Guns and hearing loss/damage

[johnjacobschmidt]

As I get older and I dearly pay for all the times we went shooting and did not wear hearing protection I am taking measures to not do any further damage. My ears ring all the time and its quite loud. I also have some pretty good loss in my left and small loss in right ear.

I was looking at the charts of a braked AR-15 (160db) and the charts for muffs (20-30db) and plugs(30db).

The wiki for hearing damage states anything over 85db. If you wear muffs(-25db) you are still at 135db. If you wear plugs under the muffs you are still at 105db.

It seems the only way not do do damage is to run a suppressor (-30db)(I live in Idaho) and plugs/muffs.

Is that correct?

[v.kevin]

A lot will depend on where they are taking the measurements. If the decibel readings are taken from in front of the muzzle, your ears (behind the muzzle) are going to pick up way less noise.

All I know is that when I wear ear muffs and shoot, I don't seem to have any problems. No ringing of the ears.

Obviously, I'm not giving a scientific opinion here.

[SIGscout]

I thought the db. raiting of hearing protection was what it "allows through". Ex: 30 db you her a 30 db noise, 70db raiding =70 db exposure? That's what I thought because my electronic muffs say something like that in the directions I glanced at. They filter out the noise above 35 db.
I would like to know if I'm wrong though.

[v.kevin]

I thought the db. raiting of hearing protection was what it "allows through". Ex: 30 db you her a 30 db noise, 70db raiding =70 db exposure? That's what I thought because my electronic muffs say something like that in the directions I glanced at. They filter out the noise above 35 db.
I would like to know if I'm wrong though.

Good point/question. I never really gave it much thought. I just figure they wouldn't sell them for shooting if they didn't provide adequate protection.

I guess I'm a "glass half full" kinda guy/dumbarse.

Anyway, I hear just fine.

[SIGscout]

I know for a fact that if .357 mag shot inside a home, you are going to be deaf for at least an hour with a lovely ringing noise as a sound track. And yes my wars are still ringing, I can hear other stuff too now but less as well, been over 10 years.
So kids don't shoot a gun/terrorist/criminal indoors without hearing prprotection. Unless you are either ready to go deaf, along with the other stuff, and you like asking "what'd you say?".

[SIGscout]

Well I guess wars/ears same thing right? ...

[smle-man]

I used to wear both muffs and plugs to retain my fading hearing until I completely failed to hear a cease fire on the range. It was extremely embarrassing. I just wear quality muffs now.

[v.kevin]

Either works, SIGscout.

Pretty sure we've all been hunting or been in a war time shootout, etc. with no hearing protection and we all aren't deaf. It can't be good for you like a glass of red wine a day, but unless it's prolonged/repeated exposure, you should be ok.

[Wordupmybrotha]

Check out the page below for explanation on how ear protection affect decibel exposure.

Ear protection comes with an NRR rating, not db rating. If the ear muff provides 33 NRR, you can't just subtract 33 from 160. According to the formula, it's 160-13 =147 db exposure. 13=(33-7)/2.

If you're wearing two ear protection : 33 and 30, add 5 to 33, which becomes 38. (38-7)/2=15.5. Then it's 160-15.5=144.5 db exposure.

http://www.coopersafety.com/noisereduction.aspx

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[Off the Roster]

I thought the db. raiting of hearing protection was what it "allows through". Ex: 30 db you her a 30 db noise, 70db raiding =70 db exposure? That's what I thought because my electronic muffs say something like that in the directions I glanced at. They filter out the noise above 35 db.
I would like to know if I'm wrong though.

Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) is how much dB has the potential to be filtered out.

The majority of hearing protection is designed for a constant level of sound, not a quick individual occurrence (shoot 1 shot). Read the fine print and many products will state that they are not intended for gunshot. Electronic hearing protection kicks in after it detects an excessive noise, so unless people have been shooting around you and it has attuned to that, your first shot is dampened by the muffs only, without electronic compensation, as your hearing protection can not predict your trigger pull.

Idk how valid it is, but I was told by our armorer that when fired indoors, each half-load 12g shotgun shell shot was the equivalent to an hour at a rock concert standing near the speaker tower.

[tophatjones]

Loud noise can cause acute and chronic permanent hearing loss. Acute damage is caused by short term exposure to extremely loud noises, while chronic damage is caused by long term exposure to moderately loud noises. Firing guns without hearing protection will cause acute hearing loss. Firing guns while wearing ear protection will protect from acute hearing loss but may still lead to chronic hearing loss depending on many factors. (e.g. how good is your hearing protection, how loud is the gun, how often and how much you shoot)

[CK_32]

Everyone is different as to how their body accepts and breaks down.

There is also a lot of variables to each shot as well. Each shot will vary in DB output, also how those DB reach the ear via the surrounding atmospheric conditions and surroundings. Like if it's an open area, closed hard walled area, objects in the area that will reflect the sound waves and on and on.

Same as rifles with brakes and comps, they don't amplify the sound by redirect the output and sound louder do to your ear and surrounding ears picking up more sound waves.

[NOTABIKER]

In 1967 we qualified with the M-14 at the fort ord rifle range without ear protection. a shooter maybe 4 feet away on both my left and right. we spent about a week learning to properly fire the M-14. i have tendinitis real bad but i declined a ear test upon release from the army in 1969 because i just wanted to get out and go home. Looking back i do not think very many took that hearing test.
later in my 20s i was around some VERY loud open exhaust racing engines so that also could account for my lousy ringing in my ears.

[ElvenSoul]

Ehhh your going to have speak up!

[SMarquez]

Next shoot at WEGC I will check the dB rating of some C&R guns. I have a noise meter app on my phone. I don't know how accurate it is but it should be interesting to see if there is a difference between calibers and shooting position.