HEARING PROTECTION can you hear me!

[Whitworth]

I was cursed with small ear canals and have suffered some canal collapse with age and have to have my ears cleaned regularly or they get clogged with wax. I get a dozen pack of the green (small size) GI ear plugs off EBAY and always have 2 or 3 in my watch pocket at all times for unexpected noise. They're soft and comfortable and cheap to lose. Unless .22 rimfire rifle I always use muffs too. I wore ear plugs on the railroad when you weren't allowed, I wasn't going deaf like everyone else Fast forward and the railroad paid out millions for hearing loss. What I foolishly lost when young and dumb thru guns, motorcycles, airplanes, rock and roll and fireworks can't be regained but I've tried to protect what I have left, now if someone would just answer that damn phone

 

[Flint62Smoothie]

Well I just tried the Radians molded earplugs, the ones you mix up and shove in you ear to cure …

Be aware that the NRR rating on them is only a 26 where most of the foam stick-in-your-ear ones are a 30 or 32. Where decibel noise (and damage!) increases exponentially with each number change in that rating … IMHO a 26 is good, but not good enough for me to wear!

I also have tinnitus already from 25-years of playing the drums, so I wear 32 shove-ins in my ears and then electronic muffs over them, so that I can hear range commands, like in my milsurp line shoots, as well as the extra protection.

 

[pacanis]

I also believe that some people are.more prone to hearing damage than others

As in?

 

[CaptainVane]

when my wife was little, like 6, had a hearing problem, so she had surgery that vastly inproved her hearing. Now we lay in bed and she bitches that the tv is too loud and cant sleep, and I can barely hear it. It is causing issues. So I lay awake reading CC. Serious.

 

[snakedoctor690]

I've been using the Axil extreme 2.0 electronic ear pro. for a year now and love them, protects my hearing and allows me to hear what is going on around me. For those that need it also has bluetooth so you can connect your phone.

 

[pacanis]

None of the Axil Extreme foam or silicon thingies seem to fit my ear canal. And then there's the wire. Which seems to get hung up on my coat collar if I wear them with the wire in the back or simply be in the way if I drape the wire in front. Plus I can never remember which buttons do what for adjusting them or answering a call

But they're another option. I just never warmed up to them.

 

[oldwood]

I'm "nairly " deaf , and don't care to hear what the wife says anyway. The little orange ones on a cord will do , for now.

 

[vibraphonusrex]

Absolutely cannot shoot a rifle with phones on. Got tinnitus from the Army, drumming, etc. Still use the 3-flange plugs like I used in the Army. Got a pair of those Decibulz plugs that I’ll try to form fit to my ears someday.

 

[BuffaloSoldier]

Back when I was employed by our Uncle, was in an Air Cavalry Troop as an Infantryman and later a Recon Scout, same job different MOS. I was a young buck, 10 foot tall and bullet-proof! Had those soft yellow roll 'em up and stuff 'em in your ears, but that was too much trouble, back then. Fast forwarding +40 years and I wish I had listened better, now that I can't!!

 

[Marshhawk]

Yep, about $5,000-plus and I have stopped saying "what?" all the time. The usual drill. Insanely loud rock music, pounding imprint presses, and countless rounds of ammunition has taken its toll. And the audiologist just smiled about the .22s. Yes, they do damage your hearing. For the range I double up with Walkers' ears and muffs.

 

[Dusty_Traveler]

I have a jug of the tapered round tip plugs here in the shop. I keep a pair in my shirt pocket nowdays.

A straight stacked Farmall 856 pulling a 15' batwing cutter at rated RPM caused lots of unrecoverable damage for me when I was younger. I don't take any more chances now.

 

[French Colonial]

I use the foam earplugs even if shooting a .22 these days as I do not want to take the chance of losing any more hearing than I already have.

I am also of the crowd that has had to resort to plugs and muffs when at the modern range and someone showed up with their latest magnum with a muzzle break.....even after moving to a bench as far away from them as possible.

 

[Mike in FL]

My Coast Guard time was before they used hearing protection. My left ear was damaged significantly because I volunteered for ever rifle and pistol event I could. That plus the big old bow mounted gun on the cutter was always shooting at a target in the water. That gun was adjacent to my navigation station. So now, the govt pays me $144 per month for the loss p!us top of the line hearing aids. But I'd much rather have my hearing back.

 

[EC121]

Earplugs and muffs can't protect above about 33db. After that the noise impulses are transmitted through your various skull bones. Hearing protection has its limit.
I use 32db. foam plugs and low profile muffs over them.

 

[Terrier]

…inevitably, some guy with a muzzle break on a 300WinMag will set up next to me, and then nothing works.

I used to volunteer at a TWRA range in the Nashville area as a RSO….we had the radio muffs to communicate with the office and other ranges and were rated for about 25dB protection.

Any time a muzzle brake shooter showed up, that wasn’t enough, so I’d break out my regular plugs and wear them under the muffs. Worked a lot better. That gave me about 50db of protection. I’d just turn up the radio volume to hear any traffic a little better.

I hate muzzle brakes. A lot.

 

[Terrier]

Absolutely cannot shoot a rifle with phones on. Got tinnitus from the Army, drumming, etc. Still use the 3-flange plugs like I used in the Army. Got a pair of those Decibulz plugs that I’ll try to form fit to my ears someday.

Go talk to the VA. Tell ‘em your tinnitus is service related and have some stories to back it up. If they find you need hearing aids in the testing process, they’ll give ‘em to you free.

 

[waksupi]

I have molded ones, but I don't think they block the noise as well as the foam types.

 

[waksupi]

Tell her to just braid it the next time!

 

[waksupi]

my wife cuts my hair and mows my ear hair. the ones in the canal she plucks with tweezers. along with the admonishment to," quit sniveling, I have plucked my eyebrows for 70 years and you don't hear me squealing like a piglet!"
me being an imprudent man sometimes, said something about the weirdness of plucking eyebrows and then painting them back on.

Just have her braid it next time!

 

[deerstalkert]

Just have her braid it next time!

maybe tie it up in a man bun? she would shoot me first! she detests man buns.
i braided my beard once. lasted one day. made too good of a handle for grasping hands trying to get me to do some work.