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ChuckXX
BannedPosts: 103 Member
Will You End Up Going Deaf????
ChuckXX
BannedPosts: 103 Member
Just curious if you have ever fired off 5 or 6 rounds from your 1911, 40 cal, or even 9mm without hearing protection. I never have but was wondering if after 5 or 6 rounds if you can hear anything or is it just lots of ringing in your ears????? Would your hearing come back eventually????
Replies
1 shot from a .357 hurt my inner ears so bad, I've never gone without protection again.
http://www.earsoftexas.com/hearingear_disorders/shooting.htm
Words of wisdom from Big Chief: Flush twice, it's a long way to the Mess Hall
I'd rather have my sister work in a whorehouse than own another Taurus!
Wife hates it because I can put my good ear to the pillow and be almost totally deaf. Out like a light.
Winston Churchill
D
Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.... now who's bringing the hot wings? :jester:
Still, I'm not as deaf as most shooters my age. I attribute that to the fact that I did start using ear protection after a few hundred rounds through the Ruger.
25 Mike Mike from a Bradley, 120 from a M-1 Tank, MLRS, TOW missiles being fired will really get your attention.
Words of wisdom from Big Chief: Flush twice, it's a long way to the Mess Hall
I'd rather have my sister work in a whorehouse than own another Taurus!
Once the damage is done, the ears never recover. Ringing may subside and the individual may think their hearing has recovered to normal levels but it has not.
The majority of my hearing loss is from disease, but working in my Father's machine shop, shooting, and a career around jet aircraft, and not wearing proper hearing protection especially when younger, has made things worse. As a result I have been wearing hearing ads since I was 40 years old.
Hearing aids are exactly that - aids. They help, but cannot replace your natural hearing.
Double up - Plugs and Muffs - of the highest DB rating you can find - 30-33 seems to be the highest available - even with that, majority of gunfire will still be in the damage zone - > 85DB
:bang: I will retreat back to my captioned viewing of the Olympics.
NRA Endowment Member
Only 5 or 6 rounds outdoors? Yea, it will come back. I made a lot of bad decisions in my younger years with using hearing protection--or the lack thereof. My hearing is fine now, but the damage 20 years from now will certainly come to light.
Shooting w/o hearing protection is something I would only advocate in an emergent self defense situation. Then factors to save your hearing like auditory exclusion comes in to play.
If a woman, child, or a man with a higher pitched voice is on my left side and speaking to me, I can't hear them very well at all. My left ear high frequency response is really bad, and the constant ringing in my ear drowns out their voice. Don't know how many times I've told a woman, "It's not that I'm not listening to you; it's just that I can't hear what you're saying". :silly: They still get mad.
I wear hearing protection whenever shooting or around loud machinery now, even mowing the lawn or using a weedeater. And with a chain saw. And when driving a tractor; that exhaust noise is loud. Protect your hearing; you can't get it back. Bad tinnitus sucks to the max; you don't want it!
― Douglas Adams
I dearly wish I'd had hearing protection when I hunted dove and quail way back when! The shotgun I did most of my dove and quail hunting from '63 through the '70s was a Remington 878 semiauto with a barrel shortened to 20 inches and fitted with a Cutts Compensator. That Cutts Compensator made the abbreviated barrel muzzle blast LOUD. During dove season it wasn't unusual to hunt five days a week and expend 4-5 boxes of reloads per day. I had a good deal of tinnitus by the time I graduated high school. Add in weekly trips to the skeet range during the off season shooting a minimum of 4 rounds of skeet and/or trap, and the cumulative effect was bad. In my defense, NOBODY wore hearing protection back then. If I knew then what I know now, I'd have shoved cigarette butt filters in my ears. :tooth:
― Douglas Adams
I do now. I wish I had my whole life. Since developing tinnitus last year, I wear electronic hearing protection while I hunt. Amplifies ambient sound, and protects my ears when it's time to put rounds downrange.
-Mikhail Kalashnikov
I made a mistake of taking my hearing protectors off to talk to someone while inside an indoor range, then proceeded and fired 1 round of 223 out of my AR. I had a headache for an entire day and my ears continue to ring for a few days after. I will not make that mistake again and caution everyone I teach about that each time.
I did some brief research a while back and wrote this up a while back:
"I've always assumed that shotgun is louder than pistol; however, I quickly discovered it's quite the opposite. An 18" 12 gauge produces 156dB, compared to a 9mm, which rings in at nearly 160dB. A few more typical calibers:
.32 ACP 153.5 dB
.380 157.7 dB
.38 Spl 156.3 dB
.357 Mag 164.3 dB
.45 ACP 157.0 dB
.223, 55GR. Commercial load 18" barrel 155.5dB
.30-30 in 20" barrel 156.0dB
7mm Magnum in 20" barrel 157.5dB
.308 in 24" barrel 156.2dB
26" barrel shotgun 150.25dB
Source: http://www.freehearingtest.com/hia_gunfirenoise.shtml)
The pain threshold is at 120dB. OSHA Required Hearing Protection in Factory is 85dB. Sustained Exposure May Cause Hearing Loss is 90dB. A few more for good measure:
Chest Wall Begins to Vibrate 150dB
Ear Drum Breaks Instantly 160dB
Death of Hearing Tissue 180dB
Loudest Possible Sound 194dB
Some other interesting comparison: http://www.esoundproof.com/Screens/Basics/Academy/Sound%20Measurement/Decibels/dBChart.aspx (this site lists shotguns at 120dB).
Muzzle brakes and ports INCREASE the dB level as the sound blast is closer to the shooter."
Ears always on!
Al
Bear in mind, too, that roughly every THREE decibels increased is actually TWICE the decibel sound level. The function is logarithmic.