monotonous_iterancy
Member
- Joined
- May 27, 2012
- Messages
- 915
Hey all, I'm 18, live in the country, I like horseback riding, music, and occasionally I shoot guns. I don't hunt, just plink. Anyway, I have mild tinnitus. I'm not exactly sure why, but I always say that it's from the time when I was 15, and this guy let me shoot his CCW gun, a .45 auto, and I forgot to use hearing protection. I squeeze off one shot, my ears explode, and I hand the gun back to him and tell him that I need to get some earplugs. Almost immediately, he fires off the rest of the magazine while I'm still standing there. My ears rang for a few hours, and I don't think it ever totally went away. It's slightly worse in my left ear.
I also took metal shop at school this year, and I was the only one who brought hearing protection for when they used the grinders and circular saws and plasma cutters, but I didn't always use it the most effectively, because I kept them in my pocket, so they had trouble keeping their shape at times, and I just went with "Well it's better than nothing." Recently I found some earplugs that work better for me, and have a rating of 33 to boot.
I think I have some slight hearing damage, and I don't want it to get worse, so my question is, are earplugs by themselves good enough when shooting anything louder than a .22? I also have prescription glasses, and I double up with muffs, even though I don't get a complete seal. Is there a way I could get those to work for me? Does not having a complete seal make it worse by funneling sound next to my ear?
I also took metal shop at school this year, and I was the only one who brought hearing protection for when they used the grinders and circular saws and plasma cutters, but I didn't always use it the most effectively, because I kept them in my pocket, so they had trouble keeping their shape at times, and I just went with "Well it's better than nothing." Recently I found some earplugs that work better for me, and have a rating of 33 to boot.
I think I have some slight hearing damage, and I don't want it to get worse, so my question is, are earplugs by themselves good enough when shooting anything louder than a .22? I also have prescription glasses, and I double up with muffs, even though I don't get a complete seal. Is there a way I could get those to work for me? Does not having a complete seal make it worse by funneling sound next to my ear?