Hearing loss and issues from firearms?

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Trey Veston

Trey Veston

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Another thread got sidetracked pretty badly from those of us who suffer hearing issues and thought I'd just start a new thread for those who suffer to share their thoughts and experiences.

Might be a helpful forum for those that are young and dumb like we were to motivate them to protect and cherish their hearing.

I have a 15% hearing loss in my left ear and constant tinnitus in both ears. Constant ringing. I have to sleep with a fan on or some other noise generator.

I'm only 51.

I served in the US military in the Navy and the Army and was around a lot of loud noises. The VA pays me monthly for my hearing issues. But I also shot quite a bit in my younger days with inadequate or non-existent hearing protection. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb!

My girlfriend makes fun of the fact that I have to have the TV on so loud in order to understand what people are saying. Only certain tones are drowned out. I can go hunting or hiking and hear everything, like a deer moving a branch, but for some reason, conversation tones are lost and I have trouble understanding what people are saying.

What are your stories and words of wisdom for the youngsters on here?
 
Everyone suffers some hearing loss as they get older, but frequent shooters will typically suffer accelerated loss. I have some minor tinnitus but it doesn't bother me. Mine is honestly more from motorcycle riding than shooting. Not the engine noise but the wind noise at highway speeds is a constant, deafeningly loud noise inside even a full face helmet.

Advice to youngsters is to always wear hearing protection when engaged in loud activities. Be it shooting, motorcycles, power tools, even mowing your lawn. Download a decibel meter app on your phone, and check how loud your activity is. If it's over 100 dB, wear hearing protection!
 
Wear double hearing protection, I suffer from hearing loss and all the other stuff that goes with it.

I've been using double protection, muffs and plugs for a long time. Most shooters would benefit from doing the same. The muffs I use are electronic and help me hear while the plugs are in.

Owning a .50 BMG also will convince you to wear doubled up hearing protection. The massive over pressure is more than your ears can take, that and the noise.
 
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I still got my hearing but only because when i was young, and even still, I always wore hearing protection.

concerts and night clubs and bars with live bands I had ear plugs in. playing guitar in garage bands, wore my ear plugs. mowing ear plugs. sports arenas, ear plugs in. of course shooting, ear plugs and headset as well. doubled up. people teased me all my life about it and they cant hear squat now. now they only say we should have wore ear plugs like you did. I dont regret it at all. protecting your ears and eyes, shooting glasses, as well is one of the smartest things you can do.
 
My hearing loss is service connected, what is more of an issue is my exposure to Agent Orange. The VA compensation simply isn't enough to cover the aspects of both hearing loss and Agent Orange of the two Agent Orange will lead to my demise.
 
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A mobile lab at my workplace 20 years ago showed about a 10-12% loss in the middle tonal ranges (3K-8K), but I've had tinnitus for about 30 years. It is sometimes worse than other times but usually sound like a high-pitched whine. There are times when my sinuses are acting up that seems to make it worse. Most of my loss stems from being around machinery that, because of the hydraulics, had a constant whine. It wasn't particularly loud but it was constant.
 
I sell hearing aids for a living. I see folks who have damaged their hearing with gunfire, but I'd say the majority of noise-induced hearing loss* stems from machinery, followed closely by concerts. My own tinnitus and hearing loss started with motor racing and associated machinery. I always have been good about hearing protection at the range, but it is so easy to run the grinder (or whatever) without protection because "It's just for a minute" and "I don't know where I left my earmuffs".

I keep a half-dozen cheap muffs laying around the shop so that I don't have that excuse any more. As for the rest, well, I don't know any way to force young men to start behaving more like old men. That story is probably as old as mankind itself.

*This is a purely subjective observation, based only on my personal experience.
 
My hearing loss is from shooting without ear protection and from running circular saws in carpentry. Have severe tinnitus and hearing loss.

Being young and dumb I felt hearing protection wasn't needed. Boy was I wrong.

I remember when I purchased my first handgun ..a Ruger 357 Security Six. Took it to the cop shop for a safety inspection then immediately to the range. With no ear protection, I loaded it with a full cylinder of .357 ammo. While sitting at a picnic table I took my first shot. The concussion from that immediately sealed off my right ear. I figured it was because I was shooting over the table. I moved to the other side and finished of the box of ammo. Just plain ole young and dumb.

I'm paying for it dearly now as I can't participate in most conversation with family. I'm thankful my grandchildren recognize my poor hearing and walk up a speak directly into my ear.
 
I've had tinnitus for most of my life thanks to frequent ear infections as a child, but last year I was on the rifle range, which isn't something I do that often because I hate wearing muffs while shooting a rifle. So I had plugs in and that was fine until someone starting shooting .308 with a muzzle break next to me. Guess I should have left or gotten my muffs, but I didn't. Ended up getting a real bad ear infection afterwards from shoving the plug in so deep.

Things have improved a lot since, I don't have issues with volume being too low, but when I listen to music or movies I can only hear/feel bass in one ear and now whenever there's a loud noise that normally would have caused me pain I only feel it in one ear now, the other ear doesn't feel it.
 
I've had a degree of tinnitus as long as I can remember. I worked in high noise industrial environments from 1986 onward. I didn't do much toward hearing conservation until the mid-1990's. It saved my hearing really well. I was treated with chemotherapy in 2016-2017 that gave my tinnitus a definite increase. It was a known risk before proceeding. I'd make the same choice again.
 
I never wore hearing protection until I was in my 30's. I was required to get a yearly physical as part of my job that included a hearing test. I was informed that my left ear, (the one closest to the sound), had about 10-15% hearing loss. My right ear was perfect. But the tones I could not hear were not normally encountered. It never bothered me. If there was any loss of hearing I couldn't tell it. But that is when I started wearing hearing protection.

Eight years ago I woke up one morning with 100% hearing loss in my right ear (the good one). Went to bed with perfect hearing and woke up deaf in one ear. Doc's still can't say for sure why, but it isn't noise related. The primary cause when that happens is a brain tumor, but a MRI showed no tumor. The leading theory in cases like mine is that a tiny blood vessel in my inner ear either became clogged or burst stopping blood flow to the auditory nerve. I was given steroids in the hope that it would regenerate new blood vessel growth.

It did help a little. I can now hear sounds with my right ear, but it is pretty garbled. I can hear surprisingly well in a quiet environment. Other than having a hard time figuring which direction sounds are coming from it doesn't hurt my hunting much. That has actually gotten better, I've had to relearn things like that.

Turning up the volume on a TV only makes it worse. My right ear hears the garbled sound which mixes with the good sound I hear in my left ear. I find it helps to wear an ear plug in my right ear and just leave the volume normal. I did buy set of Bluetooth headphones to wear when watching TV. I no longer deal with other sounds in the room mixing with the TV. It REALLY makes a HUGE difference for me.
 
I have some hearing loss due to my younger days. I didn’t use hearing protection the first couple of years of shooting when I was in my early twenties. I’m not sure if that did more damage or the heavy metal and punk rock concerts of my teens mixed with drag racing events during about the same time period. I notice slight tinnitus in both ears and my wife very obviously hears better than I do but I haven’t had it checked out yet since it’s not bad enough to interfere with everyday life.
 
Close to mid 50's I have noticeable hearing loss in my left ear and slight tinnitus in both. The tinnitus doesn't seem to bother me, but I do need people to be looking at me when they talk for me to understand clearly. Group conversations or watching tv while a conversation is going on in the room forget it.
My doctor says damage in the left ear is indicative of a right handed shooter and he says it is common. He also says it is common for someone my age to have the diagnosed loss that I have. Who knows for sure ? I shot a little in my younger years, all without hearing protection. I honestly think it was more the loud cars, tractors with straight pipes for hours, and general farm machinery in my teens that probably was the worst. When I started shooting more in the past 10 years I always used hearing protection. These days I never operate machinery without at least plugs. Just trying to protect what is left.

-Jeff
 
I did 23 years in the military, and was constantly exposed to a lot of noise- yes, we used hearing protection at the range, but often worked in and around aircraft where we didn't think it was "that bad". Even vehicles like deuce-and-a-halfs and humvees were loud, and we should have been using ear pro in them. Also, the reality is, in combat you don't always know when something is about to jump off, like mortar attacks, suicide bombers, and so on. The enemy can be very inconsiderate; they never warn you that they are "going hot", or give the courtesy "eyes and ears" before they do so. Once I was sleeping next to a humvee when the enemy started to try and move into positions to attack us. The gunner on the 50 cal (directly above me) detected the movement on night vision and instantly engaged them. Obviously, that is a bad way to wake up and did my hearing no favors. I always wore Peltor com-tacs on raids, but I think things like breaching charges, grenades, and so on, still had residual effects. I have had constant tinnitus ever since I had a RPG detonate 3 feet away from me, and yes I was wearing peltors, helmet, plates, etc., but a RPG is designed to take out a vehicle, so while our gear did help some, it was by no means a 100% solution. Needles to say, now I have major hearing loss, accumulated from all of these types of incidents. The TV is always too loud to Mrs Fl-NC, and she always needs to repeat herself. I can't talk on the phone unless I get away from all background noise, and I usually need to put it on the speaker mode. The funny thing is that when I am around other people with the same background as me, we hear and understand each other just fine. I guess to other people we are yelling at each other. Now, I wear ear pro when I do things like mow the lawn or use my pressure washer in order to protect what hearing I still have.
 
"heh? Whuh? You have to look at me when you're talking so I can read your lips!"

Most of the old timers I used to run with are deaf as a post.

Most of that is probably from heavy machinery but I'm sure shooting and hunting all had a hand in it.

I don't shoot without ear and eye pro. Most of the time I double up with plugs and muffs.

If we aren't learning from our old deaf grandfathers, what are we doing?
 
A couple of belly to belly serious social encounters over 50 years ago gave me tinnitus. Hearing aids in the day time.I sleep with the TV on to dull it at night.
 
Waveski said:
The WHO in San Diego , 1972 ... more damage than any shooting I've done.
Click to expand...
When people ask how I came to be hard of hearing I tell them from shooting without hearing protection and The Who. And I’ve only heard them on recordings.
Remember the ads back in the sixties and seventies for a particular amp and speakers?
Ever felt the sound of the .....
 
I just got hearing aides at the end of last year. Its pretty amazing how you dont notice losing your hearing, until someone shows you what youre missing.

Ive been shooting my whole life and exposed to loud work environments, loud heavy equipment, etc, most all of my adult life. Tinnitus in both ears, everything sounded "dull", and "what" got to be the second most used word in my vocabulary. My wife finally figured out that I had to be looking at her to understand she was even talking at me.

When they did the hearing test for the hearing aides, it showed Id lost over half of my hearing in both ears. When I first started wearing them, it was like sensory overload and freaking me out, because I was hearing things I hadnt heard in years and didnt know what it was. All of a sudden, my wife and others were yelling at me when we talked, and the TV went from around "50-60", down to "10". I can actually hear the birds and bugs outside now. If I take them off, the world instantly goes away.

On the funny side, when I first got my them, I actually took my car over to my shop asking what that noise was as it sounded really bad. The boy just looked at me and laughed, said it was normal for Chevy's to sound like that. From the sound of it, I thought I wasnt going to make it over there. Now Im wondering what "bad" really sounds like. :)

Ive worn hearing protection every time I shoot since I was in my teens and it became available, and kept changing up as it got better. If I dont now, one round out of a 22 handgun and Im literally deaf for a couple of days. Something like an AR, and it would be even longer.

I should have worn plugs at work more often, but that wasnt/isnt always possible. Should have paid more attention to it. Using my IPod like earplugs and cranking it up to kill the noise of the rusted out stack behind my head wasnt real brilliant either, but 10-12 hours on a noisy machine is boring enough and tends to get to you. It wasnt just "The Who" either. :D

Like I said, by the time you notice its gone, its too late. Best be paying attention now, especially if youre younger.
 
Yup. Hearing loss and tinnitus. My tea kettles run all the time and some days are worse than others.
I think it was Moody Blues, and then shooting without ear pro. So Dumb.

Old saying: Too soon old - too late smart.
 
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Permanent hearing loss (asymmetric) and tinnitus in both ears.

I had pretty good hearing, and my ears always recovered, but the one time I shot an M44 without ear protection, the ringing never went away.

makes it hard to sleep some nights, and I now have major issues hearing conversations in crowded places like restaurants. It makes me not want to go out to dinner with friends because I simply can’t hear what they are saying. Frustrating.
 
I’m 35 and as a kid I was an idiot. I shot a lot of .270, 9mm, and 357 without ear protection, not to mention the 22s and shotguns. Loss is much more notable in my left ear to a point where I sit far left at the dinner table so that everyone is on my right and I can hear them. I still do a lot of reading lips. I also had the loud stereo in the vehicles, and have had numerous concussions from various activities gone wrong... wrecks, sports, etc. I have done a lot that can mess up a mans hearing, and I can’t hear much out of my left ear now. I protect what’s left pretty well, but there is no replacement once it’s gone. I was young and dumb. My girls wear hearing protection for everything bigger than a BB gun.
 
I get the monkey points from the VA for tinnitus. I don't have enough hearing loss to get points for that. My mid tones have anywhere between a 35% to 80% loss.

There was some talk a while back they were going to change the way the VA rated hearing loss. I think that went by the wayside. You have to be almost deaf to get compensation for hearing loss.

I run the closed captions on the idiot box. I haven't been to the movies in almost 30 years. I can't hear them enough to follow the plot. Female voices are the worst for me. Followed by anyone with an accent. Background noise makes it worse.

I have a really nice set of hearing aids from the VA. They help...but of course they aren't perfect.

I started shooting NRA JR indoor match when I was 10. Range was in a basement. No one wore hearing protection. That was the start.

In the Corps there was the 106 fire, the Dragons and the TOW. Even with plugs those three will cause hearing loss.

After the Corps there was the hunting, I didn't wear hearing protection while hunting.

It all adds up. Also some meds can cause hearing problems. I been on one of them almost continually since 1980.
 
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