And I’m enjoying my Snickers right now! 
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Snicker in the front, Poke her in da rear! 
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I’ve been to that bar, but they must have changed the name.
it used to be Liquor in the front, Poker in the rear.
quote=“Shamrock, post:14, topic:104794”]
I personally wouldn’t consider practicing without hearing protection just to make the training more realistic.
[/quote]
I’m with Shamrock on this one. Avoid excessive noise until it becomes absolutely necessary. Hearing loss is cumulative, no sense in speeding up the process.
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WHAT? 
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I grew up in a peanut buying station. We had 12 bin dryers and a massive wagon dryer. They run at like 148db 24 hours a day from september until december. Im pretty sure i had tinnitus in highschool lol
as for the noise in a shooting incident, you typically wont even remember it after the fact depending on the environment. in an inclosed space of a building? you will be deaf as hell, outside the adrenaline typically helps shield you from the shot concussion while you are in the moment.
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I feel your pain on this one, Brother…or more to the point, I hear the same ringing. I spent 12 years around F-111s. Double ear protection didn’t really help. Some things I can hear and some things I can’t.
I did finally get the feeling back in my fingertips though.
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Shot trap as a kid 100-200 a weekend and we didn’t use hearing protection. Thousand hours in the jump seat of a Huey, we had helmet with muffs but in the 70’s they hadn’t really figured out how to make them work too good.
When I do hearing protection classes I use this line, “Do you know what the loudest sound in this room is right now? It’s the ringing in my ears, it never goes away…”.
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I shot a 44 magnum in a canyon with no hearing protection. The essential high C maintained a high level for the rest of the day. I think I still have that ever persistent sound going off in my head. I actually forgot about that and thought that sound was something everybody heard but then I listened to others talking about it and it was a Ah Ha moment.
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I heard of some wireless electronic and more portable ear plugs (noise canceling for fire arm time use), but kinda expensive for me, and I worry about pain or side effects from wearing them
That’s something I’ve thought about too. Same considerations as well. I’m not sure it’s worth the trade off or not. Probably not to be honest since I don’t plan on getting into daily shootouts lol
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Marshall amps on ten,race cars with open headers, thousands of twelve gauge rounds trap shooting or dove hunting…then war.Ive gat a continuous high pitch ringing that never stops.Ive learned to ignore it mostly. But it’s there and never stops.
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@DustyChalk I’ve got severe tinnitus and wear hearing aids as well. Too many years around running jet engines. I’ve been thinking a lot about what the impact would be if exposed to a gun shot with the hearing aids in. Technically they are sound amplifiers! I’ll definitely keep the info about injections in mind though. I was totally unaware of that treatment! Thanks 
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Ugh, an injection in my ear? Makes me think of getting a shot in my eye. Only if absolutely necessary and you better use a topical numbing agent too.
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Morphine, definitely Morphine Brother!
After all the105’s, Mortars, Grenades, Helo’s etc with-OUT protection I am doing ok.
Is my hearing great? Hell no, but I rarely wear my hearing aids because FOR ME it’s like two fingers in my ears. (or they are overly LOUD!)
I wear’ Cans’ @ the Range (even Outdoor sometimes) and eye Protection 100% of the time.
Even my sunglasses are Tactical. I don’t take stupid risks with my body (anymore) protect what’s left I’m probably in the minority here about knowing what all my hardware sounds and feels like in real time but it works for me. No Flinching or Hesitation when I shoot.
A self Defense shoot sucks but I KNOW I won’t have Cans on if it ever happens again so I prepare for the REALITY of it.
Please do NOT take this as ADVICE! It’s just what I do. I alone am responsible for my actions
I’m not suggesting you all do the same. I’d rather you TRAIN HARD (and often) make those Guns a part of you, know them inside and out. WEAR PROTECTION and be safe. If you do this you have a greater chance of surviving a shoot.
Mi dos pesos
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A .357 in a smallish room
Sure, it’s a tv show but I thought it’s near accurate and it was an eye-opener for me when I was a beginner gun owner
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Ya BeanCounter, that episode is one that got me thinking about the physical effects on me afterward. Of course, at least I hope, I won’t be in an enclosed space like that. But I’m apparently hypersensitive to loud sounds due to my hearing issues. The last time I was at an open Gun range, even as we were walking to the firing area, through the parking lot, I noticed an unnerving effect when someone fired a gun and I hadn’t protected yet. Made me feel dizzy. So now I wear ear plugs and headset. In the episode Rick looked pretty stunned…do you think he was to the point of not being able to defend himself from a second attacker? SWAT teams use the flash-bangs for the same effect. Wonder if they’re comparable?
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I couldn’t say for sure.
The indoors shotgun blast I mentioned earlier was the closest I experienced to something like that.
My reaction was, “wow, that’s loud” as I quickly put on ear protection.
I just went to my assigned stall and started shooting.
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Fascinating DustyChalk. I hear you, no pun intended.
Not sure if it helps me, but like another gentleman posted, I too double up at the range, both soft spongy inserts and a head/ear muffs (the electronic kind). Took my brother once, he started out with just head/ear muffs but soon added both on as well.
Good for you that you got medical help fairly soon, I imagine many folks either way too long or never go at all, perhaps not realizing the benefits of an evaluation and treatment.
Unrelated, but you minded me how some biological components, when we loose them they are either difficult to grow back or do not grow back at all:
IE, brain cells. I saw a documentary, I think it was called “Stress Kills”. Whereby literally, when we feel stress, we lose brain cells. So, I try to avoid stress when I can. Not sure how many people know what the loss of brain cells does to a person, it’s pretty significant.
I read that regular exercise and a regular healthy diet can help grow newer cells. But of course, finding activities to decompress can help with the stress. I was lucky to have found outdoor activities again, but now I need to work on my physical health so I can cope with getting out there more, the walking part.
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- it really hurts.
- the ringing lasts days.
- you only hear the first round-ypur ears are ringing louder than each subsequent round.
- do not think about this, it will make you pause, and that equals losing a gunfight.
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That’s what they try to do.
But, none of them actually can.
The NRR Rating is what you guys want to look for in hearing protection
You can look up the dB level of typical guns/rounds online, then look at the NRR of your hearing protection, and approximate-ish the resulting dB you will experience.
An AR15 type rifle in 5.56 for example often runs about 165 dB. Electronic earmuffs run 18-26 NRR typically. Passive earmuffs go up to about 31-33 NRR on the top end (the big boxy ones).
You are still way over 90 dB even with good earmuffs on, when shooting or around the shooting of a loud firearm.
This is why you still cause some degree of hearing damage, as Enzo points out, even with hearing protection.
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A tip: NRR ratings are not additive; that is, if you have plugs rated for 22 and add muffs rated at 24, the result is not 46. Adding muffs and plugs together results in adding only about 5 to the higher of the two. Thus, in the above example you would get about 24+5 = 29 NRR.
#2 If you use both (as I do when on indoor ranges), no benefit to having both electronic. I recommend electronic muffs over passive plugs, because the muffs have directional microphones on each side to help you hear speakers.
When on a handgun range outdoors, I find electronic plugs adequate, and cooler than muffs in summer heat.
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