Shooting without hearing protection

[Jimi Jah]

I will shoot .22LR (when you can find some) outdoors in a 20" AR with a linear compensator (Levang). You don't need any ear protection with that setup.

9mm, .223 or anything else, better use it or lose it.

[Colt.45ACP]

……….then there was the story about the Bad Guys trying to break into a house via the front door. They see a little old lady inside wearing ear protection and holding a BIG gun. BG fires his .25 pistol and she cuts loose.
One BG taken to hospital.
Must be true, I read it in a magazine years ago!

[srt2806]

I thought I was a cool guy and shot a AR pistol with muzzle brake and no ears..Ouch! What a f-ing idiot. My ears rang for 2 days and a migraine that would not go away.I know I caused damage to my hearing, do not be that cool guy!

[MauserMike]

If you never do it it wont hurt to try cmon guys....

what happens if you actually have to shoot without earpro and your not used to it at all. follow up shots could not happen because your so sheltered...

we have shot ar-15's a couple times and pistols a few times with no earpro because lets face it, it could happen that you have to shoot and have no earpro. and iam glad i know what it will be like if i have to shoot without it. its not that bad and hey my ears still work fine! imagine that

[CSACANNONEER]

I wonder what it feels like to poke a sharp stick in my eye?

[SWalt]

I'm sure your audiologist looks back at all of the hearing tests he or she has been giving you that show no sign of loss and thinks you're lucky.

Who goes to an audiologist regularly unless they do have hearing loss?

[SWalt]

I wonder what it feels like to poke a sharp stick in my eye?

I believe you have been shooting long enough to remember before extreme safety became an anal retentive sport. What did you do when you first started shooting?

[toby]

Hearing aids cost thousands of dollars and they need to be replaced regularly. Ask me about it.

[P5Ret]

Hearing aids cost thousands of dollars and they need to be replaced regularly. Ask me about it.

No need to ask, the hearing aid's they tried to sell me cost more than the first two cars I owned combined, and were more than half the price of my bike.

Having been young and stupid hunting in my youth with out any hearing protection I'm now paying the price both literally and figuratively.

[jcourson]

It's not.

It could be. It depends on what shotgun and pistol you are comparing.

Dr. Krammer, Ph.D., Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana has documented the following pressure levels: http://www.freehearingtest.com/hia_gunfirenoise.shtml

[Dan_Eastvale]

How many here are geezers? Meaning you started shooting back in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Nobody used ears and eyes. I started shooting trap back in the early 70's at a gun club. No one used ears or eyes. We just didn't know any better. My ears would ring for a couple of days after shooting. I was the first one to start wearing ears at the club.

So if you were shooting in those days, when did you start wearing ears and eyes?

Yeah, When I was a kid no one used any protection at all. Also, when I was a kid they didn't know mercury was toxic either. They let us play with it in our hands.

I remember it bothered my ears at first but we just ignored it.We kids even got used to smoke filled restaurants.

Imagine all those soldiers during and before ww2.. When did military start requiring hearing protection?

[Steemax]

I'd never try to do this even though I am very curious to know what it feels/sounds like.

There was a youtube video I saw about emergency situations or "bump in the night" situations where they recomended you take a couple rounds (given they are appropriate caliber) and shove them in your ears like in-ear plugs and that would help drasticaly.

[jcourson]

For everyone with the snarky comments regarding how stupid it is to try it, do you have any idea how negligent society (possibly you, yourself) are regarding loud noises? You really have no room to mock him unless you have never ridden in a car with modern speakers turned up (bass can hit 140-150db), been to a concert (115db), mowed your lawn without earpro (94db), ridden with your windows down (90db), etc etc....

For everyone with the "I've done it and have not suffered permanent damage, but I don't get audiograms"....you are retarded. Hearing loss is a gradual thing, and you don't generally notice it for years on end. I don't even want to hazard a guess as to how many of my young Marines skipped out on wearing earpro when they were supposed to and swore that they never suffered any damage only to get an audiogram shortly before they got out at 4 years and that showed a significant decrease.

[klewan]

When I first started shooting in '94, I used muffs because a neighbor had fired his shotgun at some cattle that were on his property, above them, but I was down range and got the full blast. I asked guy I knew that had been in the Army for 20 years when they started ear plugs. He said around '74, most of them were damaged....I always wondered how anybody thinks with all the racket on an actual battle field. That would be completely insane to experience that.

[titan2]

I really don't understand why people do this. Unfortunately, it's apparently a pretty common thing to try on CG.

We had to do it in the military. In Viet Nam we had to take our dogs out to the range to make sure that they were accustomed to live fire.....didn't want your dog turning on you if you got in a fire fight!!!

We were out there for most of the day.....shooting the M60s, M16s and our GAU5a. My dog stayed right next to me the whole time, like a trooper....other dogs acted up/bite their handler at the first shot!!!

After a few hours of this the flash suppressor on my GAU5a had turned blue. As we packed up to go back, watering the dogs and loading them up in the duces, my dog was trying to position himself under my seat when he bumped the butt of my weapon and the muzzle hit the right side of my face, right under my sideburn....took the skin right off and seared it to the suppressor....left a little unburnt spot under the sideburn where one of the holes were at on the end of the suppressor. When that happened, we had finished up firing the weapons for probably more than a half hour. Boy, was that suppressor hot!!! I had that mark for some time!!!

Needless to say.....today, I have a 30% high frequency hearing loss and tinnitus 24x7x365.....never goes away. And for that, I got a 10% disability when I got out of the service....for none other than Tinnitus....not the hearing loss.....go figure that out!!!

Today, when I go shooting, I wear a set of custom made ear plugs that works great!!!