Will a 357 Blow your eardrums out indoors?

First, I will accept a bit of hearing loss in exchange for being alive. Secondly, if I have time to be selective, I will choose a weapon other than a .357 Magnum handgun for an indoor fight, preferably a long gun, which gets the blast well out in front of my ears. If not a long gun, well, a .45 ACP pistol is another desirable choice. That being said, my default 24/7 defensive handguns are .357 Mag revolvers. FWIW, my mandated duty cartridge, .40 S&W, seems about as obnoxious as .357 Mag when fired indoors as some .357 Mag loads, though I have thus far always managed to have hearing protection in
place when .40 was being fired.

I have fired a .357 Mag full-pressure load in self-defense, though it was outdoors. I have been quite near a .357 Silvertip being fired indoors, without hearing protection in place.

Firing a magnum handgun indoors (or out) will probably not "blow your eardrums out" unless it is very close to your unprotected ears and they are forward of the muzzle. It will however do serious permanent damage. A lot of guys will say the damage is not really that bad. But over your life time when added to all of the other noise you will be subjected to every day in the incredibly noisy world we all live in it can turn into a real problem. The average noise level on most city streets is high enough to do damage cumulatively over time. I have had severe tinnitus for the last ten years (not just from gunfire although I'm sure years of it didn't help) and by the time you hit 50 years of age you will lay in bed at night and listen to a constant roar in your ears until you finally condition your self to fall asleep. Trust me, it sucks in a major way. I am also a audio freak and now to listen to a high end stereo system I cannot enjoy it unless it's cranked above the level of the tinnitus noise. Take care of your ears and use protection every time you know you will be exposed to loud noises. In a self defense situation research has shown that the human brain has evolved to block out the perception of loud noise even though your eardrums are still being starined and damaged. Police officers involved in shootings usually report that they were not aware of the noise of the shots simply because the brain will force all of your concentration into visual concentration on the threat. Peripheral vision is reduced and time seems to slow down and most report remembering being aware of very detailed visual memories of their attacker.

Sam. is there 12 gauge shotgun sound volume data? There is generally a response to a Home Defense post.. "get yourself a 12 gauge shotgun"

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http://www.freehearingtest.com/hia_gunfirenoise.shtml
12 GA w/ 18" bbl averages 161.5 dB.

The .357 indoors out of a short bbl with no protection is a mighty THWAAMP that feels more like a pressure wave than a sound. It's too loud to seem like a sound in some ways. And it will leave your ears ringing for a bit. But it's not going to make you drop your weapon and grab your ears.

I would sincerely suggest avoiding any magnums or equivalent handguns, or .223 carbines for indoor defense.

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Let's think about that for a moment. We're not talking about training with no protection on. We're talking about self defense shooting. Shooting a person in your house in defense of your life. You stop the attack or you die, simple as that.

What is a little hearing damage to that? Of all the factors to consider in deciding what to use to protect your life, noise has to be way down the list if it's even on the list. The noises of modern life, over the decades, are what we really need to worry about unless we're in a sustained fire war zone. A once-in-a-lifetime exposure to 160+ in a life or death situation is not the real culprit in hearing loss.

I've been in rooms where a variety of guns have gone off. I've been in rooms where a Thunderflash went off, several times.

Yes, your ears will ring. Depending on the stress level while these things are happening, the ringing may happen immediatly, or later. In the middle of a deal, its loud, but, not really a big deal. During training, its louder and, the effect more pronounced and immediate. I would guess that your body puts everything else on hold until you figure out how to get yourself out of a situation intact, and then the effects hit you.

Long term, there will likely be some damage. At our station, we have electornic key pads that emit a high pitched beep when you swipe your key fob. I can BARELY hear the beep. A buddy of mine with roughly the same experiences I have can barely hear the beep. Rookies hear it fine. Of course, they are younger too.

Remember, for years, the gun of coice for cops was a .357 Magnum. Lots of Police shootings with those guns, yet, most old cops aren't deaf. (they may seem like it, they are really just ignoring you )

Add years of a siren in the background. The cop radio turned up so you can hear it over the radio and alot of years of Ted Nugent, I should be deaf. I'm not. One shooting inside a house should have minimal effect.

When I was in school to become a Physician Assistant, we learned as a rule of thumb if a noise makes your ears ring you are sustaining some amount of damage to your hearing. The frequency and db levels are what gets hearing and is cumulative over time. If necessary, I'd shoot first and worry about hearing later. I suppose if legal where you live, you could get a suppressor.

When I was younger and dumber before I could drive, I use to dove hunt a lot over my grandfathers corn fields that were in bicycle range. Didn't think anything about burning 3 boxes of 12 ga over a dove field in a day. Bag limit was 18 and I was after meat not close in, perfect shots, and my gun at the time was modified choke. Anyway, ended up with a 25% high frequency hearing loss by the time I was 25.

Huh.What did he say??? Somebody answer the darn phone !!! Yes they are loud.. and 50 years of Rock n Roll and Gunfire have taken it's toll... the good part of it is that I have a good excuse for ignoring the wife...!

I'm old enough to remember the returning soldiers from WWI and WWII that had lost their hearing and there were a lot of them, not all but it depended on where they served. Then I guess the Armed services wised up and started using hearing protection. I know when I visited my son in-law at Fort Hood, all of the troops carried them on their chest in full view and he said they had best not get caught without them.

10mm, when you care enough to send the very best.

In a defensive situation I would be more concerned with recovering from the considerable muzzle flash than the hearing damage. Hearing damage you deal with later, but if you can't see whether your shot hit the target or not because you're blinded by the flash, that's trouble.

For this reason I switched from 40S&W to 45ACP for a nightstand gun.

From experience - NO but it's darned loud. 30 years ago I fired ONE pretty zippy load using a 170 grain lyman cast out of a 6" blackhawk in a 20 by 15 foot room and that was enough for my lifetime. The Raccoon died and I decided earmuffs were worth putting on next time.

I don't shoot a 357 very often as I do use 38 specials in my revolvers.but when I do I get the "What the hell are you shooting?" question and it's out of a 7 1/2" Redhawk. Have to admit that being aroud a 357 mag with a 4" barrel when it goes off can be a memorable experience.

tensor tympani talk

Consider this. There is a small muscle (tensor tympani)that contracts the eardrum to protect it when we experience sustained loud noise, or talk, or shoot a gun, or have high adrenaline levels. The muscle response is not fast enough to protect against gun noises, as gun blast noise is sharp and sudden and not sustained.

BUT any hunters ever notice a difference between ears ringing when shooting a rifle at a target versus the lack of ears ringing when shooting at a deer????

I think with the adrenaline of a SD situation in a building the adrenaline will be high and the tensor tympani will be working overtime!

YMMV

To be perfectly honest, I wouldn't be much good if I didn't put my glasses on first.

Years ago I had an accidental gun discharge with a Ruger .357 125gr JHP. I blew out a color television while President Carter was speaking. I can't remember why I had pointed the gun at the TV, but I did. I remember a ringing in my ear and I said, "Oh, sh--!" But there was no permanent damage to my ears...just my dignity.

Years later, I met a guy at an NRA convention who shot a charging bear. He didn't even remember hearing the .44 mag he was holding. A friend had to take the gun out of his hand afterwards because he was shaking so bad. Another fellow told me about a guy who had repeatedly threatened his family. The courts issued a cease and desist order, but the man showed up anyway. One night the guy showed up with a gun and tried getting into the house. The fellow telling me the story got his .357 and chased the guy into the back yard where he hid behind an old refrigerator and shot rounds into the house where his wife and kids were. He had some armor piercing rounds and he loaded two into his revolver. The next time the guy fired, he shot the two rounds into the refrigerator. According to this fellow, the guy just slumped to the ground. Now the good guy was in a back porch at the time and the magnum rounds didn't do anything but cause a ringing in his ears.

My point is, when you're caught by surprise, as I was, or if you're heart is pumping and the adrenalin flowing, I don't think you're going to do any damage. Now if you're in a car with the windows rolled up, well, you can always learn to lip read!
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Just because you are hopped up an adrenaline doesn't mean it is doing less damage. Just that you don't FEEL it at the time.

Interesting SPL reference. It didn't seem to indicate where the measurements were taken in relationship to the barrel (shooter's position or in front) though I would hope that it was from behind. Also the room (or lack of a room) in which it was fired would make a huge difference I suspect.

That said the .44spl and .45 colt seem to be pretty good bargains WRT effectiveness/SPL.

Of course there is always the slingshot option.

mike

I know this is an old thread but oh well. I had a malfunction last week with my Comanche 6" 357 magnum, loaded with hydra shok 158gr. I had just cleaned the weapon and was going to cycle the cylinder and have it drop on the 1 empty cylinder by pulling the trigger. I will never do that again! Even though I have never had an issue with the cylinder not rotating correctly, it did it then. Of course I had the gun pointed downward, but it was no more than a foot and a half in front of my face when it went off. It was quite a strange few minutes after that. Wasn't like anything I've ever experienced. More than a flash bang or any homemade pyrotechnic device at close range.

Had no plugs on and was in a small basement, maybe 11'x18' or so. Not sure if I will have any permanent damage, but will be surprised if I don't. No bleeding or fluids came out of my ears though. Ringing stopped within a day or so, but even after a week my ears still feel, congested maybe, off and on throughout the day. I can still hear almost at the same level as before, at least that's how it seems. I can really notice a difference when driving with the windows down though. Makes them feel more plugged up.

I have shot 45, 22, 9mm, 223, at arms length before with no protection and none of those comes close to what happened when that thing went off a foot and a half or so from my ears. I think I am no longer going to even consider a 357 or 12gauge for home defense any more. I'll stick with the 45, and start looking for suppressors.

With those symptoms after a week there is clearly some amount of permanent damage. Your hearing will recover in a little more time but it won't be quite what it was. You may or may not notice the difference simply because you'll be so happy to get back what you thought you lost for this past week.

But when it's quiet at night and you're not quite able to fall asleep don't be surprised if you hear a little bit of a high pitched tone all the time. You may not have it at the moment but this incident along with running that angle grinder and beating with the hammer on that plywood in close in confines along with dozens of other things that make you cringe at the volume will add up and come back to bite you in later life.

I fired a .357 outside once, about 5-10 shots, no earpro. Left my ears ringing and painful for at least a day. Will never do that again.

WHAT? EARRINGS? I DON'T HAVE EARRINGS!

kidding! I actually have some minor service related hearing loss and tinitus ... everything sounds like incandescent light bulb filaments to me. All guns are loud when you're the ham in a sheetrock sammich... but coffins are pretty enclosed spaces, too. I'll take my chances.

Yeah, I'm really mad at myself that I did something so stupid. Although it shouldn't have happened, when I think about it, there was no reason I should have done that.:banghead: It really bothers me knowing I might have caused myself serious harm for something so dumb and in a fraction of a second. And I forgot to mention the shrapnel/powder blast that hit my arm/shoulder, and a piece of something that went into the white of my eye which caused bleeding and bad irritation for a few days. Doc said my eye was fine, but could have been worse. And my arm looked like I was shot with a small, weak bird shot.:banghead:

I hear ringing constantly from loud music and alot of shooting and machinary. I won't target shoot anything above 22 lr in a rifle without hearing protection.

As far as a bump in the nite....I won't put ears on.

It's interesting to note that in the above chart 9mm is significantly louder than .223 out of an 18" barrel.

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Decibels (amplitude) are only part of the equation. They're a good yardstick for quick comparisons, but do not tell the whole story. Pressure, duration, frequency....these things matter. For instance, the dB of that annoying teenager's bumpin' car stereo may be lower than many noises you're subjected to daily, but the duration, frequency and (especially if inside the vehicle) pressure will make it intolerable to most people.

The science of sound is not simple, and I won't pretend to be an expert (my uncle, OTOH, has written books on it), but I know enough to know that dB alone won't tell you how damaging a noise can be.

To the OP:

Yes, you'll cause some damage to your ears discharging a firearm indoors without earpro. If you use a louder firearm, the damage will likely be greater. Auditory exclusion will likely come into play, so your ears may not ring (and there is some information to suggest that the physiology of auditory exclusion also serves to reduce ear damage), but nonetheless, there will be damage. Bottom line, though, is worry about protecting yourself and your family first. If possible, keep earpro handy; Our ears are amazing things, and you realy can hear a lot of faint noises with conventional low-tech hearing protection devices. Maybe you don't put them on right away, but if you've established there is a threat and have managed to secure yourself and your family to where you are in a good defensive position and counting mostly on sight, then you can put them on.

In a word...............YES !

One other word about electronic hearing protection muffs... turned up all the way, they signficantly INCREASE your hearing capabilities. I've started using mine to find the sources of mysterious noises/whines in my car and around the house. As others have noted, hearing only goes one way - down. What you lose, you generally do not get back.