Hearing loss and issues from firearms?

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It should be also noted that most earpro and range glasses are pure crap.

Thick framed Oakley Mframe style glasses may look cool, but they're too thick, and lift your ear muffs off. Use a thin framed glasses, like RB Aviators. And/or use foam ear plugs under your muffs. You can pull the plugs out a little to adjust how well they work, so that your powered ear muffs can still work for speaking.

And avoid the cool rubber fitted ear plugs. Those are only half the dba lessening of good foam ear plugs, good for outdoors only. Get an echo off of a wall or stall, and you'll pay for it.

I wear ear pro 30 hours a week with power generators.
 
You may chuckle, while I have some military, shooting and concert loss, but I bet my biggest issue is 7 years on snare in my high school and college drum line for marching band.
 
Firearms, rock concerts, loud nightclubs, loud machinery, etc. I'm 55 and have ear problems, especially my right ear.

Besides hearing protection for firearms, I've been wearing hearing protection to run lawn equipment and sometimes inside some plants I go to. I even have to wear earplugs when I go to church during the contemporary service due to the wincing pain a small concert like that causes me.

Due to all that, I hate hearing vacuum cleaners, blowers, and loud music broadcast by neighbors thanks to modern bass systems.

Give me a quiet day and all is better. :cool:
 
I've had tinnitus since age 11 or 12. I wouldn't know how to behave without it. Some days are worse than others. There are times when the tinnitus is so bad it drowns out all but the loudest conversation. Taking aspirin (especially) and some other pain relievers seems to amplify the it. Taking aspirin for a headache will make my ears scream.

I always use plugs and muffs at the range. I bought a bag of 1k pairs of foamies almost 10 years ago specifically for use with the muffs. Very noticeable difference. Especially when a muzzle braked magnum is being shot on the bench next to me.
I. too, have bluetooth headphones for the TV and need to read lips during conversation in order to understand it all. Many recent movies are terribly frustrating to attempt to watch as much of the dialog seems to be in extremely low voice or whispers. I must miss 1/2 of the verbalization in movies these days, so I rarely bother.

Most of my hearing loss / deafness is attributable to genetics from my father's side. Few of us from that branch have better than 40% hearing after age 50.

You youngsters out there should pay attention to your elders and use all the hearing protection available. Once it's gone, it won't come back.
 
Military, LE, target shooting and hunting, motorcycles, and a moonlighting job as security at Radio City Music Hall rock concerts all took their toll.

When u2 was in concert one time, they had about eight 6' speakers on each side of the stage, the bass felt like someone was punching me in the chest. I wouldn't have been surprised if my ears had started bleeding, and that was with ear plugs. They were the loudest in several years of working concerts.

What you don't realize when you're young re: hearing loss, is that it's cumulative, it doesn't happen all at once, but it's happening.

Now I'm at the point where if there's any ambient noise, like people at other tables in a restaurant, I can only sit there and smile, because I'm hearing little of the conversation at my table.

Be young, but don't be dumb, always use protection. For hearing, too. lol
 
When my son was about ten, one of his friends said, "Hey Mr. Yaworski, can I tell you a secret?" Sure, so I bent down and he shrieked into my ear. His mother thought that it was funny.

According to my last hearing test, I haven't lost anything but that ear just feels strange.
 
Grew up on a farm and exposed to farm equipment noise, then 21 years in the army wore my ears out. During my early years in the army ear plugs weren't made available most of the time. You were a sissy if you needed ear plugs. VA gives me hearing aids but they aren't a new set of ears, just an aid. Even with the hearing aids I still have a hard time understanding the pitch in some voices. I have used hearing protection for a long time now trying to save what I have.
 
Didn't read much the other posts but I'm young and here's my story:

I'm pretty regular about wearing ear plugs to the range. "Always wear eye and ear protection" especially the latter, sometimes I am loose about the eye protection but I need to get better at that (you only have your eyes once).
When I was 15, some shampoo got into my left ear. I had a ear infection that followed, but ever since it recovered I've had lesser hearing from that ear. The times I've been around gun fire without ear protection, I've had ringing in my right ear but not in my left. Infact, when I wear protection in just the right ear, I can shoot just fine with the left ear expose. I do not advocate this practice, however I've seen police officers do the same, for all that's worth.
Some of you mention having to have a fan, a radiator on while you sleep. For me, it's the opposite. Only way I'm comfortable sleeping is if I wear ear plugs. Don't know if I'm just sensitive to hearing but ear plugs allow me to sleep peacefully and I've been doing it for years now. It makes me feel weird but I think this thread would be the place to share that detail.
It's a good thing seeing this thread, as it reminds me as a young person and to others who are also young to always take hearing protection seriously when at the range. Have a good supply of ear plugs, but also some headphones as well for those bigger guns like 50 BMG.
 
I'm in my late 50's with pretty significant hearing loss and mild tinnitus due mostly to shooting. I don't quite need hearing aids yet, but I'm not far off. A handful of rounds with no protection can be enough to damage your hearing, which is what happened to me. Take your hearing protection seriously.
 
There was some talk a while back they were going to change the way the VA rated hearing loss. I think that went by the wayside. You have to be almost deaf to get compensation for hearing loss.
Yep, exactly right there -- my hearing was crap when I retired, and my VA decision sheet said, "Service connection for hearing loss is denied." It was just the years on the small arms ranges, or wearing passive muffs during three-inch and five-inch guns firing, CIWS firing, missile launches, Vulcan, M-60, mini-gun and .50-cal, shoots, it was also being around/on aircraft ... may have gone to a few rock concerts (Who, Stones, Seger, Springsteen, AC/DC, etc. that didn't help). ... Add another fifteen years as a law enforcement firearms instructor and I'm asking family to turn buzzers and alarms off, answer the door or the phone and get strange looks.

On the other hand, it's good to have selective hearing when the women are speaking to you ...
 
Double up with plugs and muffs whenever you can, like at a gun range, and avoiding shooting next to someone that has a muzzle brake.

People with severe hearing loss often experience isolation and loneliness, especially in old age. It's just too difficult to have a conversation with them.

So to all the young people out there, protect your hearing and your knees.
 
I guess my hearing is pretty good for what I've put my ears through; Shot Trap for three years before ear plugs became mandatory at the club (new insurance policy), played rather LOUD electric guitar, then joined the Army where I was subjected to lots of loud stuff, from my deuce (I wore the muffs that were in the tool box, and took them home; Wore them for range muffs till the outside rings went solid from age) to a battery of M109's ripple firing 50 yards away from me just after I'd gone to sleep, to hearing the port salutes from the Might Mo. (even from inside the ship, WOW!) Toss in the Harleys and other bike over the years, it's a wonder I can hear at all. Like many of you around my age, (57) I have a slight loss of the midrange in one ear (right) and constant tinnitus. Yet my hearing is way better than SWMBO's , who is eight years younger than me and the only really loud thing I can think of that she's heard besides my snoring is her Dad's tractors.
 
My tinnitus is loud and clear as I sit here. Same reasons as everyone else for my hearing loss, gunfire, loud music, military and machinery. I've been wearing double hearing protection for 20+ years. Hearing aids help a lot and you don't have to keep asking "what?".
 
Military, LE, target shooting and hunting, motorcycles, and a moonlighting job as security at Radio City Music Hall rock concerts all took their toll.

When u2 was in concert one time, they had about eight 6' speakers on each side of the stage, the bass felt like someone was punching me in the chest. I wouldn't have been surprised if my ears had started bleeding, and that was with ear plugs. They were the loudest in several years of working concerts.

What you don't realize when you're young re: hearing loss, is that it's cumulative, it doesn't happen all at once, but it's happening.

Now I'm at the point where if there's any ambient noise, like people at other tables in a restaurant, I can only sit there and smile, because I'm hearing little of the conversation at my table.

Be young, but don't be dumb, always use protection. For hearing, too. lol
In the Fall of 1982 I was at a Judas Priest concert in Austin, TX 3 rows from the stage, to the right (stage left) bank of speakers. I have no idea who the warmup band was now but they were nowhere in the same league for sound level. My ears rang for days - no hearing protection of courseo_O The Austin PD had an observation area alongside but not in front of that bank of speakers. My friends & I routinely saw them regularly trying to get their earplugs to seat / seal better, they didn't have earmuffs.

These days I use electronic hearing protection when shooting outdoors and disposable foam earplugs at indoor ranges. The echoes in the indoor ranges confuse the "smarts" in my headphones.
 
I have hearing loss and sometimes a very loud ring in my right ear, ENT said nothing can be done. Worked in a fabrication shop with loud machinery ,hammers and years of driving trucks . What really hurt me several years ago at a NHRA race a Top Fuel dragster blasted off the line before could cover my ears. Another time forgot a ear plug when fired off a .22 round under a covered firing line
 
Whether you call it tinnitus, ear crickets, snare drums, or whatever, it is real. Mine seems louder some days over others. I have noticed that some sounds I used to hear readily is not happening now.
 
They can fix lots of stuff from your heart to your eyeballs, implant hair on your head and make replacement hands, feet and legs but you get one set of ears.

I wasn't great to my ears as a kid,but did use ear protection when shooting. I have a 30Db mid-highfreq loss and tinnitus in both ears to a one time exposure to a loud noise where I had no ear protection on.

I hold on to what I have left fairly dearly and buy disposable ear protection by the 1000's so they are everywhere my ears are. Key chain containers on equipment, coat pockets, center console and or glove box of everything that has them, every case that contains or could contain something that makes noise, tool boxes and even some by the bed. Electric muffs for hunting, ones that play the radio while I'm mowing and even custom ones made by doctors custom for my ears that I use along with electronic muffs when I am around an abundance of loud noises.

Too bad, I didn't have anything on the one time I really needed them but it could have been worse.
 
I will turn 80 this year. Working on a farm during high school summers the tractors seemed to run better with the mufflers removed. There were always woodchucks, pigeons and other critters that needed attending with the .22. After college and marriage I went deer hunting and shooting with my father-in-law and his brothers and got into reloading and bullet casting. More shooting - what hearing protectors? Then I decided I needed a Ruger Blackhawk in 357 mag. More woodchucks and rats in the chicken coop with 357 shot cartridges. In 1972 we moved out of town into the country. I built a bullet stop in the back yard with shooting bench next to the side of the garage. More shooting with more rifles like 30-06, 300 Win Mag, 45-70, 30-30 and others. Finally somewhere in the 80s I discovered hearing protection but it was much too late. IBM tested my hearing at the factory once because I worked on high speed printers. The examiner opened the door to the booth and asked if I had a hearing loss. He thought his machine had failed since I did not raise my finger.
Probably about 10 years ago I got hearing aids through the NRA hearing assist program. They shut down automatically at loud sounds but they do not block the ear canal. The test showed 70+ db loss at higher frequencies. Left ear slightly worse than right ear. I cannot hear the last 12 or so keys on a piano even with aids. Rarely go to a movie theater. If a movie looks interesting enough I will buy the DVD and watch it at home using the home hi-fi system where I can control the sound. Wedding receptions and any group parties are difficult. Tinnitus is constant but varies in loudness. Sometimes it is the loudest sound I hear.
Always wear protection when target shooting. I now deer hunt with a 45-70 in Ohio and debate hearing protection each season but do not use it. I told the audiologist after the first deer season post hearing aids that I wasn't sure the the aids were a good thing. When he asked why, I told him that I used to be able to walk through the woods without making much noise but now not so much. The only music that impresses me now is a theater pipe organ but I am sure there is much that I miss even then. I do used ear plugs when mowing the lawn - always.
I encourage every young shooter to wear hearing protection.
 
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