Do you wear hearing protection while hunting?

[1Hunter]

Good, me too.

 

[Marylandhunter]

I am new to the forum but not new to shooting. At 46 my hearing is at best...bad. I blame it exclusively on way to much bird hunting with no thoughts to what might happen when I get older. I do not let my kids pull the trigger without proper ear protection on any gun.

 

[grizzlyvalley]

I see that this post went from (while hunting) i think and not always a user of hearing protection as a younger non beleiver that my ears would never suffer i went on ,last night there was that "f" ringing in my ears again. I can see that the one or two stores that sell ammo ,i will try to post a warning that shooting does lead to hearing lose and maybe some will get the message maybe some of the products sold would come with some foam protection i bought myself soundgear for my xmas present and i couldn't be happy'er ,well i could but not on this site,chainsaw 6 hrs per day/equit. Nosie all day,the wife, what a great product

what can i say

problem is forms don't get to the younger ones too get them started

 

[1Hunter]

Maryland Hunter and Grizzly Valley,

Us old guys usually wake up sooner or later to the fact, that no one hears
that loud whistle in your ears. The birds have all gone south and the crickets
don't chirp any more. Oh yes the bullfrogs aren't as loud as they once were.

There are a lot of hearing aids on the market, running from fifteen to over
five thousand dollars. The batteries in most of them won't last a full day in
in the field. Then there is The loud muzzle blast you need hearing suppressors
for. In the field I wore hearing aids and carried ear plugs. You can never remember
pocket you put them in, unless of course you put them on a string and put it
around your neck, of course that's along with a couple of cow calls and a buck
grunt call.

The new Electronic muffs seem to be catching on. They suppress the blast of the
firearm, while amplifying sounds you really need to hear. Like range commands
Bugling Bulls, chirping crickets and your wife.

My birthday is the end of this month, I have made a few suggestions for a birthday
present. Just maybe I will get a set of the new electronic muffs.

 

[1oldbowguy]

Always at the range but not so much hunting.

 

[1oldbowguy]

Always at the range but not so much hunting.

Always say what you mean that way people will always know you mean what you say.

 

[1Hunter]

Always say what you mean that way people will always know you mean what you say.

Well, unlike the politicians of today and those who must be politically correct, I
do say what I mean and mean what I say,

When I am bow hunting I don't need ear plugs. Being an old bow hunter, I am far
more concerned with being able to hear the critters and what ever noise I make.

I do go on an occasional rifle and shot gun hunt and spend some time at the
rifle range. In that venue I need to hear and still have sound suppression at the
same time.

Practice, Practice, Practice

 

[Bob the nailer]

WHAT....what ja say......someone answer that phone that I hear ringing!

 

[Trev08]

I used to worry that I had hearing loss. I rarely used hearing protection when I was in the Marine Corps, and I don't use it when I'm hunting or when I'm working with my power tools. My wife has complained about my hearing before and has told me that I need to have it checked. So I recently went ahead and did that. The results were way above normal. The technician said that I have "super hearing" which is just one step below "perfect hearing". She even wrote "super hearing" on the bottom of my test report. She said the problem that people with super hearing have is that they hear so much stuff that they have to block some of it out so that they can focus on the things they really need to focus on.

I showed the test report to my wife and explained to her what the technician had told me and I said "see, I'm not losing my hearing, my brain is just blocking you out so that it can focus on more important stuff."

 

[theo98]

She said the problem that people with super hearing have is that they hear so much stuff that they have to block some of it out so that they can focus on the things they really need to focus on.

I showed the test report to my wife and explained to her what the technician had told me and I said "see, I'm not losing my hearing, my brain is just blocking you out so that it can focus on more important stuff."

So Trev, how's the hearing after the skillet to the head action, hehe?

Great you still have you're "Super Hearing"! Hopefully you'll want to keep it for the future. Age related losses are against us all (non-controllable), but high sustainable noise (power tools, gas lawn tools, etc) and high impact energy (like guns) quickly accelerate normal hearing loss, but are environmentals that are Controllable. Protect the Hearing you have (good or bad), it is Up To You..huh!

 

[1Hunter]

Bob the nailer, Theo98 and trev08

So you think the telephone is ringing? That's why I use an answering machine.

Theo98, dangerous ground, don't stomp a hornets nest

Trev08, Good reply.

 

[lttckb]

I always wear ear protection with AR's with flash hiders and rifles with muzzle brakes.Traditional barrels not so much

 

[1Hunter]

Ittkb,

Good, that will help.

 

[Trev08]

This tread was originally started to promote hearing protection but what we should really be promoting is the deregulation of silencers. Hearing protection is a band-aid fix. Band-aid fixes aren't always reliable. They are meant to be used as short term solutions until the problem can be engineered away. We've known for over a hundred years how to engineer the harmful noise out of firearms but thanks to a bunch of misguided regulations silencers are either illegal, too expensive, or too unreasonably difficult to obtain for them to be practical for most hunters. So instead they attempt to rely on hearing protection that they either forget or refuse to use and their hearing suffers.

Silencers are safety devices that should be free for anyone to buy, sell, and manufacture; just like they are in New Zealand and Norway. But they kind of have an evil reputation in America. I guess because too many people have seen movie scenes where an assassin with a silencer quietly pops someone in the head and all you hear is a faint whisper. Those of us who have actually used silencers know that isn't how they work. They reduce the sound to safe levels but they still make plenty of noise. You couldn't fire a suppressed rifle inside an occupied building or out on a city street without anyone hearing it.

America used to be the land of the free. Today it seems to be more like the land of the over regulated. But there has been a trend in recent years to take our freedom back. If concealed carry, marijuana, and automatic knives can all be legalized then silencers can be deregulated.

PLEASE START A NEW THREAD ON SUPPRESSORS (SILENCERS)

Len Backus