Do you keep ear protection on your nightstand or staged in various locations in your home or vehicle(s)?

Nope. After taking 2 shots with full power, .357 mag hunting loads, not hearing either shot, and no hearing issues afterwards. Not even ringing in my ears. I’m a believer in the notion that in a fight/flight scenario, your bodies natural defenses will protect your hearing.

I have done some looking into auditory exclusion in the past. While it does seem to protect most people most of the time from the short term impacts of excessive noise, it does not seem to happen 100% of the time and I have found no evidence that it protects against the cumulative effects of long term hearing damage. Maybe it does but I don’t understand how it would be able to since the sound waves would still be impacting the sensitive parts of your ears even if your brain is not registering and reacting to those sounds. Would love to see some well designed studies on this but I haven’t seen any.

1 Like

CPAP!! It does a husband good.

most of the time they have trouble getting people to wear them. Anecdotally, my TC Contender pistol in .35 Rem with a muzzle brake is responsible for my hearing loss. Always wore hearing protection except when hunting, and now I have profound hearing loss and wear hearing aids.
That said, I don’t keep them by the bedside. Trying to futz around with volume controls, etc, in a high stress situation is time I want to spend in other ways.

2 Likes

I would only be futzing with the hearing protection after my family is gathered securely in our safe spot behind a locked door. Then along with protecting our ears if the door was breached, the amplification might also give me a better idea of what the intruders are up to before they get to the door. I just have simple electronic muffs that I can put on and turn on one handed.

3 Likes

That’ll be a negatory

In response to your question: “Do you keep ear protection on your nightstand or staged in various locations in your home or vehicle(s)?”

I do not keep any hearing protection on/near my night stand or staged around my home. However, I do keep a spare set of ear plugs (or electronic ear muffs) in my vehicle in the event that I decide to go to a local shooting range.

On the down side… Hearing protection would be a moot point for use in my vehicle, or while I was out and about during the daytime, as I wear a hearing aid in each ear. In this situation, I could probably expect to kiss the rest of my hearing good-bye… as the hearing aids would would amplify the muzzle blast. :woozy_face:

1 Like

Nope. Vietnam without any hearing protection did all of the hearing damage that could possibly be done to my hearing.

I also usually have at least two sets of Walkers Electronic muffs in the Jeep, sometimes 4 or 5 depending on the day. When I instruct folks and they bring passive hearing protection I usually swap them out and give them one of mine as loaners. I HATE YELLING for hours at a time…

1 Like

I sleep with earplug in. Problem solved I guess … :question:

I used to plug my ears on guard duty while sleeping at the HHQ designated area. The noise was too much for me to sleep before my next post. Weekend warrior meetings were also insane. All the snoring was deafening. Those sponge earplugs helped but were not perfect. But yo do that in your own house every night simply defeats the purpose of fire alarms and other wake up devices.

1 Like