing loss. NO not from shooting! It was from neglected childhood hearing infections. After numerous failed ear surgery she's left with no ear drum on one side and only 5-10% hearing in the other. She hears fairly well with her most powerful hearing aid, plus she can read lips from 100ft. If a firearm of any type was shot near her with aid in, I'm sure it would end her hearing all together. WiITHOUT her aid in, a 45 would sound like opening a can of pop. I would be afraid it would still cause further damage though. She's wanting to learn to shoot incase of an emergency so I did get her some good electronic muffs, but she hasn't shot yet. She does have a 38spl. This still makes me nervous. If she did ever have to use gun in defense , it truly would be life or death situation without hearing protection.
 
If someone is trying to kill you- stab you multiple times, shoot you multiple times, bash your head in with a blunt object, rape and pillage your family and you are worried about hearing protection?
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The answer to your question is no. No one is worried about hearing protection under those circumstances. Of course, that is irrelevant since no one is advocating that attempting to deploy hearing protection in a scenario like that would be reasonable.

No one is recommending that a defender should grab for hearing protection if an attack is actually underway or even if there's any chance that it could commence before one can put on the hearing protection.

The idea is that it makes sense to have good hearing protection in your "box of tools" so that if the circumstances warrant and time allows, you have the option of deploying it. An option which could offer a significant advantage in terms of improving hearing capabilities before and especially after a shot and which can help prevent hearing damage.

The reality of many home defense scenarios is that there is often preparation time. If that weren't true, people wouldn't be able to dial 911, access a stored firearm, etc. In those scenarios, adding hearing protection to the list of things to think about and use, if possible, makes sense.
 
OK so you are worrying about hearing protection when you have some one breaking in to your house?? Really? I have shot indoors with out hearing protection and though not fun I really don't think I would care about that if some one was breaking into my house. If that happens you have fare more important things to worry about.
 
Wear 'em if you want. Don't wear 'em if you don't want.
Seems like the "final answer" to me.

Personally, I "don't want". Others mileage may vary. No prob.


Sgt Lumpy
 
Quote- Glenn E. Meyer There are ways to strengthen apartment doors. But many folks do live in houses.

If you don't, not my business.
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Your standard(95%+ of door in the US) US door is at best a dead bolt going 3/4" to 1.5" into soft pine wood. Most 14yr old kids can kick it in without a sweat. A very large majority of break ins happen with a kick.

I don't know of any way to reenforce(so it would take more then 1 kick) a door like this with out doing hard modification to the door frame or the floor which most landlords would classify as "damage". Would like to hear of any if you got them. Many folks rent houses which have the same "damage" definitions by landlords.

Even when you have a solid door most homes have glass windows and or door which and not very hard to break. Cinder block through the back slider and step right in. Hope you got your... ear muffs.?

I know it is not your "business" but you are telling others only a "breech team" can get in their home in a timely manor which is very false and is creating and perpetuating false and dangerous info.
 
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If you are trying to defend your life and possibly your family's lives, how will you find the time to get ear muffs on? I think you'll be lucky to get your gun. If you're worried about noise, choose a quieter weapon. Longer barrels are usually quieter and less powerful rounds should help too. It's still gonna be loud unless you're using a .22 or something else small. Regardless, I don't see how you'll find the time to get muffs on while trying to defend yourself. You're gonna be surprised, not the intruder. If you're fumbling around trying to get muffs on and they are already inside, you're time is limited to be already. Why waste valuable seconds. I'd rather deal with the noise and not risk it. Anything that slows down being prepared I believe is a bad idea.
 
I hope I type fast enough to get in before the lock.

If you an apartment dweller, talk to your landlord. Many are very open to "I'd like to make security improvements to your property. And since my safety is important to me, I will make these improvements at NO COST TO YOU."

I have never had this offer turned down.

Other than that, it seems like some are arguing that there will be no time; not whether or not hearing protection is a good idea.

I am seriously looking at getting a pair of electronic muffs that retain directional hearing. I think enhanced hearing and lack of hearing loss *sounds* great.

That said:
1) Decide if the bump in the night is worth checking on.
2) If 1 is "yes", retrieve gun.
3) Call for help (911)
4) hearing protection and other "nice to haves".

PS - Not making your home a unattactive / more difficult target is a terrible plan.
 
deepcreek said:
Your

I don't know of any way to reenforce(so it would take more then 1 kick) a door like this with out doing hard modification to the door frame or the floor which most landlords would classify as "damage". Would like to hear of any if you got them. Many folks rent houses which have the same "damage" definitions by landlords.

Even when you have a solid door most homes have glass windows and or door which and not very hard to break. Cinder block through the back slider and step right in. Hope you got your... ear muffs.?
.
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Not to get too far off subject, but you can drill matching holes on hinge side of door & frame and glue metal pins in one side or other. When door is closed, pin enters opposing hole. Home stores also sell reinforcement plates for latch side.Also doors that open out rarely can be kicked in.
This thread HAS prompted me to keep a pair of electronic muffs near at night. Whether I would use them or not is a 50/50 chance though. At least they're there in opportunity permits.
I do have a perminnate ringing in my ears already. It's something I've kind of gotten used too.
 
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The lack of critical thinking in this thread is incredible. How many people have posted that the first thing you should be concerned with in a home invasion is hearing protection? Zero. How many people have said the first thing they would be reaching for is ear protection? Zero.

And yet we have multiple posts accusing people of that same mindset. If you have a problem with hearing protection being a PART of the set-up because of some tactical disadvantage they bring, that's fine. But if hearing protection can be a PART of the plan, circumstances allowing, then why not?
 
I too doubt that anyone will have time to get prepared with hearing protection.
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Funny how people continually think how anyone won't have time to get hearing protection, and yet we have had all sorts of threads involving incidents where people spend 3-30+ minutes on the phone with 911 while somebody is outside, how people heard noises downstairs and got guns from their safes or other hidden locations, that people heard somebody rummaging around at the other end of the house and so they fetched a gun from somewhere close and went to investigate, and that folks have waited at the top of the stairs for bad guys to appear. In ALL those instances, people had more than enough time to get hearing protection. In a couple, people had time to sneak out of the house, go to the neighbor's house, borrow hearing protection, and then sneak back in to their own home and wait for the bad guy.

Yeah, that is a bit of silliness, but it illustrates how much time people have had in some of the cases we have discussed on this forum where people had enough time to put on hearing protection. If you have time to "investigate a bump in the night" then you have time to put on hearing protection and electronic muffs really are the way to go. If you have time to call 911, you have time for hearing protection. If you have time to get out of bed and go lock the bedroom door, you have time for hearing protection. If you are, as noted above, waiting for the bad guy to come to you, you have time to put on hearing protection.

LOTS of home invasions do not happen fast or lots of encounters with the invaders do not happen fast. In those cases, you often have time not only for hearing protection, but to get dressed, call 911, etc. Not every home defense situation starts off with the homeowner awakening to being in a fight for his/her life.

Here are all stories where hearing protection could have been used, more than enough time. Some call 911. Some call their moms, husbands, etc. Some knew the invasion was occurring and watched it occur while arming themselves and looking out the windows...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsvggjYRbL0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp5gAY6aIjA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrL53-dE5Sc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-MvfDW8MOk (this woman's son is a deputy in the county or the next county).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PYl6vrzza78
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wS7LKwt1j18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt-u2VhL70c
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X0fcQ7gnjZw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mKHH22YNyc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQcoNr6ZIEc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1FLXLXCdgo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdA_5r_Gu-A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyq8Rlp_E9w
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxbTII8B_Bk (This guy sounds pretty tough)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qU6Z5ej5jcI

So this is just a sample of what is posted on Youtube, but illustrates how much time people often have during such events.
 
MK11 said:
The lack of critical thinking in this thread is incredible. How many people have posted that the first thing you should be concerned with in a home invasion is hearing protection? Zero. How many people have said the first thing they would be reaching for is ear protection? Zero.

And yet we have multiple posts accusing people of that same mindset. If you have a problem with hearing protection being a PART of the set-up because of some tactical disadvantage they bring, that's fine. But if hearing protection can be a PART of the plan, circumstances allowing, then why not?
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Well said
 
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