Going Deaf -> Say what??

[tdbru]

since many here like to run braked rifles, consider this article carefully:

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2021/01/say-what-beware-the-risks-of-concussive-hearing-loss/

as a kid growing up hearing protection and hearing loss wasn't much understood. at age 12 i asked the old guys on the trap line about my ringing ears. they said, don't worry your ears will "toughen up".

now i wear hearing aids. i wish i knew back then what is known now, though finding any kind of hearing protection back then was difficult to impossible.

now when i'm on the range it's both plugs and muffs. and if someone plunks down on a bench next to me or within 3 benches with a braked rifle (usually 300 RUM or something like that) i get up and leave. on the way past them i ask them if they'd be kind enough to knock on my vehicle window and let me know when they're done shooting.....

just saying.....

-tdbru

[grayfox]

My hearing loss started in the engineering spaces of my Nave ships... went 2 years that way before they gave hearing tests, and I'd already lost some. Steam whistle down main and aux steam pipes, rotating machinery, generators, turbines, feed pumps, etc etc. Over 40 years off an on inside ships and power plants... thousands of hours...
o well, for all my shooting I do double protection, except when outside actually hunting, then its electronic muffs.
Brake or no brake (I do use them but don't shoot any magnums...).
Try to hang on to what you got!

[biodsl]

If I'd known I was going to live this long....

Big time hearing loss. Pretty sure it's the result music through in-the-ear earbuds played loud enough to overcome motorcycle wind noise at, ahem, 55 mph ; )

The ringing never stops....

Edit: I'd own a suppressor today except I don't want to give the ATF permission to enter my home.

[BlogSarge]

[RSTX]

Suppress all the rifles! I have terrible tinnitus from shooting with my dad and Pawpaw as a kid. Now I have a constant eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee in my head.

I purchased my first suppressor last year and at age 48 I finally understand what all the fuss is about. It is almost magical to a guy like me. Even supersonic rounds are quieter. It sort of moves the crack further away from you. Hard to describe, but easy to love.

[biodsl]

Wow. How did I get under that false impression. Thanks...I'll look into that.

[Wethepeople]

You're not alone Paul. I've believed that to be true for decades. HMMM?

[Red*Lion]

since many here like to run braked rifles, consider this article carefully:

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2021/01/say-what-beware-the-risks-of-concussive-hearing-loss/

as a kid growing up hearing protection and hearing loss wasn't much understood. at age 12 i asked the old guys on the trap line about my ringing ears. they said, don't worry your ears will "toughen up".

now i wear hearing aids. i wish i knew back then what is known now, though finding any kind of hearing protection back then was difficult to impossible.

now when i'm on the range it's both plugs and muffs. and if someone plunks down on a bench next to me or within 3 benches with a braked rifle (usually 300 RUM or something like that) i get up and leave. on the way past them i ask them if they'd be kind enough to knock on my vehicle window and let me know when they're done shooting.....

just saying.....

-tdbru

You really take offense to someone shooting a rifle with a brake while you are wearing two kinds of hearing protection? (head shake) I have tinnitus primarily from my combat experience in the Army, so I intimately know what it is like. Tinnitus is not hearing loss. Tinnitus is ringing in the ears. Separate issues, but some folks have both.

[tdbru]

RL,
i have both Tinnitus AND hearing loss. and some of those braked rifles HURT my ears even with plugs and muffs. and when it hurts i go wait until their done.

i guess i'm a wuss.

-tdbru

[Red*Lion]

RL,
i have both Tinnitus AND hearing loss. and some of those braked rifles HURT my ears even with plugs and muffs. and when it hurts i go wait until their done.

i guess i'm a wuss.

-tdbru

Fair enough....wuss.... I got tinnitus from the 120mm main gun on a German Reservist Leopard tank at grafenwoehr germany. Idiots thought they could start shooting from the ready line and not the actual firing line.

[Rosecrans1]

I really hosed my ears over the years. 10+ years in radio on air with very loud closed muff headphones avoid feedback off the very close mic. Then pistol and rifle shooting all my life while also moving on to a manufacturing job with impact wrenches and loud hydraulic motors and agitators and a spat of loud music in cars/trucks and home.
Yea! I'm an idiot because even in the mid-70's I had people tell me in the radio business to lower the sound or "you'll go deaf". Wear hearing protection with your 357 or "you'll go deaf"! And the ever popular "old guy" at the red-light who yells "turn that awful shit down or I'll get out of this car and mash your ass"!!! I wish the guy would have mashed my ass now. It's what I needed!
If I had a dollar for every time I have to say "what" to someone talking to me, I could have retired sooner!

[mel]

i just hurt my hearing with 3-4 rounds out of my 10.5 pistol build , i have been spoiled by my supressor lol being im out of state for vacation i couldnt bring it with me , during cease fires at the range they make u take ur ear pro off , 2x i forgot to put it back on and let a round or 2 fly , its been 2 days and my right ear still hurts and is ringing i couldnt hear out of it at all for the first day but its comming back pretty good. this has taught me one thing i need to rethink my home defense setup , i would not want to fire that pistol in and enclosed room

[Fess]

. this has taught me one thing i need to rethink my home defense setup , i would not want to fire that pistol in and enclosed room

That's something I have wondered about with all of the AR based pistols being sold for home defense. Not only will you lose hearing short term and thus situational awareness from the blast, but you may well permanently lose some hearing. I am not certain that the short barrel is worth it in that situation. I would like to see the numbers for a bullpup with a 20" barrel vs a standard AR with a short barrel the same distance from the user's face. I wonder how much difference there is?

[mel]

That's something I have wondered about with all of the AR based pistols being sold for home defense. Not only will you lose hearing short term and thus situational awareness from the blast, but you may well permanently lose some hearing. I am not certain that the short barrel is worth it in that situation. I would like to see the numbers for a bullpup with a 20" barrel vs a standard AR with a short barrel the same distance from the user's face. I wonder how much difference there is?

well at home it would have been supressed but that still brings the length to on par with a 16" barrel , when i fired withot hearing protection at the range its just a roof over a concrette slab open to all sides , and the blast was rough , in an enclosed room forget it without the supressor much better off with the handgun

[Rosecrans1]

They have signs for this very topic!

Warning.jpg