Hearing Loss

[WestKentucky]

There is a thread running about the loudest gun you have fired and my thoughts led me to wondering how consistent the loss patterns are with shooting stance.

For example, my first 20 years of life I shot mainly rifle and shotgun. I did not wear ear protection. I am right handed and shoot with a traditional stance. I have notably more loss in my left ear as it would be facing the muzzle.

When I started shooting handguns I kept my shooting preference for accuracy. As such I have been using a 2 handed hold at about a 45 degree angle across my body to the left. Again, this puts left ear forward to take the brunt of the blast.

How consistent is stance with loss? Please post a quick description of your stance, and what hearing issues you have noted.

 

[Chevelle SS]

I shot a 1911 out of a car twice and since I notice I can't hear as well in the right ear as the left. Not a huge difference but slightly noticeable.

 

[bassjam]

In high school and my early 20's I'm sure I shot thousand of rounds of 12ga at clays without hearing protection, all left handed. Since then there's probably been another 50-100 rounds per year without any hearing protection on dove hunts. I don't know that I've ever shot a handgun or rifle without hearing protection except for the random .22 out of a rifle, typically subsonics, and I shoot both rifles and handguns right handed.

I haven't had my hearing testing, but if I'm on the phone with a bad connection I have to listen through my right ear to hear better.

 

[cologuy]

The audiologist that fitted me for my hearing aids in my late 30's (yep, that bad) told me that my hearing loss in the left ear was almost certainly due to being a right-handed shooter. My stance is just as WestKentucky describes.

 

[Sovblocgunfan]

Asymmetric hearing loss is quite common among shooters, when hearing loss is reported. I have loss in both ears, with the left much more impacted than the right. I'm a right handed shooter. It occurred with rifles (I was not a pistol shooter at that time)-I understand from that experience that handed-ness generally informs the asymmetry.

 

[Zerodefect]

Had to shoot from inside an empty GMC Express cargo van. Metal walls, no headliner or seats.

It cost me a little. My ears rang for a month.

Ear plugs at work, on my motorcycle, at the range, or Mexican food makes my ears ring as well. Thanksgiving turkey actually makes my ears ring, sleepy, and actually in a weird kind of pain. Getting old sucks.

 

[RedlegRick]

Assistant Gunner on M114A1 and M198 howitzers, right-hand rifle shooter, plus into heavy metal back in the 80s are why I say 'huh?' all the time. 30% left in right ear, 70% in my left. All my fault, too.
Yes, there's a definite pattern to hearing loss based on your position at the time.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

I shot a 1911 out of a car twice and since I notice I can't hear as well in the right ear as the left. Not a huge difference but slightly noticeable.

That's gangsta.

I use a modified Weever stance and am right handed, but have always worn plugs. I did temporarily pull the left plug once and forgot to put it back in. One shot of 45 ACP +p and my left ear rang for about a half hour. Hopefully it's the only time I ever make that mistake. I'm glad it was the left ear and not right, as my right would be directed toward the gun. I am tending to double up now also.

I imaging which ever ear is closest and facing a firing weapon would degrade faster.

 

[Shimitup]

You may find this interesting. I suffer from the 4K loss left ear as I recall is more pronounced. I also have a good bit of tinnitus, I always use plugs and muffs these days.

 

[Robert]

Playing bagpipes in small bars did more damage to my hearing than shooting has. But I've always worn ear protection while shooting.

 

[jmr40]

That is normal. I'm 60 now, but didn't start wearing hearing protection consistently until I was about 30. I was required to get a complete physical, including hearing tests each year as part of my job. The 1st year they pointed out that my right ear was perfectly normal, but my left ear was not picking up certain tones. It was never bad enough to be noticeable to me, and I was told the tones I could no longer hear were not common. If had been a musician, or music teacher it might be a handicap, but never really hurt me. I started wearing protection after that point and so far my left ear has not gotten any worse.

Unfortunately 4 years ago my right ear went completely deaf overnight. Perfect hearing when I went to bed one night, nothing the next morning. Not noise related and they don't know for sure why it happens. It isn't as rare as I thought. I've since found 3-4 other people who had the same thing happen to them.

Having one deaf ear is a handicap. I hear better than you'd think in a quite room, but with a lot of background noise it is tough and I have to be turned with my good ear toward people I'm talking too. I can no longer determine which direction sound is coming from. A normal hearing aid won't help me. They amplify sound and the auditory nerve in my right ear is no longer functioning. They can do a bone anchored hearing aid. It is a metal stud cemented into my skull behind the right ear with a microphone clipped to it. It picks up sound and causes my skull to vibrate. It is a $5000 operation with a $3000 device and insurance doesn't cover it. They had a trial device for me to strap onto my head and try for a weekend. It helped a little, but not $5000 better.

 

[Shimitup]

Unfortunately 4 years ago my right ear went completely deaf overnight. Perfect hearing when I went to bed one night, nothing the next morning.

That happened to me a couple of years ago in my left ear, I had just come in from work, talking to my family and my left ear faded out about to about 20% of normal in a period of about 15 seconds. Over the next month I recovered almost all of it as far as I can tell, I researched it and found as you did, it's not terribly rare. Sorry to hear that you haven't recovered a bit.

 

[Shimitup]

Playing bagpipes in small bars did more damage to my hearing than shooting has.

Some people will claim such regardless of amplitude. Dinna fash, personally I enjoy them.

 

[Texas10mm]

I shot NRA smallbore match in a basement for three years in the early '70's. I was hunting ducks and pheasant almost every evening from the time I was 12 till I was 15. Then I hunted both on the weekends. I started hunting deer at 12 too. Went into the Marines and was exposed to a TOW missile launch with no hearing protection. That will cause problems for sure. Got out of the Marines, my exit exam showed hearing loss from my entrance exam and I had/have tinnitus. Hunted upland birds and waterfowl for six more years, 2-3 times a week, along with deer and elk hunting. By 1980 my hearing was pretty well shot. The tinnitus is VERY loud most of the time.

The VA has fitted me with a few pair of hearing aids. I did have one pair that did a good job of masking the tinnitus. However I sweat so much that I kill hearing aids in 2-3 months in the winter and maybe a month in the summer.

I've learned to just live with it. Thankfully there is closed captioning on the idiot box. I haven't been to a movie in maybe 30 years.

 

[exbrit49]

Playing bagpipes in small bars did more damage to my hearing than shooting has. But I've always worn ear protection while shooting.

I too play bagpipes for performance and competition and didn't start wearing ear protection while playing until a few years ago. The entire band now wears ear plugs while we are performing, They are LOUD and there's no volume control.
Have a slight hearing loss and loud ringing in the right ear.I With the pipes and shooting style I would have thought it would be the left.
WEAR HEARING PROTECTION. You wont regret it!

 

[labnoti]

My tests over the last 20 years have consistently shown an asymmetric 4k notch similar to the graph Shimitup posted. It is almost certainly the result of a one-time event shooting six shots of .357 Magnum with no hearing protection. Yes, the right-handed stance increased the exposure and loss in the left ear, but what also amplified the exposure and loss was the acoustics of the environment. It might surprise you that it wasn't an indoor range. I was outside in the desert. I cannot recollect the details of the terrain, but after only six shots I was completely deaf until the next day. I had rarely shot firearms prior to that and if I had it was only a rimfire rifle (which can be very loud but is generally not very in the direction of the shooter). Since then I've been very conscientious about wearing hearing protection for motorcycling, lawn-mowing, the weed-eater, leaf-blower, even the vacuum cleaner. Also, I do not wear headphones or earbuds which are a common cause of cumulative loss.

I write this to emphasize the fact that you can suffer permanent hearing loss with very few shots, perhaps even one shot, without hearing protection and not just indoors.

 

[rpenmanparker]

I am a leftie. I was shooting my 12 gauge about three weeks ago by myself, and after about 10 rounds I realized I had forgotten my ear protection. I fixed that, but suffered some discomfort for a few hours. Since then when I am in a nosiy environment, my own voice crackles in my RIGHT ear like a blown tweeter. I know every assault on the ears causes some damage, but it is hard for me to believe 10 shotgun rounds are causing such an obvious problem.

 

[hdwhit]

I am a right-handed shooter. Predominately rifle. I have hearing loss from unprotected exposure to gunfire, but the hearing loss is more profound on my left side.

 

[Sovblocgunfan]

I am a leftie. I was shooting my 12 gauge about three weeks ago by myself, and after about 10 rounds I realized I had forgotten my ear protection. I fixed that, but suffered some discomfort for a few hours. Since then when I am in a nosiy environment, my own voice crackles in my RIGHT ear like a blown tweeter. I know every assault on the ears causes some damage, but it is hard for me to believe 10 shotgun rounds are causing such an obvious problem.

Believe it. I had perfect hearing until I shot my M44 without muffs. ONCE. That was 10 years ago and the ringing never stopped.

 

[ontarget]

Went to the 300 yard firing line for my rapid fire relay, and didn't realize I forgot my hearing protection until the targets came up. Too late. Dang those M16A2s are loud. My hearing hasn't been the same since.

 

[Waveski]

About a year ago I looked at a Luger in a shop owned by a friend. He offered to let me do a function check using the bullet trap in the basement. Old building , very small basement room , ceiling only about 6" above my head. The position of the bullet trap caused me to stand with my left side towards the "target". Upon discharging the first 9mm round I realized that I had not put on the head set.
My left ear used to be the better of the two. Not any more.

 

[buck460XVR]

I am a child of the fifties and was raised at a time when hearing protection was unheard of and loss of hearing was a not only a given, but accepted. I too shoot right handed with traditional stances. Hard for me to discern which ear has the most damage since not only did I go much of my life without protection when shooting, but also when using a chain saw, while working construction, while going to rock concerts as well as driving loud tractors and riding loud motorcycles. All of which I use hearing protection with nowadays. Still it's too late and ain't no going back without hearing aids. Nowadays I have a large package of foam earplugs in my jeep at all times. I have spare ear plugs in my motorcycle bags as well as my range bags. I also have extra muffs available at my personal shooting range, not only for me, but for anyone else that comes to shoot and forgets theirs. When bird hunting I use those noise dampening earplugs that let you hear normal sounds, but are supposed to suppress gunshots. Since during firearms season for deer I use handguns, I always wear a pair of Walkers Electronic muffs. Not only do they save my ears from further damage, with their noise amplification, they help compensate for the loss I already have. While when I was a kid, and hearing loss from firearms was kinda a Macho thing and wearing muff was for wussies, with today's technology and the availability of good affordable hearing protection, it just doesn't make sense to shoot a gun, anytime, anywhere, without some form of it.

 

[Bartojc]

Maybe this explains my hearing loss in my left ear. Just recently had a hearing test, and was told that right ear was fine, but left ear was noticeably worse. The doc did ask if I was a firearms enthusiast. Answer was yes, but always wear hearing protection. Not so much in my teens though. Maybe it is that catching up.

-Jeff

 

[Fine Figure of a Man]

Shooting long guns (left hand) without ear protection has contributed to hearing loss in my right ear. My occupation and a few severe ear infections haven't helped either. On the bright side, bagpipes aren't as annoying as they used to be

 

[Armored farmer]

I have been a shooting competitor and a pasture plinker since my early teens. I always wore hearing protection.
The time i spent shooting is negligible at most. My hearing loss came from endless hours of diesel motors, fender mount radios, shop equipment, grain driers, etc.
I wish i knew back then.......