Hearing protection when hunting?

The damage is done whether you're hunting or not, the gun is just as loud. I've used a pair of Peltor 6s for the last 20 years and wish I'd started sooner. You can adjust the level to louder than normal if you like, but I've found that makes it difficult to judge distances. When adjusted to ambient level I sometimes forget I have them on. They do a terrific job of changing a short barreled shotgun's BOOM to a faraway boom.

I currently don’t buy anything that won’t accept a suppressor. I’m pretty deaf as it is. I ran a chain saw for almost 10 years for a living and now I can’t hear my wife and she hates me. I don’t think the guns I used to shoot unprotected hurt my hearing in comparison to the big Stihl chainsaws besides one instance where my brother shot a 45-70 close to my left ear, it’s a lot worse than the other and didn’t work hardly at all for a couple weeks after that. That may not be the only reason she doesnt like me though....

At the range, always. At the outdoor range, I get my ears on before I even get out of my vehicle, because you never know what somebody else is shooting, or when.
I mostly hunt birds with a shotgun, sans ear protection, and that noise doesn’t bother me. But my gun isn’t ported; I’ve fired a ported 12ga shotgun while goose hunting, and it was painful. So none of that.

And the last time I took a shot at a deer with my 30-30, unprotected, my ears rang for hours.

So I bought a crossbow.

DeadFlies said:

...I mostly hunt birds with a shotgun, sans ear protection, and that noise doesn’t bother me.

Click to expand...

How one perceives the noise is irrelevant. The noise level is sufficient to do hearing damage and that is all that matters.

Yes....and any other time I shoot.