Hearing Protection for Hunting

[VertigoBE]

Over 50 yrs of operating tractors and other farm equipment, 45 yrs of flying high performance airplanes, 35+yrs of IPSC & 3gun,20yrs of trapshooting (incl 4 on college team), 12yrs of racing in SCCA, 40+yrs in a noisy operating room and a mother who wore hearing aids for 61 of her 99 yrs
has left me with a significant hearing loss and tinnitus from hell despite always making every effort with good equipment to protect my hearing! The last 20+yrs I've had both a great ENT and audiologist. The technology continues to make dramatic improvements.
Now I'm using the top end plugs from Tactical Hearing a good passive muffs over the top for any sustained fire! Amplifying/suppressing plugs for stalking and hunting and they may have saved my life
in Africa this last summer when of all things a really nice Onyx charged out of thick brush at point blank range and those with me didn't hear him coming in that split second but I did!
Lesson learned find and use good hearing specialist (not a bankrupt farmer selling BelTone garbage) and spend what ever you have to spend to save as much hearing as you can, because once its gone its gone forever!

Well, I’m 35, so I want to get a head start in protecting my hearing.

I have a lot of difficulty understanding individual voices in busy rooms as it is. Although I can hear my wristwatch ticking away from the other side of the room sometimes…

 

[VertigoBE]

Hello. I have not tried anything else in the mean time. My experience is still good with them

Hello @One Day... I have received them this week.
When using them I do notice a white noise in both ears, like permanently hearing the sea.

Do you have the same experience?

Vertigo

 

[Tracey Colson]

I have two sets if custom made plugs. One I use for trapshooting and they have ear buds built into them since I prefer to listen to music while I shoot.

The other pair was built by an audiologist and has what he referred to as cones in them. The cones block the harmful noises while allowing voice tones to pass normally.

I coach a high school trapshooting team and they are really nice for this as I can hear the kids call for the target over the whole field yet my hearing is not damaged by the noise.

I used these in Africa so that I could still hear my PH but not be affected by the muzzle blast. They are very compact, fitting in a small pill container when not hunting and with a cord connecting them they can just be around your neck till you are ready to close the deal

 

[Philip Glass]

This might seem like a dumb question, but do any of y’all use hearing protection while hunting?

I’ve made the mistake of not using earplugs while duck and dove hunting with my 12gauge, and I couldn’t hear right for three days. Couple that with my permanent tinnitus, and I had a miserable time. Since I’m planning on a few trips in the next couple of years, at least one of which will be to Africa, I want to get some ear pro that will still let me hear my PH. Is there anything out there that’s not 800 bucks that works well enough to suppress gunshot sounds but will let me hear my PH when he’s whispering commands to me?

Is it frowned upon to wear ear pro while hunting in Africa? I don’t want to piss off the PH because I can’t hear him, especially if he’s trying to warn me of something of the couple-thousand-pounds variety.

Why not get a suppressor?

 

[Forrest Halley]

Why not get a suppressor?

A lot of folks do not want to deal with a certain rather fickle agency in the process of getting one.

 

[Philip Glass]

A lot of folks do not want to deal with a certain rather fickle agency in the process of getting one.

This is a really ignorant excuse. With the new e forms you can have a suppressor very quickly And easily.
This is akin to those who would truly love to hunt Africa but are too afraid to go!

 

[Nhoro]

Well, I’m 35, so I want to get a head start in protecting my hearing.

I have a lot of difficulty understanding individual voices in busy rooms as it is. Although I can hear my wristwatch ticking away from the other side of the room sometimes…

I am 45 and I find that I have trouble with isolating voices from the background but hear individual sounds quite well. Maybe it is a cognitive more than hearing related. Or maybe I am just getting less interested in what people have to say

I bought some elctronic muffs-cheap Caldwell muffs. Two batteries have lasted me many hours and they do what it says on the box-block loud noise. I reckon everyone should try keep as much hearing as they can-I love the sounds of the bush and it must be pretty frustrating to live in a silent world.

 

[Rubberhead]

I've got some hearing loss in both ears - the left is the worst. A can't sleep without a fan running but day-to-day, I am not really bothered by the tinnitus. When it does bother me is when I'm birding (bird watching). At first, I could only hear certain birds out of my right ear making it nearly impossible to locate them. Now I can't hear them out of either ear so I like to bird with folks with better high frequency hearing. For about the past 6-8 year I have been wearing hearing protection for everything but deer hunting but I only shoot at a deer a couple of times every year. Like Gene Simmons says, I double my protection when I'm at the range...

 

[Forrest Halley]

This is a really ignorant excuse. With the new e forms you can have a suppressor very quickly And easily.
This is akin to those who would truly love to hunt Africa but are too afraid to go!

Ignorance abounds, but there is some truth to their reasoning for hesitating in dealing with them. Yes you can have E forms, but with all the drama surrounding the Form 1 silencers lately I can see why someone would not want to be involved at all. It's an intimidating process and some folks are concerned about the heavy handedness of the organization in the past and their current penchant for making new rules interpretations and expanding definitions that create criminals overnight.

 

[Wyatt Smith]

This is a really ignorant excuse. With the new e forms you can have a suppressor very quickly And easily.
This is akin to those who would truly love to hunt Africa but are too afraid to go!

They are illegal in my state. Also they are ugly as hell. I don’t figure very many people will go and have their Rigbys threaded.

 

[TSIBINDI]

Why not get a suppressor?

...I can think of several reasons NOT to get a suppressor.

Suppressors are expensive, heavy, extend the o/a length of the firearm which compromises the balance of the firearm, half of the suppressors do NOT reduce the db to a safe level, and last, but not least...suppressors transform and an aesthectically pleasing firearm to an UGLY club.

 

[Rickmt]

There are a lot of traditional firearms folks around here. My suppressed guns are more fun to shoot and I think they improve my accuracy. I shoot more and my 65 year old ears like muffs and suppressors both. Reduces recoil too ! I don’t normally hunt with them but that is changing this year!

 

[Forrest Halley]

There's a lot of people here talking about weight. Titanium. It's not likely to affect as much as stainless especially given the chamber volume needed to contain the big magnums. I would say the B&Ms and MDMs would be a great idea here with their short barrels and maybe going for a 14" pinned and welded with an adapter or a 16" with direct thread. With the length muzzle some of these rifles have hanging out in front on the front sight there is no aesthetic diminishment.

@michael458 did you ever test these with suppressors?

 

[michael458]

@michael458 did you ever test these with suppressors?

Say What? I didn't hear you.... ......... HEH.......

I suppose that actually answers your ? Forrest.......

No, never tried suppressors on any of the rifles..........

 

[Forrest Halley]

Say What? I didn't hear you.... ......... HEH.......

I suppose that actually answers your ? Forrest.......

No, never tried suppressors on any of the rifles..........

Hah! Well with the new suppressor craze...on to more testing!

 

[CJW]

When I was in Namibia I put an ear plug in my left ear when we departed the landcruiser and had the other plug in hand and at the ready (semi-rolled up) when we got closer to the animals. Worked well enough without being a bother and inly took a couple seconds to put in.

Another good option that I only discovered a few months ago are the gel type ear plugs. They slip into your ears without needing to be compressed. Not quite as good of Db reduction but good enough to be safe for rifle hunting I think.

 

[Forrest Halley]

I may have said this, but I have spent a lot of time in the Howard Leight Impact Sport electronic muffs and can effectively use them day or night for hunting or dealing with a problem. I can associate the the sounds I hear directionally. I got a deal on the Walker Razor lite with the radios a while back and they are nice, but different switch locations and slightly differ microphone orientation. I'm testing them now to see if they are learnable as far as sound direction. If not I'll just use them to communicate at shooting matches or something.

 

[BeeMaa]

Finally bit the bullet and bought full custom electronic hearing protection from Tetra at the SCI show (Nashville 2023). They fit like a glove. Looking forward to a test run in the near future and I'll post my findings.

I also ordered two sets of custom plugs from E.A.R. to be used at work and for doing stuff around the house. Saving the Tetra plugs specifically for shooting and hunting. Still waiting for them to be shipped.

 

[Rare Breed]

Finally bit the bullet and bought full custom electronic hearing protection from Tetra at the SCI show (Nashville 2023). They fit like a glove. Looking forward to a test run in the near future and I'll post my findings.
View attachment 524017

I also ordered two sets of custom plugs from E.A.R. to be used at work and for doing stuff around the house. Saving the Tetra plugs specifically for shooting and hunting. Still waiting for them to be shipped.

I have OTTO and they are magic! They can either act like true ear plugs with no noise first level, normal sound second level and amplified like a hearing aid third level…all three levels completely cut out blast noise when gun fired. Love them as I’m sure you will love your Tetra’s Eric!

 

[HookMeUpII]

Well, I’m 35, so I want to get a head start in protecting my hearing.

I have a lot of difficulty understanding individual voices in busy rooms as it is. Although I can hear my wristwatch ticking away from the other side of the room sometimes…

I am in the process of sorting this out myself. I have a lot of contributing factors to hearing loss but my doctor thinks its APD or audio processing disorder. I'm the same as you. If the kitchen sink is running and my wife is talking, I can't hear her. If there are other conversations in the room and I am talking to someone, I lose their words. Yet, just like you, the other night and heard a bear knock over my garbage can 100 ft. in front of my house, from my basement.

The hearing protection is without a doubt a good idea but you what you have is APD and possibly a neurological disorder. I am waiting for my doctor to get back to me but it looks like I may have to undergo occupational therapy or something similar.