When did use of hearing protection become standard practice?

I’ve been in and out of shooting over the years,so….

In the late 1950s and 1960s the only ear protection I ever saw was “maybe” a RO walking around with 22 cases stuck in his ears.

Then in the 1980s, it seems like the ROs and maybe half the shooters were wearing ear or eye protection.

When I got back into shooting again in the 2000s, they would not even let me on the range without ear and eye protection.

I'm only 40 but I did not grow up using ear plugs in the 90's. None of my family or friends used them. I remember sighting in a 12 ga slug gun and having my ears ring for a couple of days. I got back into shooting about 7 years ago and now I religiously use ear plugs. (Trying to keep the hearing I have left)

The military were issuing ear plugs and cases for them in 1974 when I joined. They were not just for shooting.

I have had a constant ringing in my ears since I was 14ish. Its ringing as Im typing. Im not sure if or when there was an era that it became common practice to wear muffs. Heck, even if you didn't have them, you could still roll up a paper towel or anything of the like and stuff it in your ears. As a kid, I was told to just pull the trigger. I missed out on "proper" hearing protection 101. It doesn't matter when, more so who is teaching you.

I taught myself the importance of ear protection after firing a .30 carbine from a Ruger Blackhawk at a young age. After that, it was far too late. Whose following me making that ringing noise?

When I was growing up, using earplugs or muffs would have gotten you labeled as a choice part of the female anatomy.

Nowadays people aren't as stupid I guess, because frankly it was stupid back then and it's stupid now not to use ear pro (or eye pro for that matter) when shooting off guns.

I got into shooting in the late 1950s and there were ear plugs available back then. The American Rifleman ran an article around that time that warned that continued exposure to gunshots caused hearing loss.

Not soon enough for me. I bought my first pistol and started using an indoor range in the mid 80s. They required them at that time.

I remember dove hunting and squirrel hunting in the late 60s with no eye or ear protection. I did not hunt much, so I guess the whole issue was not very apparent to me as a teenager. None of the “adults” used ear and eye protection either.
Nowadays I can’t imagine not having protection or allowing my children or grandchildren to shoot without.

When I first started shooting and hunting in the mid to late '70s, we never wore any hearing protection when we were outdoors. Indoors was a different matter; after first trying just earplugs, I quickly went to earplugs plus ear muff protectors. Hearing is fine to this day with no ringing whatsoever.

WHAT?!? ....( Cups hand over ear)

Went through basic training in 1967 without ear protection. Spent a year in the artillery in Vietnam without ear protection. When I was in the police academy in 1974 we had to buy muff type protection.

Very common by the late 70s.

Grew up in the 70s, Dad always had us wear eye and ear protection.

I was trspshooting regularly in the late 70s. My dad had me wear earphones and shooting glasses since day one. Most guys did.

My hearing was damaged by these:

I put many hours on end aboard both of these models.
Of course, i had straight pipes so i could see the flame at night, and an AM radio blaring WLS on the fender mounted radio.....

Went to Boy Scout camp in the very early 70s. Shooting at the.22 rifle range, nobody used ear or eye protection.
I remember shooting with my brothers, my Dad, some friends and their Dad, about the same time. Shotguns and .22s. No eye or ear protection.

Both adults military vets, my Mom an RN. No one ever mentioned ear protection.

Boot camp in late 70s, ear protection issued. I think by then, the DoD was tired of paying out disability for hearing loss.

I' not 60 but hearing protection was introduced day one by my father. That was 1982.

Too many airplanes, guns, old diesel trucks, hammers, rock bands, and chainsaws to have much hearing left.

Not many people mow their yards without hearing protection now.

I wish I had worn hearing protection more when I was younger. Always do now when target shooting.
I'm still often guilty of not using eye protection and I don't use hearing protection when bird hunting

I think that for range work the 1970s period when hearing protection became required at public & private ranges. I have no idea regarding when eye protection became a thing.

Dad introduced me to firearms on Mom's ancestral family farm (where I have lived for the last ~30 years). No hearing or eye protection, although he taught me to always use eye protection when using tools.

Early-on I learned about (taught myself) about the danger of what I thought of as Reflectors ... surfaces or land shapes (e.g., standing between two close hills to shoot) that would reflect the sound of the shot. I also learned that the reflection effect was exacerbated by COLD air.

Many times you just had to live with the noise ... I recall a time sitting on the ground with my back against a tree in the COLD in a forest at daybreak listening carefully as my cousin tried to call-in that turkey that we could hear in the near distance.

Probably because of my access to that family farm, where ever I have lived, I have found people with land on which I was allowed to shoot. I have never been a "range" guy.

When I was in VaB during the latter half of the 70s, for one birthday my friends at work bought me a years membership at a new indoor pistol range that had just opened in Norfolk. We went there, altogether, on at least one occasion and I taught several of them about handling & shooting a few different types of handguns. That was probably around 1978 and hearing protection was both provided and required.

These days when I walk one of the farms (never without, at least, a pistol) I will have both eye & hearing protection with me. Depending upon the environment, the Reflectors and the type of firearm & cartridge, I will often take an offhand shot without pausing to don ear protection. On walkabout I am almost always wearing eye protection.

When walking woods in winter I will often wear my Peltors because they not only protect my hearing, they enhance my hearing ... and they keep my ears warm.

I do have a slight bit of tinnitus from a non-firearm OOPS a few years ago. Aside from that, all of those decades shooting sans hearing protection have not noticeably degraded my hearing. I consider myself to have been VERY lucky on that score.

Worked around jet engines in the early 50`s..................I had them.

Hearing protection? I agree it seemed like the early '70's.
Eye protection? Never thought much about it as I have worn glasses since I was about 6 YO.
(By the time I was shooting regularly they were always shatterproof....)

I'm the same as most others. I'm 57 and have had ringing ears since my mid 20s or so. Didn't use hearing protection in my teens in the 70s. I remember shooting .223 and .243 off the bench. Hearing was diminished for days. Add that to hi power stereos at home and in my truck so I had very loud music playing other times. I started with protection around 20 when I learned of the damage loud sound does. Now wear protection for anything loud. Keep a couple sets of corded plugs in reach. I even use them if I have to hammer some nails. I don't need anymore ringing. (they come in handy when the wife yells too)

I’m just a simple countryboy so all my shooting has been outside, growing up (70’s) I don’t remember using ears when plinking or hunting.

back in the 80’s I invited a friend from work out to the homestead to shoot our handguns, that afternoon I lost hearing in my left ear for 3 days. Sometime after that I started using ears when shooting handguns, shotguns and .22 rifles were still shot without as is hunting.

I have Tinitus in both ears now and loss of certain ranges which I believe is a cumulative effect of not just shooting but dirtbikes, chainsaws and loud music.

At the shooting range, I remember having to wear ear plugs as a kid in the mid to late 1970s with the Boy Scouts.

But hunting or shooting with family or friends on private land? Well I think the first time I wore ear protection for that was around 1999 or 2000.

Unfortunately my ears aren't so good these days, but they're not as bad as my neighbor who still does most things without hearing protection. He can't hear high pitched sounds anymore.

Late 70’s we used muffs or earplugs at the range, but not out hunting. Just another data point...