Are dB levels a factor in home defense weapons?

[Double Naught Spy]

Just to clairify; your brain blocks out the perception of the loud noises.

Just to clarify, your brain MAY block out the perception of loud noises. Auditory exclusion is part of the fight or flight response. It is a weird response that is not consistent. Some people never hear gunshots, but hear the sirens of the police in the distance. They don't hear their own shots, but report the bad guy's gun BOOMED at them. In battle, folks have reported hearing their own gun, but wondering why nobody else was firing along side them only to then realize they were, but the noise had been mentally filtered. Others have reported thinking their gun malfunctioned or failed to fire properly because they didn't hear the report. Weird.

 

[PPGMD]

Also just because your brain blocks out the sound, it doesn't mean that it still isn't damaging your hearing.

 

[Ghost Tracker]

It's Interesting to Hear (pardon the pun)...

All these reports of repeated (combat) live-fire experiences with NO corresponding loss of hearing. So Auditory Exclusion, while a emotionally-triggered response, MUST have the effect of lessening the PHYSIOLOGICAL results of loud noise exposure? How else would you explain it?

I have hearing loss attributed to exposure to repeated, unquieted small-arms gunfire. My cousin (USMC Artillery Officer) does as well, but from obviously larger calibers. Does that mean we were too "calm" during the excitement?

And yeah, everyone agrees that concerns over potential Hearing Damage WILL NOT STOP us from protecting ourselves & our families.

 

[striker3]

All these reports of repeated (combat) live-fire experiences with NO corresponding loss of hearing. So Auditory Exclusion, while a emotionally-triggered response, MUST have the effect of lessening the PHYSIOLOGICAL results of loud noise exposure? How else would you explain it?

I wouldn't go so far as to say that there is no physiological effect. Like I said in my post, I do have noticeable hearing damage. I have tinninitus, and have trouble holding conversations in areas with a lot of low level background noise, such as crowded rooms. My ears are also more sensitive to loud music and continuous loud noise than others around me.

What I was trying to get across was the fact that with all of the hearing damage I have probably suffered up to this point, it does not really affect my day to day life. If it doesn't affect my day to day life, then I wouldn't use hearing loss as a consideration for a home defense weapon that I may only hear fired without protection a few times in my life.

 

[SpeedAKL]

Meh, better to lose a little hearing than to lose your life or that of your family.

Having said that, I find the blasts of some guns much less tolerable than others. Any rounds that break the sound barrier and thus make that loud CRACK - centerfire rifles, magnum-caliber handguns - are far more abrasive to me than something like a shotgun, 9mm, .45ACP, etc. The dumbest thing I ever did around a gun was on one of my first trips to the range. I though I'd be a tough guy and not put the headphones on until we started shooting, even though other people were firing away. The range was outdoors but the firing stations were under a roof. As I was walking by a guy set off what appeared to be a Remington 700PSS (likely chambered in .308 given the noise) right beside idiot me:banghead:. One of the loudest noises I've ever heard (aside from maybe the B-1 bomber that flew very low over the football stadium on full afterburner). Seconds later a 12-gauge and an AR went off:banghead:. The headphones went right on.

Another thing to consider is muzzle flash - a large-caliber handgun, for example, will create much more flash than, say, a 9mm, which could disorient you more and waste small but critical amounts of time if you need a follow-up shot or need to duck and cover....

 

[ctdonath]

I think some of you guys have priorities in the wrong place. Noise levels don't matter to me when my life is on the line.

Meh, better to lose a little hearing than to lose your life or that of your family.

...along with other such posts.

What's with these non-sequitors?

That one's life is on the line at a given moment does NOT mean that you can't prepare for some extra protection for your ears ahead of time. Suppressors are legal in most states, so consider getting one for your HD gun before you touch a round off indoors. Consider making your gun inherently quieter without affecting power. Get active hearing protection so that, given enough warning, you can put on muffs that will save your hearing AND improve it at the same time.

If using a gun for home defense without certain safety accessories meant losing a knuckle, would you ignore at least the option of using such accessories? The issue at hand is little different: you likely won't lose your hearing completely, and may not even notice any damage, but there is a degree of maiming going on.

Hearing damage is not an all-or-nothing issue.
Protecting your hearing during home defense is not a life-or-ears choice.
Get a silencer. If not legal in your jurisdiction, ask your legislators why.

 

[Daemon688]

Well, until *ahem* certain laws get removed, I will never own a suppressor. It's not worth the tax stamp or all the hassles. Now if they were say, $80 out the door, no waiting period, no messy paper work, I'd get one for every gun. Hearing protection at the range and the unlikely event where I will have to use my weapon for defense, sound gets an "oh well" response from me.

 

[SpeedAKL]

A silencer would certainly be something to consider, and they're legal in my state.

 

[brashboy]

This is a really good thread. I have got to check out that shotgun suppressor. The thing I get is that subsonic rounds are better. I always wondered what anyone but a hit man really needed a silencer for, but if there was ever a place for a suppressor, HD is it. I've got tinnitus already. Forget the muffs. Those are useless unless you hear the BG coming through a door or window and have time to put them on.

My 357 loaded with 38 Sp is under the pillow with the butt exactly were my right hand falls naturally. The sawed-off 16-ga. is next to the bed. Ah NEED a suppressor!

 

[benEzra]

But aren't the walls of the house going to redirect that supersonic crack right back at you

Greatly attenuated, and it will be very small compared to the redirected muzzle blast and cylinder-gap blast that the walls also reflect back. A bullwhip (also a supersonic crack) is loud, but not nearly as loud as the muzzle blast of a .357 fired in an enclosed hallway.

Also, since the angle of reflectance of a shock wave equals the angle of incidence, if you are shooting down a hallway, the shockwave reflections off the walls will reflect down the hall, not back at you, until they reach the end of the hall and bounce back, but the intensity decays with the square of the distance.

 

[TEDDY]

am I missing something.if you get in a gun fight the last thing you want to worry about is your hearing.worry about that could get you killed.my hearing is bad I m 83 and I was a AOM3C shot 50s and 30 mg plus I shot springfield 03 before hearing protection.but my hearing gradually went.

 

[Evil Monkey]

I often wondered, what if you fired a round indoors with your Eustachian tubes open, would you still get hearing damage? With the tubes open, the pressure equalizes in the inner ear. Would that help in reducing damage?

I have the ability to open up the tubes at will. I wonder if that would be tactical in a shootout. lololol

 

[kurtmax]

I wouldn't worry about hearing loss in choosing a defensive weapon. That is, unless you are shooting home intruders every evening. If that's the case it's either:

1. Zombie apocalypse and you don't have much time to live anyways. So who cares about hearing?

2. Time to move.

Also, why would cops care if you shot an intruder with a suppressed firearm. As long as it's legally tax stamped and all it should be A-OK.

 

[Bazooka Joe71]

Once and only once I was at the range by myself, and I stopped to take a break for a couple of minutes and took my plugs out...

Reloaded some mags, popped one in, took a shot before I realized I forgot my plugs and muffs(it was a .40s&w w/ a 4 inch barrel).

My ears rang for a good little while and I remember thinking to myself how loud it would be and how much hearing loss I would have gotten if I would have been indoors...Not to mention theres a good chance that if I actually had to fire one shot inside, multiple shots would probably follow.

 

[ctdonath]

am I missing something.if you get in a gun fight the last thing you want to worry about is your hearing.

There's a suppressor on my HD rifle precisely because my hearing is the last thing I want to worry about in a gun fight - having prepared suitable tools ahead of time, noise won't be a problem.

 

[igor]

The given dB numbers in this thread seem IMHO so high that I would guess that they were measured around the muzzle end/direction of the gun. There is a considerable difference to what the shooter behind the gun will hear. My own experience as 3-gun RO would support this (muzzle-braked .223 SBRs in a concrete floored shooting stand, anyone? Double protection is a minimum standing behind the shooter's shoulder.)

Obviously, the difference between, say, 140 and 160 dB isn't nearly enough to eliminate damage, but there is sufficient difference to limit the extent of damage if a single or just a few individual shots are considered. To the point of the thread, this argument alone helps little, but altogether I would say that any gun will be doggone loud indoors and that's that. Other considerations in a HD setting will be hugely more important.

BTW, I also have experienced rapid-fire drills as the loader of the Finnish 95mm recoilless AT device. The loader's head when firing that weapon is in a spot where the noise has been measured to exceed 180dB! With the triple protection of plugs, muffs and thickly gloved hands the blasts are almost tolerable... but no damage remains.