• ODT Gun Show & Swap Meet - May 4, 2024! - Click here for info

Serious questions about hearing damage from actual shootings?

But can they still cause permanent damage to your hearing?

Yes, absolutely.

I don't know why auditory exclusion is really a relevant point - the noise not being a distraction for some people is nice I guess, but that's like saying "well your arm is gonna get ripped off, but don't worry, in the heat of the moment you won't really feel it". The damage is still the same. Obviously surviving is the most important thing, but if I can think about keeping my hearing intact before a shooting, I'm going to take that step.

Call me crazy, but I enjoy music, nature sounds, talking....
 
I failed to use ear pro when i was young and started shooting, only a few times though. That and just life has led to tinnitus, which is annoying and sucks. 40% hearing loss in one ear and have a hearing aid for that. ALWAYS wear ear pro when shooting! I am yound and wish i did not have damage but thats life.
I am sure as mnay have said in life or death be alive and go from there.
 
Yes, the damage still occurs with auditory exclusion. I wanted to include it in the discussion because it is a factor. Because folks under stress don't perceive the noise, they may believe that there is no damage, when that is not the case.

Auditory exclusion is a very relative point when talking about engaging in a deadly force situation. If auditory exclusion causes gunshots to sound abnormally quiet, how badly will it muck up communications? How well do you have to be aware of your surroundings if your ears are shutting down? We had an officer at my old PD who shot a suspect. Suspect #2 came up behind the officer and started firing at him, the officer never heard it. He only knew that he was being shot at because the bullets that were missing him were striking objects around him.
 
Like a few people have said... the occasional magnum hunting rifle shot or if the worst happened and you needed to defend yourself with a firearm inside a building, i think you'd be fine long term wise.
I'm not sure if a few fire fights on a military tour (though AR's & m249's are loud!) or a cop having to discharge their firearm in an on going fight would lead to long term hearing loss but I'm positively sure continuous loud anything over years WILL destroy your hearing ...Other than guns, my second love is music. I've seen hundreds of live concerts and played in bar bands for over 15 years without ever using hearing protection and at only 30 years old i already have difficulty hearing people if multiple people are going on at once or if there's alot of background noise going on and cell phones/foreign accents are the worst for me.
My friends and family also always give me crap for my TV or radio being "too loud" ... save your ears no matter if your shooting firearms, going to shows, cutting the grass, playing guitar loudly, using workshop tools, etc. Use hearing protection.
 
I asked a few buddies that were in the military about this and they said a lot of it was personal preference. he said they had some ear pro that had two sides, one would cut the sounds but you could still hear folks talk fairly easily, im sure these weren't great for your hearing but would help some. then they had another side that was ear safe but obviously a lot harder to hear with. most of them said they tried to use it when they could but sometimes **** would happen and you had to go on without it.
 
Just finished reading a book on Pearl Harbor, 12/7/41. When the sailors were scrambling to get up on deck and man the machine guns, they didn't have any protection, and when the larger 3 inch guns (antiaircraft) started firing, they heard nothing after that - not even the Arizona blowing up...
 
My first MOS in the service was, as my username indicates, mortars (60s, 81s). Never even issued ear-pro. The M29 81mm mortar made a big bang when you dropped a "charge 9" (the old cloth powder bag days) HE round down the tube. Fingers were the ear pro of the day.

Later used plugs and electronic protection firing hundreds of thousands of small arms rounds and some periods with no ear-pro. (Along with time around XO both expected and not)
VA hearing assessment two years ago completely totaled high freq hearing and tinnitus big time (for years).

Auditory exclusion is a very real phenom-
The year they were introduced I had a Glock 27 fired about an inch from my ear (originally aimed at my head) while in a bit of a tussel. Never heard a peep as the adrenaline dump took over. Woke up the next day with ringing that lasted weeks.

Now take away the stress of a fight for your life ear pro and firing in a hallway most large caliber handgun rounds are fricking painful as hell. Lesson learned.
 
I've lost 30 percent hearing left ear due to shooting long guns when younger w/I ear protection! Didn't know what it was back when I was coming up. We wear protection when training but when SHTF don't have time for ear protection!
 
Back
Top Bottom