Being prepared to use your firearm inside your house

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Another thing to consider is that using a firearm indoors can be extremely disorienting. A sound suppressor is great but there are obvious concerns with this solution. Pistol caliber carbines have the distinct advantage of generally being significantly quieter than rifle cartridges and handguns.

I don't have much confidence in the electronic ear muffs either in a home defense situation as they can make it difficult, if not impossible, to determine from which direction a noise is coming. I suppose it really depends on the scenario though. For example, if one is just covering the bedroom door while waiting for the calvary they are a good option but if creeping through the house to investigate a noise or recover the youngsters elect muffs probably aren't a good idea.
 
Sav .250 said:

That will be the least of your worries!
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Agreed. Assuming one survives a deadly encounter, criminal and then civil action may follow in its wake and legal and moral justification must be presented for shooting (at) Mr. Naughty. BTW, most police officers who are involved in shootings report that their auditory senses diminished at the time of the shooting. They didn't hear, "bang! bang! bang!" but "pop, pop, pop."
 
Not enough time and you want to hear every little thing that Is happening. Gun is on me, light in my pocket, at night on my gun
 
I've thought about his and just decided that if it comes to where I need to fire a gun in my home...losing some hearing is just a consequence of saving my or my family's life...in which the hearing is an acceptable loss. I thought about the whole hearing protection thing, but the problem with that in my mind is losing my hearing directionality. The electronic muffs may let me hear slightly better in volume, but in a case of needing to know WHERE a threat is...I think the directionality is actually more important.
 
Walkalong, you mentioned 45 vs 9mm. Are both comparable sound-wide inside the house?

4v50 Gary, that is what I kinda expected. I mean, how many soldiers go to war wearing hearing protection and how many of those lose a significant amount of it?

On a related note, I shot my black powder revolver a few weeks ago in the open without protection. First time I heard the ringing people say you should expect when shooting a handgun.
 
M-Cameron
from what ive heard from police reports, you dont really notice the noise or the flash in the heat of the moment.......

45bthompson
When you face a genuine threat and your adrenaline is maxed you don't notice how loud the gunfire is. At least I never did.

4v50 Gary
BTW, most police officers who are involved in shootings report that their auditory senses diminished at the time of the shooting. They didn't hear, "bang! bang! bang!" but "pop, pop, pop."
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I agree with the above. Although my encounter didn't involve gunfire, I heard not a syllable of the bystander screaming at the top of her lungs not two steps away. In fact, I remained unaware of anything during the encounter except the threat, and afterward wondered how all the furniture had gotten rearranged...

I can't imagine gunfire would have made any more impression upon me under those circumstances.
 
That is my point,taking a few shots without hearing protection will help prepare for this type of situation.
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Disagree completely. You can't "toughen up" your ears, just damage them further.

FWIW, my room mate in College had an ND with a .30-30 in our apartment. He was still functional... Dumb, but fine.
 
I wouldn't worry about the noise during a home defense situation. Electronic ear muffs are a good idea but not something that I would want to mess around with at o-dark thirty for an emergency situation.

Some years back, I was involved in a defensive situation and fired a .38 in close quarters. Ok, ok! It wasn't a defensive situation! I just couldn't take any more of his taunting so I shot him in the face! There! I confessed!
My wife raises Desert Tortoises in a large pen next to my shop. There's a storage shed at the back that is about four inches away from the back of the shop. A huge rat lived under the shed and would steal the turtles food. (Tomatoes, bananas, etc) I tried traps but he was s smart one. I couldn't use poison because of my dogs. He would steal a tomato and then sit there next to the shed eating it. He would stare at me while he was doing it! If I went after him, he would just skip back into that space between the shed and the shop and continue eating his tomato while laughing at me. (You're to fat to fit into this space. Hah Hah!)

One day, I just "happened" to have a 38 loaded with snake shot with me when I went out there. He was sitting there on his rear end, laughing at me and holding the entire tomato up in front of his face eating it. I snapped. I aimed the pistol at him...not realizing that it was now about a foot inside of the space between the shed and the shop...and I shot him right thru the tomato! Oh yeah! He dropped over backwards with the tomato blasted all over his face.

The problem now though, was that I couldn't hear very well. The muzzle blast must have been reflected back from the close walls and it was LOUD! That was only 38 snake shot but it was a lot tighter space that a hallway, etc. I walked around the rest of the day saying "What"? Then I would start start mumbling "Bang...Splat" and giggle. Keep yer powder dry, Mac.
 
Walkalong said:
That's a darn good idea. Kind of dumb of me not to do that, since I have some. Duh. :)
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I have some in my range bag, and it never occurred to me to keep a set on a nightstand.

I've shot indoors several times over the years, and have lost hearing. Multi-toned high frequency tinnitus, and low frequency rumbling (meniere's) in my radiation damaged left ear, with the multi-toned tinnitus both ears. Bummer. Protect your hearing, the after effects will drive you nuts the rest of your life.

Yeah, someone who needs attention immediately isn't going to help your hearing much. Bummer.
 
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First, turn on a hallway light. Forget about noise.

Daughters and fiances have been kiiled by paranoid people who shoot into dark, quiet areas.
They sometimes decide to make a late night walk into the garage without telling the Lord of the Castle. Or return home hours late or a night early, from out of town.

If this had not happened in the last ten years or so, people would not need to be reminded.
None of us could make such a nightmarish mistake. But that nightmare never goes away for those people and for many of us it would be unbearable.
 
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you mentioned 45 vs 9mm. Are both comparable sound-wide inside the house?
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.45 will cause less damge and be quieter in my opinion due to staying subsonic and being lower pressure then a 9 mm or 5.56
 
If God forbid I ever need to discharge any of my weapons within the confines of my home in a self defense situation the bang is the last thing on my mind if at all.

That IS All....
Ron
 
HOME DEPOT GEORGE and others have referred to the blinding by the myzzle flash. I often practice with the lane and target lights off and the flash from my snubbie would make it difficult for a second shot.

However, I found that since you can hold the gun down low by the bottom of your rib cage while using a laser sight, the flash from the snubby is almost out of sight and follow-up shots are no problem.

I am now a firm believer in laser sights, and screw the expense.

I did, on purpose, fire a primed round in a short barreled .auto just to see how loud it was in my living room, and it made my ears ring. But there was no other stress (as in an HD situation) to distract me from the noise.

Terry, 230RN
 
funny thing about adrenalin.....your sight and hearing and attention get so focused not much bothers you..... even gunfire....

after the incident you get the effects, but during i didnt notice.
 
I have my strategy laid out. There are two defensive positions of tactical advantage. Also an escape route through the window to the the roof of my front porch with a third firing position.

As in hunting when firing at actual targets noise will be of no consequence. And if it further serves to frighten the intruder so much the better. Although if I did have to shoot I would presumably be on target and it would not matter. (no warning shots - ammo is scarce) ((that was a joke)) (((but still, no warning shots)))

My GREATEST concern is that I am FULLY awaking and AWARE of the target and what I am doing. No bullet gets launched until I am absolutely CERTAIN that I know where my wife is and that the targets is unknown and/or a clear threat to life.
 
I've shot indoors several times over the years, and have lost hearing. Multi-toned high frequency tinnitus, and low frequency rumbling (meniere's) in my radiation damaged left ear, with the multi-toned tinnitus both ears. Bummer. Protect your hearing, the after effects will drive you nuts the rest of your life.
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sound recognition (who is that? who's home now? who's coming home? late nite fridge raid?) 4-8 seconds
turn on light, fumble for gun 4 seconds
predial police 3-6 seconds

total of about 20 seconds or so and that's really fast scenario
add seconds of ''free time'' (good time for you) if there's an alarm going off, barking dog etc. Which if you're this concerned, you should already have in place IMO.

electronic earmuffs from dresser, headboard, corner of bed 4 seconds

adding that small fractional portion is really irrelavent unless this is a true ninja asassin who knows the exact layout of your house and breaks the glass, runs straight to YOUR room, and whacks ya. Fortunately that only happens in movies. Most likely forced entry is a burglar looking for STUFF, not confrontation.

You've got the time to put on muffs. If you can't for what ever reason or won't, remember in an actual shoot situation you will request to go to to hospital for a checkup. Once there tell them your ears are ringing, and you want to see an ENT Specialist a.s.a.p., or at least you want a quick steroidal treatment. The ER doctor will know what you mean or look it up. This will help reduce possibility of long term hearing issues.
 
Thank you - reminder

Glad I saw this post as I know full well the sound of a gun fired indoors = OUCH.

And for all to read up on [ dont take my word ] the "audity exclusion" that occurs during a SHTF/high stress incident will NOT stop hearing loss.

That means you can and WILL suffer permanant hearing loss from even one round fired w/o protection.

I am now taking one pair of microphone enhanced muffs to place by the nightstand.

Thank you as I knew this firsthand,but was ignoring it.

If you want a free PAINFUL education as to the pain and damage to your ears that one round will do --- try it at the range,just remove your muffs once and that is all it will take.

btw,its MUCH louder indoors,I promise.
 
suppressor

Why not get a suppressor? You can get a decent 9mm one for 400-500 bucks with tax from Huntertownarms.

I am actually building a Form1 ATF approved one for my .357 levergun. It will cost about $300 with tax.

So, I can fire a hearing safe weapon in my house if used in lawful self defence protection scenario.
 
I've been in the same room where a 9mm pistol was fired. I was wrestling a man and, surprisingly, the gunshot wasn't as loud as I thought it would have been. I guess the adrenaline and focus on what was going on made me not think about the noise.
 
from what ive heard from police reports, you dont really notice the noise or the flash in the heat of the moment.......
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The only two people I personally know you've fired a gun in self-defense both report the same.
 
Flash bang grenade is brighter, louder, and unexpected.

Pistol rounds or even .223 indoors are loud, but not that loud (at least without a muzzle brake). I shot them a few times with no hearing protection before I knew any better, so this is based on first-hand experience.

My hearing is still fine, but I would not do it again just for the heck of it because hearing damage accumulates. I would not have a problem shooting indoors if my life depended on it.
 
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