I don't wear earplugs with this am i alright

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you'll be fine without muffs until you're 30. Then, you'll regret every day you went to the range without muffs or plugs. I'm only 19, and I sometimes swear that I'm going deaf despite doctors saying that my hearing is perfectly fine because of all the electro-industrial and power rock/metal I get blasted into my head from either concerts, clubs, or my iPod, and then all of the countless times I've been hit in the ears and head from scholastic wrestling. Imagine how much worse it'd be if I shot without muffs. I'd be deaf in another 15 years if not sooner. At the rate I'm going, I'll probably be alright until I retire from work if luck permits.

bottom line: you're young, with lots of very loud things nowadays in your life that will damage your hearing one way or another. Don't add onto it with gunfire.
 
To prevent hearing damage which is both cumulative and permanent, YOU
MUST WEARING HEARING PROTECTION FOR EACH SHOT FIRED

Sorry, I still can't believe there are folks saying it is okay to shoot a .22 without hearing protection, or any other caliber.

The only exception can be the use of silencers/suppressors which few people have. Either way works, reducing the sound pressure reaching the ears.

When your ears "toughen up" as some people claim, it is just the hearing damage that has reached a noticeable level.
 
I've tried it just to see what it was like and it made my ears ring. Ears ringing means your hearing is gonna get damaged if you keep doing it. Don't. At 13 it may seem like being old and deaf is 1000 years away, but it will be the situation one day if you shoot without ear protection.
 
another thing to note is that noticable strain and pain begins at 125dB. So if you shoot a .22 and wince a bit, or feel a slight momentary ring in your ears, then that is your ear quietly getting punched in the face :p
 
My hearing is shot from high db noise at work. Up till a few years ago it was "you want earmuffs wadda ya some kind of wimp?" Now we give out earplugs like halloween candy. I won't shoot indoors or outdoors without a set of earmuffs or plugs even shooting 22 rf. Hell I won't even run my lawn mower or snow blower without hearing protection. Take it from us old timer protect your ears and eyes
original equipment only once broken no replacement
 
I was 13 when i played with one too many firecrackers on a 4th of July. I'm 52 now and have had ringing in my ears for as long as can remember. It doesn't hurt, but it's awful. You don't want to lose your hearing; not even a little bit. Hearing protection is cheap, simple, and effective. Use it.
 
I don't understand people who don't want to use ear protection.

Never mind the long term damage, anything past a .22 rifle is outright painful to my ears and I'll be flinching too badly to hit anything by the end of the magazine.

Couldn't pay me to shoot a pistol without muffs.
 
I have a somewhat irritating case of tinnitus, and it sucks. I have to sleep with a fan on high or I will not get to sleep on any but the most exhausting of days.
Click to expand...

+1. I have it (not from shooting), and it is not fun. Avoid it at all costs, unless you like high pitched noises that will never stop.
 
Let me get back to you as soon as I answer the phone.

There was no one there the last time. Or the time before that now that I think about it.

I'm sorry. What were you saying? Beer mugs? No, I don't have any beer mugs. OH! Ear Plugs. Naw. I never used them for years. I can hear just fine.

There's that phone again. BBL.
 
I have difficulty discerning a conversation when in a noisy environment, as well as mild tinnitus. This is not from shooting, but from years of performing in and teaching marching bands.

It sucks.

Imagine listening to a woman screaming--like in the horror movies--24x7. That's what it sounds like. It never goes away, and you can't do anything about it. The quieter the environment, the louder it gets. Say "goodbye" to "alone time."

Wear hearing protection. It's cheap and will save you half a lifetime or more of irritation from tinnitus.
 
No, it ain't all right. Keep it up and you will be saying "huh" a lot just a lot of us other folks who did not use hearing protection.
 
.22 rifle no big deal, but I don't know how anyone can take no hearing protection for anything else.
 
I could most likely attribute MOST of my hearing loss from firing .22 rifles in my early teenage years. Back then, hearing loss really wasn't a concern for most people. It wasn't realized how serious a threat it was. By the time I was wearing hearing protection constantly, a LOT of damage was done.

Wear the protection! When you are 36, you will thank yourself!


-- John
 
You will damage your hearing, even with a .22. Once your hearing is damaged it never gets better again. By the time you're 35-40, you'll have constant ringing in your ears. I learned that the hard way. If I had a chance to do it over I would have worn ear protection from the beginning.
 
If you are shooting .22 CB caps or Colibris out of a rifle you'll be fine without hearing protection, with everything else, wear protection.
 
yes............eventualy,

I'm 38yo and have been using hearing protection for the last 20 years,

at my last hearing test (last march) the audioligist walked in with my test report and asked if I was right handed, I answered yes,

then he told me I'd lost approx 60% hearing in my left ear (almost all of the high frequency range),

then he asked if I shot firearms a lot, when I answered yes, he said that he was 99% certain of that before even asking, he explained that he knew by compairing the test graphs of my right and left ears, and experience of seeing the graphs of many other shooters, some race car drivers and musicians, and he just figured that I was either a shooter or played in a rock band since I am too fat to fit in a race car,

he told me that even though I'd been wearing good hearing protection for the last 20 years or so, the damage caused from before I started wearing was already done and would only get worse in the future,

right now I have tinnius (sp?) in my left ear, constant ringing of the ears, sounds much like my alarm clock going off, I've had it long enough I can tune it out, but I miss a lot of what can be heard in that ear also,

so man, I'm not going to tell you to wear hearing protection, but it pays in the long run to start wearing it early.
 
never shoot my .22 with hearing protection, but i almost never shoot, and its a bolt action so it takes time to shoot, and i shoot a max of 100 rounds, ears don't ring.

now the time i got to shoot my dad's sig .40, and snubby .357 my ears didn't stop ringing for 3 days... ill never shoot again without hearing protection
 
I have a .22 magnum revolver with a 6.5" barrel and I fired six rounds without ear muffs/plugs on and for the next 12 hours whenever I would talk I heard ringing. I am 19 and already have the hearing of a 40 year old, (not from guns, but ear infection when I was an infant) and I have no intention of making it worse.


Wear ear protection.
 
yes wear ear and eye protection. you might not notice hearing loss for a while, but keep doing what you're doing and you will suffer hearing loss
 
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