Very interested in this thread. But too busy to read now, so I'll be back ...

 

My right ear has been ringing since the mid 70’s. Ruger 4” 357 mag single six. Back when wearing hearing protection was for wussies. Now that the horse is out of the barn depending what I’m shooting I’ll wear plugs and muffs.
Oh to have been a wuss.

Rich

 

I've been wearing hearing aids for years and about 18 months ago I went to the range but forgot my regular ear muffs. Bought a pair of ear plugs at the range but they proved inadequate. Lost 10% of my hearing permanently that day. Now I double up with ear plugs and ear muffs. Like you, I'm just trying to save what's left.

I once was next to a guy who was shooting a suppressed AR-15, and I was surprised at how loud it was, so ... yeah use hearing protection.

Hector

 

My ears ring all the time too. I thought it was just people talking about me though…..🤔

Actually, when I do bird hunt alone, I don’t wear earplugs. I like to hear for wing beats and other noises to alert me birds are coming. I quit hunting ducks this year, but when you had foggy weather, listening to wing beats and other noises was the only way sometimes to tell you birds were coming. When hunting with others ear plugs were a must.

 

First off, I already wear hearing aids daily so I'm trying to keep what hearing I have. Second, my retirement gifts to myself were two suppressors, a Banish 30 and a Banish VK-22. I understand that there is no such thing as Hollywood Quiet, but I was surprised how little the suppressors worked on supersonic ammo.

We all know that hearing damage is caused by loud sounds and made worse by repetition and /or duration of those sounds. The damage is also cumulative. When I first started shooting as a kid there was no use of any hearing protection. I shot everything from .22LR to .458 Winchester Magnums with nothing to block the sound.
As I grew older and more apt to shoot for long periods, I began to use earmuffs. When the first good squishy earplugs came out, I used those because earmuffs get quite sweaty in the South! Now, as a suppressor owner, I am curious as to what really qualifies as "hearing safe" as the manufacturers and salespeople advertise it.

Just the other day I saw one major brand that claimed to reduce a 9mm pistol to 132dB and said it was "hearing safe." One chart I pulled up listed 130dB in the "Use hearing protection or avoid" section. Another says that a jet engine at takeoff is at the 130dB level.

The dB (deciBell) scale is a logarithmic scale. A 10dB increase is 10 times louder. A 20dB increase is 100 times louder! A 3dB increase is consider a doubling in volume. So if hearing protection is recommended for 130dB levels, how is a 132dB level (almost twice as loud!) hearing safe?

I've read the literature on how earmuffs and earplugs carry unrealistic sound reduction levels. So what are we actually getting when we are wearing them? To complicate this, there is a study that shows that earmuffs change the waveform of the impulse sound making the rise and duration longer under the earmuff. (Attenuation of high-level impulses by earmuffs - PubMed) This makes that reduction number even more suspicious.

What I have gleaned from this is that my suppressors are hearing safe only with small caliber subsonic ammo and that if I wear earmuffs, I should probably also wear earplugs (double capping) to protect what hearing I have left. At least my neighbors and my fellow shooters at the range will be happier because "Since each time intensity is cut in half the sound level decreases 3 dB, it follows that doubling distance reduces the sound level by 6 dB" and starting with 132dB instead of 150dB is a big help for them.

The purpose of all of this was to help up a coming shooters protect themselves from hearing damage and avoid spending $5000 on hearing aids when they are old instead of buying more cool guns!

Mods, since I mention suppressors, please move this to the NFA thread if needed.

My story is nearly identical to yours. I shot competitively from the age of 13 to probably 25 with no hearing protection. Now, 40 years later, I'm almost completely deaf in my left ear and getting there in my right. If m shooting rimfire, I shoot with electronic muffs....anything bigger, I shoot with muffs and plugs.

My doc pointed out that a lot of people just wear plugs and think they are completely protected but, especially with larger calibers, you need protection that protects the bones in your ears. For that, you need muffs because they cover the bones in and around your ears.

I wish I was smarter when I was young but, there was a reason my nickname amongst my significantly older shooting buddies was YAD (young and dumb).

 

I wish I was smarter when I was young but, there was a reason my nickname amongst my significantly older shooting buddies was YAD (young and dumb).

Words of truth right here!

 

I double up when at the range unless everyone is shooting suppressed.

If all are suppressed, then I generally do either foamies or muffs.

If it's all subsonic suppressed rimfire, I'll go with no protection.

Even naturally subsonic 45 I will generally wear ear pro.

 

I'm another among the crowd with hearing damage that only caught my attention as the years went on. The math, measurements, and science of it can go over my head, so I just look for the highest NRR I can find in both plugs and muffs, and wear both at the range. If I'm alone in the woods shooting rimfire, especially suppressed, I may go with plugs only. I don't trust that anything beyond a CO2 airgun is truly safe enough to not cost me any more of my hearing (and I may be wrong about that airgun!).

 

No one device offers more than about 32db of sound suppression and it's not the same at all frequencies. Lower frequencies are more damaging. The advertised sound reduction figures should be viewed with suspicion. Look for the frequency at which the device is rated (not always available).

Electronic ear muffs do not do anything electronic to muffle sound. They just shut off the microphone. No electronic earmuffs that I'm aware of are as effective as good non-electronic muffs.

Earmuffs plus earplugs is the best you can do.

I believe all the above are true based on both research and experience but I'm sure not everyone will agree.

I shoot rimfire suppressed and unprotected and am not concerned. A claimed reduction of 132 db for 9 mm doesn't sound safe without protection.

FWIW, my ears are over 80 years old and work well enough.

 

No one device offers more than about 32db of sound suppression and it's not the same at all frequencies. Lower frequencies are more damaging. The advertised sound reduction figures should be viewed with suspicion. Look for the ferquency at which the device is rated (not always available).

Electronic ear muffs do not do anything electronic to muffle sound. They just shut off the microphone. No electronic earmuffs that I'm aware of are as effective as good non-electronic muffs.

Earmuffs plus earplugs is the best you can do.

I believe all the above are true based on both research and experience but I'm sure not everyone will agree.

I shoot rimfire suppressed and unprotected and am not concerned. A claimed reduction of 132 db for 9 mm doesn't sound safe without protection.

FWIW, my ears are over 80 years old and work well enough.

Earmuffs plus earplugs plus suppressor is the best you can do.
FIFY

 

I wear custom made silicon plugs for my rimfire, and plugs with electronic muffs with my shotgun.
I rarely shoot my Shotgun anymore, I mostly stick with my .22 cal or my .17 hmr. a Rimfire 22 is in the decibel range of 112db to 140db from short to LR, and 155db for a .17 I'm almost 60 now, and have noticed my hearing isn't as good as it used to be.

 

...I've read the literature on how earmuffs and earplugs carry unrealistic sound reduction levels. So what are we actually getting when we are wearing them? To complicate this, there is a study that shows that earmuffs change the waveform of the impulse sound making the rise and duration longer under the earmuff. (Attenuation of high-level impulses by earmuffs - PubMed) ...

Do you have any idea how unusual it is to have anyone mention actual source references? Refreshing!!

 

You have to remember that suppressors have never been designed with hearing protection in mind. They're designed to muffle, not eliminate noise. This is primarily to make it harder to locate where the gunfire is coming from, not to really silence it.

Advertising silencers as hearing protection is doing the shooting community a disservice.

 

I shot a 460 weatherly magnum of a friends to make sure it was on for bear season. In the mountains and low ceiling that day. My left ear was ruined that day. I did get my Bear the following day. My left ear has wrong since that day. At first I started sleeping with a small vacuum cleaner running beside me all night. I soon gave that up. This happened in 1985 and my left ear has never stopped ringing. It just does not bother me anymore and I got used to it. I do wear hearing protection now for any noisy activities and all shooting sports

 

[...] Just the other day I saw one major brand that claimed to reduce a 9mm pistol to 132dB and said it was "hearing safe." One chart I pulled up listed 130dB in the "Use hearing protection or avoid" section. Another says that a jet engine at takeoff is at the 130dB level.

The dB (deciBell) scale is a logarithmic scale. A 10dB increase is 10 times louder. A 20dB increase is 100 times louder! A 3dB increase is consider a doubling in volume. So if hearing protection is recommended for 130dB levels, how is a 132dB level (almost twice as loud!) hearing safe?

I've read the literature on how earmuffs and earplugs carry unrealistic sound reduction levels. So what are we actually getting when we are wearing them? To complicate this, there is a study that shows that earmuffs change the waveform of the impulse sound making the rise and duration longer under the earmuff. (Attenuation of high-level impulses by earmuffs - PubMed) This makes that reduction number even more suspicious.

What I have gleaned from this is that my suppressors are hearing safe only with small caliber subsonic ammo and that if I wear earmuffs, I should probably also wear earplugs (double capping) to protect what hearing I have left. At least my neighbors and my fellow shooters at the range will be happier because "Since each time intensity is cut in half the sound level decreases 3 dB, it follows that doubling distance reduces the sound level by 6 dB" and starting with 132dB instead of 150dB is a big help for them.

The purpose of all of this was to help up a coming shooters protect themselves from hearing damage and avoid spending $5000 on hearing aids when they are old instead of buying more cool guns!

Mods, since I mention suppressors, please move this to the NFA thread if needed.

"Time-Weighted-Average"

 

I double up. I’m trying to use up the majority of my high velocity ammo and switch to standard. I also have suppressors but rarely use them. For ears i switched to a gell cushion and I wear eyes with a strap so there is no sound gap from frames. 99% of what I shoot is 22 pistols.

 

I'm not saying supersonic .22 ammo is hearing safe, but it is MUCH quieter with can. And my .22's using subsonics are absolutely hearing safe.

As for the big guns...the can ABSOLUTELY makes things quieter, and even more significantly, reduces the concussion.
You should definitely wear hearing pro regardless; but it makes things SO much better to have a can on any gun.

 

Well, in our defense, half a century + ago we didn't know what we do today. We suspected but the data wasn't fully in yet.

Suppressors can be hellyweird movie quiet. They can also be loud. It all depends on the load being fired. It helps if one handloads ammo. In general, use fast powder, a long barrel helps, as does a manual action, and yes, stay subsonic. If purchasing ammo it's a roll of the dice as to what one gets. Sometimes the box will state that it's for suppressor use.

In rimfire SV ammo is what you want and some manufacturers make special ammo. In 9mm generally 148 grain bulleted loads are subsonic as are 230 grain .45 ACP. Heavy bullets in .300 BLK loads are subsonic.

There are times when I shoot my quiet loads at the range and when I do if others are present it never fails to be a magnet and I get people coming over because an air rifle is significantly louder. Last year I was at a "If you bring it you can shoot it" match and after the match the RO came over and told me that what I was shooting was insanely quiet. When I first began shooting I heard someone behind me telling someone, "He's shooting but he's using a suppressor". He didn't know that I loaded the ammo to be specially quiet while still powerful enough to function the semi-auto. A nail gun is louder than that combination that day.

 

We were really stupid back in the day. We sighted in deer rifles, shot shotguns and thousands of .22s without ever using any kind of hearing protection. I'm paying for it now, constant ringing in both ears ... really bad in my left.

I also used to work in a Coca-Cola bottling plant ... six hundred cases of empty bottles rubbing against each as they move down a line. With a big electric motor about every 50ft driving the mass. Plus a bottle washing machine the size of a Winnebago ... this is a sound you can't believe ... and no one wore hearing protection in fear you wouldn't hear one of the dozen fork lifts moving all over the place. I worked there for six years.

Today I use the highest level muffs I can find when on the range ... I hate ear plugs but I do have them. I have used both when at the public range and someone near by was shooting a big rifle. Muffs do get hot in the summer and I might use only plugs but on those times I only shoot .22s and save the .357s and .45 for another day.

 

Fifty years ago my college roommate took me out to shoot his .243 Winchester. Two 20 year old kids having a ball. My ears rung afterwards but the next day the ringing stopped. We shot again and again and each time the ringing took longer to stop. Soon the ringing wouldn't stop. Oh how I wish I knew then what I know now. Some days are more quiet than others but the best I can often do is ignore the ringing as best as I can.
I now wear ear muffs even when I use my leaf blower and always when at the range. Modern medicine can do a quadruple bypass but can't do a **** thing about tinnitus.

 

Fifty years ago my college roommate took me out to shoot his .243 Winchester. Two 20 year old kids having a ball. My ears rung afterwards but the next day the ringing stopped. We shot again and again and each time the ringing took longer to stop. Soon the ringing wouldn't stop. Oh how I wish I knew then what I know now. Some days are more quiet than others but the best I can often do is ignore the ringing as best as I can.
I now wear ear muffs even when I use my leaf blower and always when at the range. Modern medicine can do a quadruple bypass but can't do a **** thing about tinnitus.

Just to make you aware, there are treatments for tinnitus although I haven't tried them. One of my doctors referred me for the treatment but I didn't do it.

I can't remember what it's called and, my description of the science behind it may not be correct but, I believe it is a device similar to a hearing aid, that emits a tone that is opposite the frequency of your tinnitus. By doing that, it works like noise canceling head phones and removes the tinnitus.

There is quite a bit about it on the internet but, as I said, I can't remember what it's called. If you search something like "tinnitus tone therapy" you will probably find it.

 

My hearing was lost (most of it anyway) in 1967 halfway around the world. I wear hearing aids but they do not play well with my Walker muffs. There is some sort of electronic conflict present when I try to use both together.
I recently began shooting Steel Challenge and while not a requirement, I would like to hear the plate hits. Apparently the muffs sense the shot but do not allow the shot hit to be heard quickly enough. ie; before the second shot and so on.
Any suggestions?

 

I was born with bad hearing and it only got worse with age, typical from what I can tell: close to normal out to about 400 Hz, drop off to about 2000 Hz and then pretty flat. The plateau beginning about 2000 Hz is about 60 db down, so I've ended up with hearing aides (Phonak my cost $1500 3 years ago, don't know what Medicare paid). BTW, I only started shooting about 15 years ago so I can't blame hearing loss on gun fire, just bad genes and maybe too loud music long ago, driving with the top down, and so on. I wear the hearing aides when I want to watch TV with dialogue or talk to my wife. Otherwise the world is a noisy place so I often don't wear them. I can turn up the volume in my truck. Don't need them for ball games.

I dislike muffs, I wear Walker noise cancelling plugs. They work for me. I do tell the RSO working the stage to hold the timer next to my head so I can hear it. I see no reason to spend a lot on fancy BT noise canceling hearing protection, a gimmick to me. I go in to see the audiologist every fall and the hearing test shows stable. I am old so no reason to worry about it getting worse. My wife tells me everything I need to know anyway, and if I need an opinion she gives one of those also. We get along just fine.

 

I was born with bad hearing and it only got worse with age, typical from what I can tell: close to normal out to about 400 Hz, drop off to about 2000 Hz and then pretty flat. The plateau beginning about 2000 Hz is about 60 db down, so I've ended up with hearing aides (Phonak my cost $1500 3 years ago, don't know what Medicare paid).

I wear the hearing aides when I want to watch TV with dialogue or talk to my wife. Otherwise the world is a noisy place so I often don't wear them. I can turn up the volume in my truck. Don't need them for ball games.

Medicare doesn't pay for hearing aids (Hearing aids).

If you are not using the closed caption option on your TV, I strongly recommend that you do so.

 

I never thought about doubling up on hearing protection. I always just put on the muffs. They usually work for what i'm shooting. Usually, .22 or pistol caliber rifles in .25-20, .32-20, .38-40, or 45colt. But when someone with a really load sounding firearm sets up next to me it really bothers my ears. My right ear is almost shot, but my left ear is still pretty good. Glad for this thread now i'll stick some foam plugs in along with my muffs when a shooter with a loud sounding firearm is next to me.

 

If you use electronic muffs, put in plugs and turn the muffs up to high amplification. The muffs attenuate on gun shots but amplify normal speech so you can usually hear people good enough to get by without taking the plugs out or the muffs off for conversation.

 

There is no known, medically approved treatment for tinnitus. Anyone who tells you so is either ignorant, willfully lying to you, or is a quack. There are lots of snake oil treatments, however, exactly none of those treatments has ever been medically proven to be effective.

As far as the effectiveness of any suppressor, I've hunted Africa twice, each time using a suppressor on a 300 Win Mag. That setup was extremely effective at attenuating the muzzle blast that is 26" away from your face. Of course, one still hears the bullet go supersonic as that is purely velocity dependent and a suppressor does nothing to affect projectile velocity. There a 3 known suppressor setups that produce "movie quiet" results. Those being any subsonic rimfire round, subsonic 300 Blackout and subsonic 147 gr 9mm. Any of those 3 are ridiculously quiet.

 

There is no known, medically approved treatment for tinnitus. Anyone who tells you so is either ignorant, willfully lying to you, or is a quack. There are lots of snake oil treatments, however, exactly none of those treatments has ever been medically proven to be effective.

The two biggest scams that I always see are cures for tinnitus and neuropathy. People with both are just begging for a cure.

 

Suppressors work on the ka-boom and do quiet that down. They don't and can't work on the supersonic crack. The crack happens beyond the barrel and along the flight path where the bullet is still supersonic. Once the bullet velocity slows below about 1,135 fps the crack diminishes.

Years ago I shot a Fifty Caliber Shooters Association 1,000 yard match at Camp Atterbury. When working the pits scoring targets hearing protection was needed as the 50 cal bullets were still supersonic and made a serious crack.

If you use a 22lr rifle as a test with a decent suppressor CCI SV, approx 1,070 fps will generally be quiet. Switching to CCI MiniMag, and same suppressor approx 1,235 fps these will crack. The difference is velocity above or below the sound barrier.

I shoot slow 22lr all the time with a suppressor and limited or no hearing protection. I won't shoot centerfire without hearing protection even when using a suppressor.

Jim

 

I had ear infections as a child in the UK. When we came to the USA, in '52 (legally), we had no money for treatment. Later as a teen, lots of shooting with no protection or a couple of empty .38 cases for ear plugs. The big Navy guns probably didn't help either. I have profound hearing loss now, worse in my left ear. That'd be the one facing forward when shooting right-handed.

 

Yeah tinnitus is a curse. I'm 64. I had all the loud music, motor and tools noise. Plus not using hearing protection when shooting. I also had a .243 that I shot alot in my late teens. In my job I had other noise that I should have worn hearing protection but didn't. Now I have the constant Weee, ring and crickets. Plus I get the sound of cicadas and a flock of sparrows chirping all together. I usually have 2 or 3 at the same time. My doc sent me to one of the top research specialists who is at our local medical college. His tests ruled out any underlying major health issues. Which was great. But said I had bad tinnitus and hopefully some cures may be on the horizon. I told him if any came up I,d be willing to try them. I have the ringing and chirping as I type this and there is no noise in the house.

 

I feel your pain....and hear your crickets. It sucks.