Ever shot a big bore revolver without hearing protection?

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righteousbarbarian

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Ever shot a big bore revolver without hearing protection?

I'm talking about .44 mag, .45 LC, .454 Casull, .460 mag, etc. Did you notice hearing damage? Did you go deaf? what were the circumstances?
 
Yes,a .44 mag. indoors and have suffered from hearing damage ever since.That was close to 35 yrs. ago.I can't stand to shoot a .22 without hearing protection as a result.YMMV.tom.
 
I fired a .41 mag in 3 different incidents while a LEO.

That was 41 years ago and I have had a ringing in my ears since that time.

I don't shoot a .22 without protection today.
 
I haven't found a cartridge that didn't hurt the ears if fired without hearing protection. It does seem to be worse on loads that break the sound barrier.
 
.45 ACP outside but between two buildings
I felt what felt like something ripping inside my ear and have had irritating loud ringing in my ears ever since

As a result I can not be in a quiet room even to sleep, but the upside is that I can hardly even hear a .22 anymore
 
I shoot .41, .44 mag and (+P) .45 Colt without hearing protection while hunting. Usually 1 or 2 rds. max, outdoors obviously. Still, not a good idea.
 
The Magnums are much worse then standard calibers like the .45 LC / .38 Spl. because of the much higher pressure involved.
But any handgun, even a .22RF will eventually harm your hearing.

I've had Tinnitus since about 1958, or almost 50 years.
Ruger flat-top .357 Mag, and 1917 S&W when I was a teen-ager, and pre-ear-plug Army later on.
106mm R/R would make your ears bleed!

You get used to it, and I can't hear my wife nagging all the time now.
:D

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rcmodel
 
A .454 Casull, once, by mistake. I was at the range and forgot to put my muffs on. Thank goodness it was a wimpy little plinker round.

I still have normal hearing, according to my last hearing test. I will be hunting with plugs around my neck. They will go in before the shot.
 
Ha ! Funny you should ask that, I did it accidentally just last week. I've fired .357s and .45s without hearing protection on before, but never a 44 mag untill now. I was sighting in the Ruger super blackhawk I just bought. I had another guy looking downrange with a spotting scope to tell me where I was hitting. We were sort of talking in between 2 shot groups, with other people around, but only me shooting... so I kept taking out my earplugs for a bit, then popping them back in to make a another test group. Oops, forgot to put them back in once.. KA-BLAM ! Being a little embarrassed I didn't even mention it, I just slyly slipped them back in before taking another shot. It was outdoors though, which I'm sure helped. Ive fired the aforementioned .357s indoors in a smallish room with no protection before.. and that was significantly worse. As far as hearing damage.. I don't know really, I've already pretty much destroyed my hearing by sitting right op top or next to speakers at concerts for years, so it's hard to tell what guns do to it. I do say "What ?" all too often.
 
Many times over the years 44 Mag, 357 Mag, shotguns, couldn't really tell if it damanged anything, I've been driving farm tractors since I was 9 years old, so I didn't have to worry bout the guns making me hard of heraring. :)

I hear what sounds like crickets in the summertime, all the time, I've got used to em over the years and it does'nt bother me, I just hear crickets summer and winter,

I use hearing protectors all the time now, trying to save what I got left.
 
my first handgun was a 4" s&w model 13 .357 magnum an the first time i shot it i had no idea they were so loud:eek:.. all i had on my head was a cap when i shot it into a high berm at about 20ft from the target an berm. it felt like someone had slapped me in both ears! i shot a cylinder full an went home. i've never been around any shooting without some kind of hearing protection ever since.. did however forget to put my hearing in one time when spotting at a silhouette match. i don't remember what the guy was shooting but it was painful! only took one time to remind me!
 
.38+p and a .357 mag. Both were outside in a wide open area. Both caused ringing that lasted about an hour. Not something I ever want to do again but it seemed to not hurt me permanently. What was that?
 
Shooting any firearm with out hearing protection is very foolish.

It is proven that big bores will destory your hearing in one afternoon, it will never be the same. True.

HQ
 
I've shot my .357 mag several times while hunting without ear protection and never noticed until one day when I took a shot while crouched beside a steep bluff. Ears rang for a coupla days. Between all the guns and rock music in my younger years, my hearing is pretty much shot nowadays, but I still wear ear plugs whenever I'm at the range or in a bar with live music. Just wished I woulda smartened up a little sooner.

I now wear ear plugs even when hunting....especially with the .460........ and I won't take a shot with it iffin there is someone even relatively close by without protection.
 
Didn't wear much hearing protection during the Vietnam trip..... lost a LOT of hearing.
 
.357 magnum on the range hurts. One shot stop on a buck while hunting never noticed. I do tend to were ear protection when shooting, mowing yard, running chainsaw, or on a tractor with out a cab accept when running a baler with guys on the wagon behind me. Worst shoot for me ever was a Mini-14 next to a building. The blast bouced back to me. Nearly dropped the rifle!
 
I believe the sharp crack of the .357 magnum is worst than the boom of the big bores, but they all are dangerous to the ears. I have never noticed any problems while hunting, but get the adrenelin pumping and the human body can do strange things. Fire one round while target shooting and your ears ring. Fire one round while hunting and never notice a thing.
 
I now wear hearing protection even while deer hunting. There are some excellent ear muffs avaliable today that will "augment" our tired old, gun-shot ears and render a 360 degree soundfield all around you that's quite lifelike and . . . even a little better than normal, volume-wise.

However, when you touch a round off the muffs instantly turn off the amplification for a second or so and protect your ears from your handgun's blast.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

Warning . . . one morning I'd just gotten into the stand (late too) and had hardly turned around and got seated . . . when I heard a large deer running directly TO ME!

It sounded like the deer was right on top of me and so I quickly looked side-to-side, thinking I had nothing to lose in trying to quickly find him. WRONG!

I forgot my electronic "ears" were on . . . and that deer was about 90 yards out and closing fast. By the time my head started bobbing, it was about 60 yards away and it froze for a second, blew, and was gone!

DAMN! If I'd just stayed still, it would have come right to me but it sounded "louder" since I had the muffs on.

All I saw of that deer was a white flag and his butt!:banghead:

I'm sure I'm the only one around here who's ever done something stoooopid while deer hunting around here!;)

SPEAKIN' OF STOOOOPID . . .

About 15 years ago (and before getting hearing protection), I had a big doe come down a ridge behind me. She stopped at my 5 o'clock position (I'm left handed) about 40 yards behind me.

I took my 3-screw SuperBlackhawk .44mag. and reached across my body and pointed it over my right shoulder . . . while trying to NOT move my torso. Needless to say, the cocked hammer and the frame of that SB weren't far behind my ear. Finally, I got what I thought was a good sight picture via the SB's iron sights (although the sights were too close to my eyes, really).

KA-BOOOOOM! . . .

The blast nearly knocked me out of my ladder stand from the gun being so close to my right ear. Dang, that hurt!

HOWEVER . . . the deer didn't move! I'd somehow missed it. So . . . I shot again!:what:

I spent most of that afternoon . . . in bed with a severe headache and ears that rang for days and daze. No what I'd planned as the rut was just beginning the chasing phase.

Been there, done that . . . and I hope I'm not that stoooopid again!;)
 
Noticing hearing loss is a very tricky subject, when you notice it is to late, you have lost it and it will not come back. The idea is to protect it.

I figure in a few years they will be making laws that will put folks in jail for abuse to their children for damaging their hearing. Might even be some laws against shooting without protection. It is going to be a major problem, soon for many.

It is a horrible problem for those who are already there.

Similar to seat belt safety.

Medicine folks will sponser a bill and it will go into congress and they will then find out. To stupid to already know :neener:

There are many drugs that ruin hearing also, another issue though.

HQ
 
S&WFan
Stoooopid? You want stoooopid?

I let a buddy shoot a coyote with a .264 Win Mag while we were both setting in the front seat of his 68 Impala.
Problem was, he was driving, and I was riding shotgun.
And the coyote was on the right side of the car.
It ripped the head-liner out, and neither one of us could hear for a week!

Then there was my buddy's .41 mag coon shot!
He climbed a tree about 2:00 AM one night to get a treed coon out of a hollow tree. Stuck his .41 Ruger in the knothole and squeezed one off.

We both were shell-shocked by the blast & flash, not to mention all the dead tree bark in our eyes, and his falling out of the tree!

Too make matters worse, by the time we recovered and stopped laughing, the dang coon got away!

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rcmodel
 
Hearing is done via thousands of tiny hairs that sway in the "breeze" of sound. The swaying is interepreted as sound by other parts of the ear/brain.

Problem is that loud sound knocks those hairs down. After a while they can't get back up and that is hearing loss. Picture a section of lawn grass that get walked on repeatedly. Eventually the blades of grass don't stand back up.

Both sustained exposure to somewhat loud sound (eg leaf blowers, loud music) and short exposure to short but very loud sound (eg gunshot) cause this damage.

I have also heard (no pun intended) that the vibration of a shot is transmitted through the stock/cheekhold of a long arm, and that hearing protection is ineffective in stopping such such transmissions.
 
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