Obviously, I always wear hearing protection at the range. I'm curious though: in a self defense situation, how will I handle the much louder report of the firearm without hearing protection?
Depends on you, however, more than likely, you'll do fine.
Firearms have been around now for what, 600 years or so? Ear plugs, on the other hand....not so much. Folks have successfully defended themselves without plugs for years and years.
And as an aside, how does the military deal with this? My dad is ex-army and he's basically deaf in his right ear from training without hearing protection.
I enlisted back in 89', and hearing protection was heavily stressed back then, and still is today. Technology has gotten to the point where there is always some form of viable hearing protection available to troops to suit the mission, in the form of electronic muffs, or specialized plugs. While there are some missions and environments that I would opt not to wear them, those conditions are much rarer these days than they have ever been in the past.
Between fixed wing aircraft, rotary wing aircraft, small arms fire and high explosive use indoors and out, I suffered no excessive hearing loss over a twenty year career due to the fact that I used hearing protection whenever possible, including 3 years spent in Afghanistan and Iraq.
For self defense, I am not concerned about hearing loss outside of the home, as the odds are slim that I will ever need to use deadly force, and if I ever do, I am willing to accept the risk of hearing loss to defend myself. At home, I keep a pair of electronic muffs by my defense gun that not only protect my hearing, but amplify sound so as to better detect possible intruders.
