Reality check...I'm tone deaf.
- Thread starter WestKentucky
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HoosierQ
Member
I wore hearing protection last week when I was building a wooden fence. It was right up against a house and the hammer blows made my ears ring. So out came the muffs.
Sistema1927
Member
We rode in cars without seat belts, and in the beds of pickup trucks. Drank out of the garden hose. Stayed out until the street lights came on. Ate white bread. Carried guns and knives to school.
It is a wonder that any of us survived long enough to suffer hearing loss.
It is a wonder that any of us survived long enough to suffer hearing loss.
We have similar stories. I taught Industrial Arts and coached for 30 years; 1980-2010. Part of my coaching responsibility involved being able to drive a bus to athletic events and that required a yearly physical with a hearing test.
I too grew up using no hearing protection and in the early 90's was told that there were certain sounds I could no longer hear, mostly in the left ear. The one closest to the noise for a right handed shooter. I'd been shooting since the late 1960's, over 20 years with no hearing protection. The woods and metal shops can be loud too.
I never noticed any difference and the Dr's told me the sounds I could no longer hear were not normal sounds that anyone would encounter anyway. If I had been a music teacher then subtle differences in pitch etc. might be difficult to note. For me, it was a non factor.
I did however start wearing hearing protection in the 90's and by the time I retired in 2010 my hearing in the right ear was still 100%. The left ear was still unchanged at about 90% and the sounds I couldn't hear were sounds that were not common.
My dad died in 2013 at age 90. We was a WW-2 vet, worked in some noisy jobs and never, ever wore any ear protection. He did suffer some hearing loss that caused some minor issues, but it didn't become noticeable until he was well into his 80's.
I'm not saying, it's OK to not wear hearing protection. Just that the loss of certain tones isn't a huge deal for most people. Start wearing hearing protection now, and you can keep it from getting worse.
To add:
In 2012 I went completely deaf in my right ear, my good one. Dr's can't say exactly why, but shooting or noise was not a factor. I went to bed with perfect hearing in my "good" ear, and woke up with 0%. They tell me it is a rare situation with some theories, but no known cause. I did take steriods for a few weeks and some hearing returned. I'm currently about 90% in my left ear and 15-20% in the right.
This I notice. I still do everything I always did, but hearing is now difficult. Especially in noisy environments. I can no longer locate which direction sound is coming from. That has saved a few deer's lives. Makes hunting them more challenging. I now turkey hunt with a friend. I can hear them call, but need help figuring out which direction.
I too grew up using no hearing protection and in the early 90's was told that there were certain sounds I could no longer hear, mostly in the left ear. The one closest to the noise for a right handed shooter. I'd been shooting since the late 1960's, over 20 years with no hearing protection. The woods and metal shops can be loud too.
I never noticed any difference and the Dr's told me the sounds I could no longer hear were not normal sounds that anyone would encounter anyway. If I had been a music teacher then subtle differences in pitch etc. might be difficult to note. For me, it was a non factor.
I did however start wearing hearing protection in the 90's and by the time I retired in 2010 my hearing in the right ear was still 100%. The left ear was still unchanged at about 90% and the sounds I couldn't hear were sounds that were not common.
My dad died in 2013 at age 90. We was a WW-2 vet, worked in some noisy jobs and never, ever wore any ear protection. He did suffer some hearing loss that caused some minor issues, but it didn't become noticeable until he was well into his 80's.
I'm not saying, it's OK to not wear hearing protection. Just that the loss of certain tones isn't a huge deal for most people. Start wearing hearing protection now, and you can keep it from getting worse.
To add:
In 2012 I went completely deaf in my right ear, my good one. Dr's can't say exactly why, but shooting or noise was not a factor. I went to bed with perfect hearing in my "good" ear, and woke up with 0%. They tell me it is a rare situation with some theories, but no known cause. I did take steriods for a few weeks and some hearing returned. I'm currently about 90% in my left ear and 15-20% in the right.
This I notice. I still do everything I always did, but hearing is now difficult. Especially in noisy environments. I can no longer locate which direction sound is coming from. That has saved a few deer's lives. Makes hunting them more challenging. I now turkey hunt with a friend. I can hear them call, but need help figuring out which direction.
MachIVshooter
Member
That is not consistent with the studies I have seen. I'd be very curious about the source, given that there'd be little call for accurate testing of hearing in a non-industrial culture.
Hearing loss with age is not unique to humans. How many here have had their pet dogs and cats go deaf and blind?
Not to speak for him, but for many of us, it is things that have nothing to do with (lack of) hearing protection. I have about 60% average loss in my right ear, attributable to constant ear infections as a child that always affected that ear. Still enough left to have decent binaural hearing for acoustic locating most of the time, but if the intensity is low, I have to turn my head to gauge the vector, even if the noise is not in the cone of confusion. Of course, human acoustic location is relatively poor anyway, especially compared to animals with ears that swivel; cats can locate acoustically with accuracy of ~3°
. But we still have an edge over all the other animals, which cannot integrate the auditory and visual cues with cognitive ability to pinpoint noises in the absence of movement
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hemiram
Member
I went to dozens of drag races with Top Fuel and Funny Cars being run, and never wore any kind of ear protection. Somehow, my hearing survived pretty well, and at 60, I can still hear over 20K from my right ear. My left drops off at 16K. I suspect the difference is mostly due to this guy, in the middle, who was "Head, heart, and lungs" according to the vet, screaming in between my left ear and the window of my car for about 14 years:
I hear pretty well, but my right ear only works right if I "pop" it by holding my nose and blowing softly. It opens up the tube for about 5 minutes. Very annoying, but better than being deaf, I suppose.
I hear pretty well, but my right ear only works right if I "pop" it by holding my nose and blowing softly. It opens up the tube for about 5 minutes. Very annoying, but better than being deaf, I suppose.
huntsman
Member
I'm tone deaf have tinnitus and hearing loss yet I play music and hunt without ears. Where it really becomes an issue is when I'm indoors in a crowd, other than that I can function well enough to get by.
EmbarkChief
Member
You know your hearing is bad when your wife thinks you are joking about not being able to hear something.
That's what I live with now. I'm only 40. Like many here I grew up in a "protection optional" environment, and like many here I'm now paying the price. So with that in mind I'm trying to save what I have left. I wear hearing protection in concerts, doing yard work, vacuuming the house, in the dove field, in the deer stand even though it's only going to be one shot. Sometimes people look at me like I'm nuts, I don't care. I'm even considering getting rid of my Jeep, running down the road with a soft top is pretty loud and is certainly not helping things. Too many years around aircraft turbines, firearms, and windows down commuting. My ears are ringing as I type this. Don't be like me. :banghead:
That's what I live with now. I'm only 40. Like many here I grew up in a "protection optional" environment, and like many here I'm now paying the price. So with that in mind I'm trying to save what I have left. I wear hearing protection in concerts, doing yard work, vacuuming the house, in the dove field, in the deer stand even though it's only going to be one shot. Sometimes people look at me like I'm nuts, I don't care. I'm even considering getting rid of my Jeep, running down the road with a soft top is pretty loud and is certainly not helping things. Too many years around aircraft turbines, firearms, and windows down commuting. My ears are ringing as I type this. Don't be like me. :banghead:
Talking about what our parents let us get away with - still happens today. And the obstacles to that.
We still have to pay exorbitant rates for a firearms silencer, plus a Tax Stamp, yet in my locality there is zero - zip - zilch - nada enforcement for large motorcycles with NO muffler, regardless of law. "Loud pipes save lives" might be something to usurp as a motto, maybe? I'm going to start using that old chestnut when it pops up.
Rock bands and bars. The sound is so loud you can sit in the parking lot and name that tune. The bass affect of having your lung tissues resonate seems to be preferred.
Home theatre. Being 63 I've driven up to my own home with the TV on and can determine what program is on by the sound affects. Each has it's unique signature. How loud do you need your TV? Well, at one point I was wearing wireless headphones to listen to it, but no, that was selfish and she who must be obeyed decided they can't be worn anymore. In terms of sound volume it was a no win situation.
Now, at the workplace, I am in a new building and it's a concrete tube with polished floors and very little sound absorption, with the phone "alarm" turned up as high as it will go to force workers to answer it immediately regardless of who they are working with at the counter. I'd love to get a dB reading on that.
And then there's just the sound of passing traffic - since the ringer volume is so high nobody stays in the building for lunch - old or new - as the broadcast horn is directly over the lunchroom table pointing down at YOU. So we sit in our cars for a moment of quiet but in the summer, not happening. You are subject to diesels jake braking, motorcycles, hot rods, pickup trucks with loud/no mufflers, brotrucks with 44 tires which roar as they pass by.
We are presently NO better off than we were. It's not about how our parents so casually ignored our safety, it's about society's freedom to make noise and lots of it.
Do we outlaw fireworks in the Fourth, too? I got a lot of damage early on from that alone. We may "know better" but until the Noise Police start writing tickets it likely won't be any better.
We still have to pay exorbitant rates for a firearms silencer, plus a Tax Stamp, yet in my locality there is zero - zip - zilch - nada enforcement for large motorcycles with NO muffler, regardless of law. "Loud pipes save lives" might be something to usurp as a motto, maybe? I'm going to start using that old chestnut when it pops up.
Rock bands and bars. The sound is so loud you can sit in the parking lot and name that tune. The bass affect of having your lung tissues resonate seems to be preferred.
Home theatre. Being 63 I've driven up to my own home with the TV on and can determine what program is on by the sound affects. Each has it's unique signature. How loud do you need your TV? Well, at one point I was wearing wireless headphones to listen to it, but no, that was selfish and she who must be obeyed decided they can't be worn anymore. In terms of sound volume it was a no win situation.
Now, at the workplace, I am in a new building and it's a concrete tube with polished floors and very little sound absorption, with the phone "alarm" turned up as high as it will go to force workers to answer it immediately regardless of who they are working with at the counter. I'd love to get a dB reading on that.
And then there's just the sound of passing traffic - since the ringer volume is so high nobody stays in the building for lunch - old or new - as the broadcast horn is directly over the lunchroom table pointing down at YOU. So we sit in our cars for a moment of quiet but in the summer, not happening. You are subject to diesels jake braking, motorcycles, hot rods, pickup trucks with loud/no mufflers, brotrucks with 44 tires which roar as they pass by.
We are presently NO better off than we were. It's not about how our parents so casually ignored our safety, it's about society's freedom to make noise and lots of it.
Do we outlaw fireworks in the Fourth, too? I got a lot of damage early on from that alone. We may "know better" but until the Noise Police start writing tickets it likely won't be any better.
Yes
db_tanker
Member
I really don't think my tone-deafness is from shooting as I have always worn plugs. its from my work environment (oilfield trash).
it seems that if there are certain things going on in the background I can't hear a bloody thing...but if its quiet then I can hear a pin drop. it gets frustrating sometimes.
it seems that if there are certain things going on in the background I can't hear a bloody thing...but if its quiet then I can hear a pin drop. it gets frustrating sometimes.
MachIVshooter
Member
As mentioned before, "tone deaf" is really not what we're discussing here. It's a decreased sensitivity to certain frequency ranges.
Cochlear damage doesn't make one tone deaf, just deaf
tlynch
Member
I am going to guess right-handed rifle shooter. That would put left ear closest to the muzzle with the greatest differential between ears.
But it is a guess.
Tom
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WestKentucky
Member
That's a spot on guess. As a kid it was 22 rifles and 410 shotgun, then as a teen it was 30-30 and .270 with 20 ga shotgun. Later in my teenage years it became .270 in great amounts, 12 ga in great amounts, and the hottest 357s I could afford in extreme amounts. A normal weekly trip to my grandpas would consist of 3 boxes of .270 and 5 or more boxes of 357. All of my money went into reloading components, after chasing ladies of course...should have focused on reloading.
OP
OP
WestKentucky
Member
Also, my stance with revolvers puts left ear more in line with blast as well. I'm right handed, right eye dominant so I am squared up facing about 30 degrees to the right of target for handguns.
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