Shot my AR with no ear protection today...

Shooting at the range without hearing protection is plain foolish and is not worth the long term damage. Ask me how I know.

There is no comparison between firing at the range without hearing protection and firing under stress and adrenaline.

Most people involved in shootings never heard the shots. Adrenaline takes over.

When I shoot a deer with my 300 Win Mag I barely hear it. If I were to shoot it at the range without ear protection I would be in the fetal position crying for my mommy.
 
glide said:
...not to be an idiot, but just to see what I should expect should a situation ever arise where I didn't have my ear protection available. Boy was I in for a surprise. I shot about 5 rounds, accuracy @ 100 yards was non-existent after the first shot. It took about 15-20 mins to get the ringing out. Lesson learned.
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No offense but that isn't the greatest idea. You could easily have permanently damaged your hearing. You won't notice it but you probably lost some high pitch hearing ability already.
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gadsden
As far as a home defense situation, I would suggest having some electronic hearing protection with fresh batteries handy. Not only are quiet sounds amplified (giving you an advantage of better situational awareness), but if loud sounds start happening you have less disorientation. Obviously, if it is a moment's notice situation, you may not have time to mess with them, but if you do have the extra few seconds they would certainly come in handy.


Dench said:
is this a serious post?

dont wear hearing protection when your trying to defend your home. why would you ever put your life in risk in order to protect your hearing?

you dont need your hearing when your in hell.
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Note that he said electronic hearing protection which amplifies normal or quiet sounds. At LFI1, Ayoob recommended this and it makes sense to me provided you have the time to turn them on and put them on. I have my ProEars on the nightstand and regularly check them to ensure they are working properly.
 
is this a serious post?

dont wear hearing protection when your trying to defend your home. why would you ever put your life in risk in order to protect your hearing?

you dont need your hearing when your in hell.
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I'm guessing that was a serious post. I know of at least one expert that advocates this. I keep a pair of electronic noise compressing ear muffs with my home defense firearm. They amplify low sounds LIKE THE FOOTSTEPS OF AN INTRUDER and compress loud sounds like GUN SHOTS IN A TINY ROOM to 85db.
Active hearing protection is not a disadvantage for home defense, in fact it is a tactical advantage for you.
.02
 
SineMetu82 said:
I'm guessing that was a serious post. I know of at least one expert that advocates this. I keep a pair of electronic noise compressing ear muffs with my home defense firearm. They amplify low sounds LIKE THE FOOTSTEPS OF AN INTRUDER and compress loud sounds like GUN SHOTS IN A TINY ROOM to 85db.
Active hearing protection is not a disadvantage for home defense, in fact it is a tactical advantage for you.
.02
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right! [rofl]
 
SineMetu82 said:
I'm guessing that was a serious post. I know of at least one expert that advocates this. I keep a pair of electronic noise compressing ear muffs with my home defense firearm. They amplify low sounds LIKE THE FOOTSTEPS OF AN INTRUDER and compress loud sounds like GUN SHOTS IN A TINY ROOM to 85db.
Active hearing protection is not a disadvantage for home defense, in fact it is a tactical advantage for you.
.02
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+1 and for you nonbelievers, put the gun away for a second and have you wife/gf/significant other tip toe around the house while you have the e-muffs on. See what you hear!
 
massgun said:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gadsden
As far as a home defense situation, I would suggest having some electronic hearing protection with fresh batteries handy. Not only are quiet sounds amplified (giving you an advantage of better situational awareness), but if loud sounds start happening you have less disorientation. Obviously, if it is a moment's notice situation, you may not have time to mess with them, but if you do have the extra few seconds they would certainly come in handy.


Note that he said electronic hearing protection which amplifies normal or quiet sounds. At LFI1, Ayoob recommended this and it makes sense to me provided you have the time to turn them on and put them on. I have my ProEars on the nightstand and regularly check them to ensure they are working properly.
Click to expand...

That is interesting, I need to get myself a pair of those but have never used them.
 
loudnclear1.jpg


wait! someone is in my house!? let me get my loud n' clear on! [rofl]
 
I've been in a barn and a metal shipping container while letting off some 12ga shotgun rounds out of a 18" barrel. It's not awful. The plywood in the barn soaked up most of the sound. The metal container was interesting but not painful. I've been in more pain when I'm shooting my Mosquito off of the hood of my car. The percussion bounces off of the windshield and right into my ear. Needless to say I changed my shooting bench very quickly. (I have quite a bit of land that I can drive onto and make my own little range.)
 
You laugh but it is recommended by trained experts... hmmm

Another good plus to using them would be if you do have to fire shots in your home, you won't be deafened and can still hear for additional intruders or the first one if they ducked into another room or something. Once your ears are ringing you are only relying on eyesight alone.
 
TomH said:
Another good plus to using them would be if you do have to fire shots in your home, you won't be deafened and can still hear for additional intruders or the first one if they ducked into another room or something. Once your ears are ringing you are only relying on eyesight alone.
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your not going to be able to stop the royal marines in your house when you have a pistol and your electronic hearing muffs on.

maybe if you break out the CCW badge they wont burn your house down on the spot.

TomH said:
You laugh but it is recommended by trained experts... hmmm
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funny you say that.
i had a training expert tell me that its illegal to use preban mags in a post ban weapon.
 
Last edited:
I think the hearing protection advice in this thread is valid, but its really not a normal chain of events to grab a side/longarm and call the morgue 10 minutes later in the first place. Adding an extra step to that is miffy at best. Chances are while experiencing a HD repulsion the last thing on your mind is going to be hearing protection. Its probably going to be getting the family to safety and snagging extra mags or ammo.

So perhaps the real thing here is to train, train, train....but expect that training like fine motor skills to possibly go out the window as the bad guys are coming in the window.
 
Dench said:
your not going to be able to stop the royal marines in your house when you have a pistol and your electronic hearing muffs on.

maybe if you break out the CCW badge they wont burn your house down on the spot.
Click to expand...

Ok? Since all you've got is sarcasm I'll be ignoring from this point on.
 
These hearing thingamajigs make sense. If you have ever put on the large ear protection head gear you will notice that you can hear people fine but it protects the ear from that high frequency blast. Same deal works if you throw a round in each of your ears. You just need to protect your eardrums from direct contact with the sound wave. It all makes sense but as far as getting all of this stuff ready in the heat of battle. Good luck with that one. I'd say be lucky if you remember where your safety is when you're blood is pumping and you're trying to figure out who the hell is in your house and which way is up.
 
clinotus said:
I think the hearing protection advice in this thread is valid, but its really not a normal chain of events to grab a side/longarm and call the morgue 10 minutes later in the first place. Adding an extra step to that is miffy at best.
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If you have time to put on hearing protection, most likely a court would find it not to be a self defense issue. Might as well have called the police....
 
Ive used the electronic hearing protection indoors it is great especially when things go kinetic. But I was the one doing the breaking in[wink]. Dench is spot on, if your priority is hearing conservation, conservation of life really isnt your priority as someone already has the drop on you. As far as the "Can actually shut down your ability to function" comment a unnamed person said out of respect for Derek. Thats total BS. You may temporarily lose your hearing, may. But due to the body reactions one will experience, it wont slow you down. Unless their blowing mass qualities of demo while breaching your home :)
 
Half Cocked said:
There is no comparison between firing at the range without hearing protection and firing under stress and adrenaline.

Most people involved in shootings never heard the shots. Adrenaline takes over.

When I shoot a deer with my 300 Win Mag I barely hear it. If I were to shoot it at the range without ear protection I would be in the fetal position crying for my mommy.
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What he said. I hunted for years and fired many shots without hearing protection. I don't remember it bothering me.
 
dagwag77 said:
So wait - what do our troops do? I must assume they use ear plugs or something or all our troops would be deaf?
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When I was in Iraq they gave us hearing protection but no one I was with would use it. It was too damn difficult to hear what people were saying, be aware of surrounding sounds, and could have meant the difference between life and death. I have tinitus (constant ringing in the ears) and bad hearing loss in my right ear. I can't even talk on a phone with my right ear, when I try the conversations goes like this....huh?.....what?...huh?

All in all I'm glad I'm alive and would trade all of my hearing to be alive. Now being blind that would be a different story.
 
There's a world of difference between shooting anything under the hard canopy of an established range and shooting "out in the open". Under a canopy like most good ranges have, the sound is trapped and reverberates all around you, bouncing off the walls and ceiling. In one case, I was shooting at a special rifle range at S&W and we were in essentially a concrete tube with five open shooting positions. We ended up having to "double muff" (plugs and muffs) because all the sound was directed back at us in that confined area. In the open, however, things are quite different.

I wouldn't recommend doing this as a regular practice, but you might try it some time. When you're alone at your range, step out of the covered area and walk far enough away from it so that it won't trap the sound. Try shooting one round without muffs in the open and you'll be surprised as to just how much less impact the sound makes.

Case in point, at Camp Perry, where there are over 150 guys on the line during the M1 Garand match, I was standing right on the line behind my buddy preparing for my match. During the "rapid fire" sessions (10 rounds in 60 seconds) I decided that I had to hear what it was like to be on a battle field with all those rifles going off. I carefully removed my plugs and experienced the sounds of a battle where all 150 rifles were firing all at once in rapid succession. I was SHOCKED to hear how dispersed the sound was! And, I was NOT experiencing any adrenaline rush, either. It was NOT the awful cacophony that you'd expect at all. Instead it was a stream of steady, powerful reports not unlike a good fireworks show. Now, would I do it again? No. I'm sure that the range officer (very serious fellow there) would scold me but it was quite the experience.

Now, I'll also tell you that I had this discussion with some vets there and found out that the #1 Veteran health issue in this country is.......loss of hearing. So, continued shooting without ear protection...especially with fellas close on both sides of you, will most certainly harm your hearing. It's just very different in the field than under a hard canopy.

I'll ALWAYS remember what that meet sounded like. It was like nothing else.

Rome
 
holyroler said:
has anyone shot a 12g, my personal choice for hd, without plugs in. Did you cry for mommy?
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I bird hunt at least 30 days a year usually in a blind with 4 other guys and i never wear ear protection and have never had ringing after a day of hunting and we are all shooting 3 in or 3.5 inch mag loads and firing off a minimum of 30 shots a day. I get my hearing checked yearly at work and to this day still have great hearing.

Now shooting inside a house, not sure how loud that would be but like someone said adrenaline takes over.
 
So wait - what do our troops do? I must assume they use ear plugs or something or all our troops would be deaf?
Click to expand...

When you are at the range you have plugs.

When out in the 'field' - none. (at least that's how it was back in the day).

I still hear a constant and getting louder 'eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee' in both ears and have significant hearing loss.
 
Cabinetman said:
There's a world of difference between shooting anything under the hard canopy of an established range and shooting "out in the open". Under a canopy like most good ranges have, the sound is trapped and reverberates all around you, bouncing off the walls and ceiling...... In the open, however, things are quite different.

I wouldn't recommend doing this as a regular practice, but you might try it some time. When you're alone at your range, step out of the covered area and walk far enough away from it so that it won't trap the sound. Try shooting one round without muffs in the open and you'll be surprised as to just how much less impact the sound makes.

Rome
Click to expand...

I tried that once many years ago. Less impact but my ears still were ringing 1/2 hour later. First and last time I tried that!
 

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