Any of you guys have hearing damage?

[Pete D.]

tinnitus

I have tinnitus in both ears. I''d classify it as mild, as most of the time I do not think about it. When my surrounds are quiet, I notice it. A hissing.
I do not believe that it was caused by shooting - I have always worn hearing protection. It began when I had a severe (and painful) problem depressurizing my ears after an airline flight. Never had a problem equalizing except that once.
Doubling up on hearing protection now.
Pete

 

[BADUNAME37]

I've had tinnitus, really badly, since around 1976 when I went shooting a brand new Marlin Lever Action 45-70 at least one box (20 rounds), maybe more - without any hearing protection at all. That tinnitus never went away. Even in the coldest of winter, when things are quiet and I go to bed, I imagine crickets outside my window putting me to sleep. It is NOT crickets, but is damaged hearing making noises akin to chirping, ringing, etc.

The tinnitus has resulted in my upper frequency hearing to be terribly-bad. Finally, just last summer, for the first time, I realized my hearing is getting no better. Add to gunshot the wild loud music I listened to and then add loud construction equipment and even more shooting -- all used with no hearing protection. I ended up with my first pair of hearing aids. $2,200 and I can finally hear again! After several months, I am still hearing things that I have been missing for more than 35 years! In fact, there were so many "new sounds" to me at first with the two hearing aids in place that I was overwhelmed by all the sounds, they were actually a distraction! I had to have my audiologist turn the amplification down one to two volume levels.

After several months of getting used to all these new sounds all over again, I had my audiologist turn them back up to where they were when I first put them in. The hearing aids amplify those frequencies where you are either lacking hearing or where the tinnitus is so bad any music, noise or voice at those frequencies cannot be heard, and if they were heard, it would be very slight and subtle.

I cannot blame all of my hearing loss on shooting. I would estimate that about 25% of the loss is from shooting without hearing protection. Like they say, you only have one set of ears, protect them!

 

[davidb1247]

Hearing Damage

have been shooting over 50 years. early on no one knew to wear protectors. working around machinery no one knew to wear protection. Now I have hearing aids, but when shooting outside or indoors I wear ear plugs and ear muffs together without the hearing aids.

 

[KingContraryMan]

I also have tinnitus in both ears, but it's from playing in bands for the last 25 years.

 

[Jim Watson]

Add me to the crowd.
I shot without ear protection from the early teens (Sometimes at a Junior club run by an NRA officer at that) up into the mid 20s. I recall I had about 20 dB loss when tested at work. It did not hamper me that I could tell.
I started using plugs when I took up trap shooting and was on the line with four other shotgunners.
That slowed the decline but did not stop it. I rarely wore hearing protection at work even though things could get pretty loud. I am now down about 40 dB and have tinnitus. I get by but you must speak to me clearly - not necessarily loudly - to make yourself understood.

 

[JoelSteinbach]

I have lost quite a bit or hearing over the years from my own stupidity. I had forgotten to use my hearing protection on a few occasions. I now wear hearing aids, but I must remember to leave them at home when going to the range. I do hear very well with my Peltor Tactical 7 Classic turned up all the way.

 

[Dean1818]

I may be a lucky one.

I hunted MANY years without ear protection


I can hear fine.... except when the wife starts to nag......

Wouldnt think about doing it now

 

[LKB3rd]

I have tinnitus. I have found that earplugs tend to push wax into my ears, and it makes the ringing louder/more noticeable. I use an ear wax removal kit from cvs to clear it out. It's worth trying. Or a visit to an ear doc for a look/cleaning.

 

[exavid]

Yep, one for for the club. Constant high pitched squeal. It's turned me into a hard shell conservative because I keep the radio playing in the background tuned to talk stations. Music stations don't help as much to keep me from noticing the tinnitus. I guess 53 years of motorcycles, 5000 hours or a bit more flying light aircraft in Alaska, noisy FAA facilities with high volume equipment fans and power plants along with over nearly 60 years of shooting hasn't done much good for my hearing either. Not to mention one minor explosion in an Army barracks in Alaska that probably did most of the damage. Sure be nice if there was a cure but I'm pushing 70 pretty hard now and nothing seems to be getting better.

 

[Quintus Poppaedius Silo]

My hearing's not the greatest, though I'd say the biggest contributors for me are motorcycle riding (about 6-10K miles per year since I was 17, lots of it before I started wearing earplugs) and the time I spent playing in a band. For me, target shooting is the one and only area where I've always been a stickler for hearing protection.

 

[Jon Coppenbarger]

jets engines and those hated high pressure pumps. a room full of them running and you are stuck with working on one for a few days.

 

[shiftyer1]

So is that damn ringing what they call tennitus?

 

[LKB3rd]

So is that damn ringing what they call tennitus?

Yes.