Hearing protection poll

[Omaney]

Except when hunting, always. I wear hearing protection even when mowing the lawn. It is easy to do and really...can one be too protected when it comes to one of the five senses?

 

[Bruce333]

Always. I double up, plugs with electronic muffs when shooting. One or the other when doing other noisy things.

 

[The Annoyed Man]

Markbo, I'll try and remember to let you know. I just now placed the order for the Radians Enhanced Ear Plugs. I expect that it will take a few days to get here.

 

[Valkman]

100% of the time* - doubled up indoors and usually just muffs outside. In the 80's I once (very stupidly) shot a .357 with no protection and have not made that mistake again.

* - except when shooting with a supressor.

 

[Gunnerpalace]

I always use it even though I'm blowing my hearing out with music.

Soon they will want to ban Ipod's

 

[Amish_Bill]

I use protection even when shotting some of my suppressed weapons!

 

[Geo.Az]

God Gives us hearing.

It is up to Us to protect It. - My Bised View - Use The Best Ear Plugs & the Best Ear Muffs. ( second best, fomies, Etc - you only cheat your self. ) and be Observant of Others around you who do not. It could save some ones hearing.

A Gentle Reminder about the most Precious things In Life.

1. to see
2. to hear
3. to touch
4. to taste
5. to feel
6. to laugh
7. and to love

Protct these and you will have a good Life.

 

[Johnny B]

I think it's lunacy to neglect your hearing while shooting. You should always wear hearing protection while operating a firearm. That said, I shoot at an outdoor range and when it's just me and maybe one or two other people, I have been know to air out my ears when they get too hot, assuming, of course, a reasonable amount of distance between myself an the next person.

 

[JJE]

Double protection at the range no matter what I'm shooting, since I have no idea what the shooter next to me is going to light off.

All the hunting I've done has been with revolvers and pistol-caliber carbines, and I have never worn plugs for that, although the noise bothers me. I'm going to try turkey hunting this spring with a 12 gauge. Depending on how much that hurts, I may invest in some electronic muffs.

 

[bluestarlizzard]

always....
though a couple times at camp i would forget. i would be thinking, man the shots are kinda loud today and then look in my pocket and relize my plugs were in there and not in my ears. whoops!
my dad shoots a lot (i've never seen him out without muffs, but there was a time before i was born) and played in a punk rock band in the late 70's. he shouts all the time and has a hard time hearing stuff that i can hear easily. this is one thing were i'd rather not follow in his footsteps.

 

[arctictom]

Some times when shooting the really loud stuff I use ear plugs and muffs.

 

[Brian Dale]

I've known lots of old guys who were hard of hearing. I plan to get to be a really old guy. I protect my ears when I'm shooting, mowing the lawn, using power tools (including the Shop-Vac), even hammering nails.

 

[.38 Special]

With what we know about hearing damage in the shooting sports today why would anyone not use hearing protection?

Those of us in the hearing aid business refer to it as "job security", and we're not trying to be funny. My mortgage is paid by people who've been careless about protecting their hearing -- and Gunnerpalace should know that we expect iPods will be paying for the hot tub and the new roof!

 

[arflattop]

I guess my early love of music gave me the incentive to protect my ears. My friends have mocked me for using the foam inserts at concerts, etc. Always wear when mowing, in the tractor, in airplanes, etc. I used to just use the old passive type of in-the-ear noise reducer, but now just wear electronic muffs. Haven't been in an indoor range in a coons age, but I guess I'd probably double bag 'em. Point of story -- I'm 57 with no measurable hearing loss or ringing/buzzing. Dark Side of the Moon still sounds awesome...........

 

[CryingWolf]

I try to use hearing protection with most any activity involving loud sounds. I wear them when I ride on my scooter pictured below. I wear them at work when I have to drill Hilti floor anchors etc. I wear both muffs and plugs when I go to indoor ranges. Outdoor I may wear either / or.



I have had my ears ring from time to time in life but now I take an active roll to protect my hearing.

 

[Markbo]

The numbers are interesting as are the remarks. Surprisingly low % say they don't always considering the number of threads I have read hear where people clearly are not.

Remember folks... nobody can see how you vote!

 

[Fish828]

21 years old. plugs and muffs always for both outdoor and indoor.

 

[Bazooka Joe71]

Where is the "plugs and muffs for everyone always, except when hunting" option?

I'll vote when I find it.

 

[shadowalker]

I always wear hearing protection while shooting, I also wear it while mowing the lawn or using other loud devices and promote others doing the same.

used to double plug indoors but I have had to since I starting using Midway's blue ear muffs (31 db).

 

[TEDDY]

hearing protection

I started shooting before hearing protection and now I AM hard of hearing. my father my son and I were MG in service.suprising what a 50 will do later in life.I have the electric earmuffs amazing creatures.If you dont wear them you are a m***.: confused:: banghead:: please!

 

[jetman]

Not to preach to you guys, but as a kid I NEVER used hearing protection. I mainly shot .22LR out of an old Remington pump and have fired literally thousands of rounds out of it. I did shoot skeet about 5 or 6 times with a 12 ga. and hunted with a .410 shotgun, and hunted with adults all using 12 ga..... all with ZERO hearing protection. My dad used to take me hunting in the mountains of Colorado with high power rifles and I used to shoot my grandfathers and uncles .38 and .357 revolvers, all without protection. Today I have lost about 80% hearing out of my right ear and 40% out of my left ear. I too have permanent tininitus that never stops ringing. No one knew back then what damage we were doing to our hearing. If I had it all to do over I would wear protection ALWAYS. Contrary to popular belief .22 can still damage your hearing. It (even subsonic) has decibal spike high and sharp enough where repeated shooting will definitely damage your hearing. I ALWAYS double plug when shooting any time, indoors or out to preserve what little hearing I have left.

 

[Fly320s]

Always. I use plugs and electronic muffs so I can still converse, but the gunfire noise is attenuated.

Heck, I wear ear plugs at the movie theater. Today's movie volumes are way too loud. Great, now I sound like a grumpy old man.

 

[possum]

22years old, in trainning and quals i use ear pro, combat no.

 

[Jeffreii]

I screwed up once and got some ringing from it...learn the hard way. Actually I forgot the hearing protection, and decided to "make my own" - I had a collection of guns to shoot, and being dumb figured, "well, maybe the 22 will be quiet" and I will just use it. (The others were a 45 AUTO,30-'06, and a 45-70). Well, it was a 22-250, and my ears didn't like it at all. One shot, and that was it for me. I made some earplugs out of tissue paper - and it toned down the ambient sound pretty good - tried another 22 round, it was tolerable, not too loud at all. So I continued on that day, about 15 rounds of 30-'06 and maybe 5 or so more of the 22, and 5 or so of 45-70, and can't remember but not too many 45 autos (didn't like the trigger on it - some S&W I think with a realllly bad, super-stiff trigger). Anyhow, as usual things are quiet[er] when you have hearing protection on, and when you take them out/off you can hear good again. Well, I took my POS ones I made out, and everything remained quiet!! I couldn't hear much at all! It took THREE DAYS for me to start hearing normally again, had a ringing the whole time, and to this day. The ringing has substantially gone down over the years - used to be pretty bad - especially with a yawn or such - it would make a bunch of weird higher pitch vibratory sounds in the ear - from all the damaged nerve endings sending false signals and such I presume. I was dumb and was so obsessed with shooting, that I finally had an opportunity to shoot, and forgot the protection. (I rarely shot before that time yet wanted to all my life - but my parents are absolutely anti-gun) I decided to go try it, and I continued because when I put my self-made protection on, it made it quiet so I figured it would be okay. But it wasn't because when I took them off...everything remained quiet. As much as I like shooting, i am just going to have to side with I like hearing more. What would you rather do: Hear, or Shoot, or BOTH. I learned a lesson back then, and now I know better - BOTH is what I choose for now on.

 

[Guitargod1985]

I always use hearing protection now because I've lost a tad of my hearing in the right ear and a noticeable amount in the left. This is due to attending loud music venues, driving with the car window down, and shooting without hearing protection when I first got into the sport. After having a .30-06 go off right next to me, I decided it was time to wear hearing protection. I don't have tinitus (sp?) yet, but I still use both plugs and muffs simultaneously to protect what I have.