Loundness of rounds fired inside a house

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HEAVY METAL 1

HEAVY METAL 1

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As many of us have handguns in the home for self defense, can anyone report any lasting negative effects of discharging a round inside? Defensive/AD/LEO/whatever.

The hearing damage risk is small compared to the otherwise negative outcome of a home invasion when defenceless of course.
 
Firing even a .22 can have permenant negative effects on hearing outside. You can pretty much be sure firing a full caliber pistol much less a rifle round will absolutely damage your hearing and those around you. Now a low pressure 45 will be more forgiving then a .357 magnum but I would count on walking away with no damage.
 
It's gonna hurt and leave you momentarily dazed and quite possibly, permanently deaf -and if it is done in the dark, muzzle flash can leave you temporarily blinded -and therefore vulnerable
 
I know of at least one guy on THR who has had to fire a gun inside without hearing protection and reported no problems. I believe it was a .357 mag also. I'm sure he'll be by to share.
 
I've fired an unsuppressed round of 9mm without wearing ears on an indoor range and have noticed some hearing loss (was shooting suppressed guns then picked up an unsuppressed gun without putting my ears back on). The hearing loss is not debilitating, but it is annoying.

Most defensive calibers are in the 160dB range which is well above the 140dB level typically referred to as hearing safe. Personally I find pistols over the low 130dB's as uncomfortable. In a defensive shooting you MIGHT experience auditory exclusion in which you wont really notice the sound of the gun going off, but your ears are still subjected to the sound pressure whether you notice it or not.

This is not a question of if you will sustain hearing damage by firing an unsuppressed pistol indoors without ear pro - you will. It is a question of whether you notice the damage and whether or not you care. And it's ok to choose not to use ear pro, lots of people do. But realize what is going to happen and make your decision with all the information available.
 
This is not a question of if you will sustain hearing damage by firing an unsuppressed pistol indoors without ear pro - you will. It is a question of whether you notice the damage and whether or not you care.
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Correct, the damage occurs whether you notice or not and whether you care or not. Auditory exclusion is the brain ignoring the sound, not your ears blocking the sound pressure.
 
newfalguy101 said:
When under duress, you likely wont even hear the shot.

Shooting inside when relaxed is brutal on the ears
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Your ears don't know when you are under duress. Just because you don't notice, doesn't mean your ears are damaged. Luckily I didn't have to fire my weapon indoors in the sandbox. All my hearing loss is from range when my ears fell out.

How loud a round is while fired inside depends on many factors. Supressors, caliber, barrel length etc on the weapon itself. But also do you have hardwood floor, wall to wall carpet, or area rugs? So be sure to keep that in mind.
 
I had to fire a .41 magnum in the face of a 9mm firing at me, in a motel room in an "Oh, Crap" moment.

I've been listening to the Tinnitus crickets for 40 years since that little dust up.
 
That's my fear. Hearing loss would really suck, as it is my sharpest sense. Tinnitus on the other had could drive me to suicide.

Annoying persistent sounds are the quickest way to see me go from friendly and cheerful to raging maniac in only a few seconds.
 
The hearing damage risk is small compared to the otherwise negative outcome of a home invasion when defenceless of course.
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The words in bold make your sentence true. No one would claim to prefer death to deafness.

But I'm here -- with hearing aids in both ears -- to tell the world that loud noises will deafen you. In my day, the Army did not issue hearing protection in training (they started around 1970) and definitely not in combat.

I have a disability claim for loss of hearing. The form the VA sent me includes a question, "When did you first notice hearing loss?"

My answer was, "When I crawled out of the wreckage of my APC."
 
The very real possibility of hearing loss causes me to load my HD .357 Magnum with .38 Special ammo. It will still do some damage but not as much as setting off a full power .357 Magnum round. They are big boomers that act like a flash-bang when fires in a dark inclosed space like a bedroom at night.

That said, better to go through life with hearing loss than have a loved one raped or lose your life.
 
I've experienced a +P 9mm round fired indoors. It induced immediate physical pain. Not debilitating, but very uncomfortable. It began to subside shortly afterward but took most of a day to be entirely rid of it. Ringing lasted for maybe two days. Now, some years later, I notice no lasting effects. As I age, who knows, maybe it will resurface.


Related story... My first time to a NHRA drag race wasn't too long ago. A rain delay caused the top fuel cars to be the very first races of the day. As a first timer I didn't know what to expect and I wasn't eased into it by the normal way things are run by starting with relatively calmer engines and progressively going up from there. So like an idiot I was standing at the fence, no ear protection, hands at my sides, when the first two 8000hp cars roared form zero to three hundred three seconds. Again, immediate physical pain. I probably had time to stick my fingers in my ears, but didn't/couldn't, as I was in a state of shock induced by what I had just witnessed. I don't recall any ringing, but my ears hurt for most of the day again.
 
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The very real possibility of hearing loss causes me to load my HD .357 Magnum with .38 Special ammo
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Same here and for a lot of folks. The 686+ in the end table next to my arm charge is loaded with Speer 135 gr short barrel loads with a Five Star Speed loader sitting next to it with a reload waiting, and the HK45 next to my bed is loaded with standard pressure Speer 230 gr gold dots.

Both will screw up my ears plenty, but maybe a little less than the .357 or or .45 +p loads in my ammo crate.

I don't really know if there is a difference in noise level between .45's and +p ammo, but the +p's seem a bit louder on the range.
 
Better still to get a pair of electronic ear muffs that magnify ordinary sound, but block dangerous sounds and keep them next to your gun.

If you have an intruder, you can hear better than him AND have no worries about hearing loss later.
 
vern humphrey said:
Better still to get a pair of electronic ear muffs that magnify ordinary sound, but block dangerous sounds and keep them next to your gun.

If you have an intruder, you can hear better than him AND have no worries about hearing loss later.
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Seems like my electronic muffs have a dead battery about every other time I put them on.

No way I would even think about using them with an intruder in the house. I would be very carefully listening with my dead battery while he was standing behind me laughing.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by newfalguy101
When under duress, you likely wont even hear the shot.

Shooting inside when relaxed is brutal on the ears


herrwalther said:
Your ears don't know when you are under duress. Just because you don't notice, doesn't mean your ears are damaged.
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It wasn't my intention to suggest anything else.
 
I can say that if you are sitting in a friends room looking at his new duck gun and he blasts his desk with a 12 gauge load of number 6 shot, yours ears will ring, a lot ........
 
I would say that it all depends on the caliber. I discharged a 380 (3” bbl) in my 10’ x 12’ office. It didn’t seem as loud as popping a paper bag. Just my experience.
 
There are 2 factors in how damaging to hearing a loud noise is and that is the level of the noise usually expressed as decibels and the amount of time exposed to the noise. Hopefully if you have to fire a gun in self defense in your house the event will be over with quickly, usually in a few seconds with a few shots fired, and such exposure while it may do some damage to your hearing, its unlikely that it would be more than going to a concert or operating a power mower without hearing protection for an hour. A gunshot from a handgun will make your ears ring for a while but after some time you will not have any problems hearing at a level that will at least seem normal. Of course a lot depends upon distance from the muzzle, any intervening structure or objects that may enhance the sound by deflection or reduce the sound by absorption or interference and if there's physical damage like a busted ear drum. A high powered rifle is a lot louder than a handgun, a .44 mag or .50 S&W is a lot louder than a 9mm or .38 spl.

As a kid I was exposed to a rifle (30-30) being fired in a barn that I wasn't expecting and it was like I didn't hear the shot. My hearing suddenly reduced and my ears started ringing. My hearing remained reduced and the ringing continued for the next half hour before my hearing started to return to normal.
 
I can vouch for a 9mm 4" service model with 147 +P+ rounds inside a house, and it wasn't bad at all. Didn't even daze me.
 
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