What do use for hearing protection?

Rick Kyte

Rick Kyte

Well-known member
Just curious about how many guys on this site use hearing protection, and if so, what you use.

The past couple of years I've started having symptoms of tinnitus (it comes and goes). So in an effort to keep it from getting worse I got some custom earplugs from Westone: http://www.westone.com/hearing-protection-products/custom-fit-hearing-protection-products

I tried using the foam ear plugs but when hunting with someone else always had to take them out to have a conversation. Plus I got tired of hearing my neck bones crack whenever I turned my head.

I wish I would have started using ear protection 30 years ago.

Rick
 
Rick,

I use these all the time when target shooting and try to have them along with hunting though I sometimes forget. http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/product.jsp?parentCategoryId=104791680&categoryId=104734980&subCategoryId=104381280&productId=741627&type=product&destination=%2Fcatalog%2Fbrowse%2Fhunting-hunting-accessories-hearing-protection-enhancement%2F_%2FN-1100132%3FWT.z_mc_id1%3D43000000154888387%26pcrid%3D8208820137%26WT.srch%3D1%26WT.tsrc%3DPPC%26WT.mc_id%3Dgoogle%7Csho_Shooting%2BAccessories_Hearing%2BProtection%2B%252F%2BEnhancements%7CUSA%26rid%3D20&WTz_l=PPC%3Bcat104381280&cImage=s7_229752_001_alt01_01 I'd like to find something better as these are not very comfortable and I agree the foam ear plugs leave a lot to be desired. I also don't hunt with guys that have ported guns.

I have had tinnitus for 40 years and gradual hearing loss in my left ear. I am now down 80% in that ear and only 50% comprehension. Tough part is that I have a heck of a time telling the direction of sound now. Missed a chance on an elk this year because I couldn't tell the location of the twig snap and moved when I shouldn't have.
 
Pete, that sounds like me....Tinnitis is no joke. Makes it real hard to hear noises in the woods and to locate the ones you can hear.

Not too good for far off geese either......
 
I really hope Lots of people reply to this one. I'm really thinking of hearing protection, and am especially interested in the electronic ones.
 
Great post topic.
I am a HUGE advocate of active-volume type earmuffs.
(Those that have external mics to allow you to hear ambient noise and that shut off if sounds exceed a certain level.)
I have a pair of Peltor ones (kinda like these: http://peltorcomms.3m.com/Americas/Product.asp?PageNumber=1016&Product_Id=403&ProductCategory_Id=39) but I am sure that the competitive products are as good.
I tried wearing foam and even custom musician-type ear buds but I found that I took them out too much because they were either hot/uncomfortable or because I couldn't hear to converse.
With the active volume earmuffs, they are comfortable enough to wear for long periods and the volume can be adjusted to allow you to hear whispered conversation, wing beats, footfalls, etc. And one could argue that they help you shoot better by reducing "felt recoil".
They are spendy items but mine are on their 4th or 5th season. And very cheap considering the alternative: all I need to remind me to wear them is to - try to - have a conversation with my father or uncle, both life-long hunters who now have ears of stone.
Get some. Wear them.
My $0.02.
Dano
 
I used to carpool with somebody who worked in the hearing aid industry for almost 20 years. When I told I don't use anything she freaked out. I looked in to the custom ones with the microphones but they were way out of my price range but would like to get some in the future. I purchased a set of the cabelas ones and I now use them most of the time. It makes a huge difference especially when hunting out of the boat. I can still hold a conversation, when i call it sounds a bit funny but my ears aren't ringing on the drive home. I actually have 2 sets one that is the Cabelas and another that works the same but is a different brand. The Cabelas are more comfortable.
 
About a decade back, I visited a hearing aid place and got a set of really fancy custom fit hearing aids that had a compression built in at about 80db to clip the mic at anything louder than that. Back then I paid about $800 for the set.

They were neat, but, they were totally useless for hunting, because when I used them, I lost the ability to use my ears to locate the direction of the source of the sound. All sounds were "omnipresent."

For example, If a flock of mallards was winging by at 30 yards, I could clearly hear their wings working the wind, but I was completely unable to locate the sound source. There was zero ability to hone in on them.

Anymore, I chew up a bit of toilet paper and jam it in my ears. it muffles the compression of the blasting considerably, and I am able to locate thhe sound source.

It is difficult to call with the plugs in too.

If I am hunting with a buddy, then I'll stick a foam plug in the ear on the side my buddy is on, and I'll pack a little toilet paper in my other ear.


Better than nothing, and sure costs a lot less than $800.
 
Neal, Similar thing with me. I saw an audiologist some time back and she wanted to know if I wore ear plugs while shooting. I told her that I always wore them while target shooting but not while hunting. She said "what? Maybe one or two shots a fall?" and I said no, about 200 because it was shotgun not rifle. She was horrified. I now am thinking more and more about wearing them all the time in the field. What little hearing left is very precious.
 
Tim -
Why not?
I can see how you'd not want to wear them if you were turkey, deer hunting or even bird hunting when you'd want full use of your 3D / peripheral hearing and you might only shoot once or a few times - but why wouldn't you if you are sitting in a duck blind?
Lemme ask this another way. Have you ever had a good day of duck shooting where your group goes through a coupla boxes of shells and when you go to bed that night your ears are ringing? Or had someone shoot just a bit too close and you get a 'dead ear' for a bit? That's not good, dude.
From what I have read, hearing loss from repetitive percussive noise is incremental and irreversible. Start wearing protection now, you'll maintain your hearing; keep shooting without and you will start to lose it.
And in my opinion, electronic earmuffs are comfortable enough to wear - particularly in static, tight quarters like a duck blind - that it is a 'no excuse' choice.
Again, my two cents,
Dano
 
I have often thought about the physiology of shooting vs hunting. I wear hearing protection all the time when I shoot paper or clays, and certainly have had my ears rung when I didn't but while hunting, unless someone shoots right over me, or has a ported barrel, I never feel the report? Shoot my deer rifle and muzzleloader at a deer and never a ring, but shoot paper or clays and what a difference? There is a difference, but I don't understand it?

Thoughts? Similar experience?

Dave
 
Todd -
I hear you (ar, ar) about the lack of directional hearing. But do try out a pair of the new-generation electronic muffs. They have stereo sound at least and some have four mics. And, while expensive, they won't set you back $800... And they should last many seasons... And if they are comfortable, you will wear them, which is the point...
Apologies for picking arguments* on this topic, guys, but I really do think that there are long term repercussions at play here. If I was to get all misty-eyed, I'd tell how my kids sometimes have trouble getting through to their grandfather even when he is wearing his hearing aids. You want to be able to listen to music in 20 years? Have normal level conversation? Use a regular phone? Hear your wife? (okay, 'nuff rhetoric...).
Get some. Wear them.
Dano

* And me a Canadian...
 
(Wow - my third post... must be a slow day in the office...)
Dave -
I know exactly what you mean - I have shot deer and not even been able to remember the noise but have been just punished by noise/recoil while sighting in on paper. But I am sure it is all psychological and adrenaline-driven.
If a tree falls in the forest, we are still going slowly deaf.
Dan
(By the way - I did buy that bbsb and have cut down the centreboard. Thanks for your advice. I'll make a post about it if I can get unlazy. )
 
Rick,
My hearing protection is from the same company but a slightly different version. I was very concerned about hearing the birds and conversations so they selected a different version of the plugs for me.

I spent just under 200.00 on my this year and use them while target shooting and hunting. They were a blessing in Canada this year. We generally go though 600 rounds between the 3 guys in a week up there. Add in a few shots where I get "rung" and that is a lot of hearing damage. Besides the saved hearing I am a lot nicer because if someone rings me I get pissed it happens with everyone a time or two but when it happens because someone is just to excited to shoot a bird to make a good choice and hold off I tend to have trouble holding my tongue. ( Yes I am over sensitive about this its a pet peeve of mine)
 
I don't shoot enough ducks to justify wearing hear protection. The 1 or 2 shots I shoot during a hunt won't hurt.
 
Rick
If you haven't, I would get a PROFESIONAL ear evaluation, not someone selling a product and identify what the problem is or to prevent further damage. No charge for office call :)
wis boz
 
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Unless the barrel is really close to my ear then no..........im sure hearing loss will come in handy in the future when Im married haha. I know its a serious thing I just don't wear protection while duckin and probably never will. Took out a buddy who had ear plugs in and by the third time he said "What?!" I tossed his earmuffs onto the marsh. lol
 
I got some custom earplugs from Westone: http://www.westone.com/hearing-protection-products/custom-fit-hearing-protection-products


Rick
Click to expand...

Rick,

I have similar ones from Westone, but mine are technically musicians era plugs:





Difference being that musicians ear plugs precicely decrease all audible noise frequencys equally. I use them at work (lots of motors, boilers, and when the carts come off trucks it isl like sitting in the symbol section of the orchestra pit) and I use them in the shop at home. Mine decrease the noise level by 15 dB, which takes off the edge of the high levels but allows me to have normal conversations without taking them out, because I know from experience that if I take out normal ear plugs they will not find their way back in my ears. There is also a 25 dB insert, but that will take a normal voice down to a whisper, so you really have to talk loud to converse with those in.

I have had them for 6 years, this year one of the plastic inserts (that actually do the sound deadening) broke. They cost me $150 for the pair 6 years ago, now are up to $170. The replacement insert only cost $38 and I am back in business. Very reasonable way to protect your hearing from the bad stuff and allow you to hear the things you want/need. I don't ues them much for hunting (frankly I don't shoot that much) but if I were dove hunting or something like that I would more than likely use them.

Funny annicdote...I went to the audiologist to have my hearing checked because I was having trouble hearing (not JUST the wife, but other conversations that I actually wanted to hear). She puts me in a sound proof booth with headphones and does all these tests, not just tones, but telling me phrases and making me repeat them back and such.

When it is all over, she says "There is nothing wrong with your hearing."

To which I retort' "so you're telling me it is all in my head?"

In essence I was gettng short term hearing loss from the loud noise at work and such, but when not exposed to loud noise the hearing would return...at least for now.

To all, protect your hearing while you still can, if you choose a method to do so that is not comfortable or convienent that YOU ACTUALLY USE IT, then it will not protect your ears when not in place.

Chuck
 
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