deaf

As a general rule, if you hear ringing in your ears after a loud noise, you have done permanent damage. The ringing may stop, but the damage is done.

All you can do is prevent further damage.
 
You dont have to be old either, I had the constant ringing in my ears by age 20. I suspect most of it was caused by firing many bricks of .22lr through a pistol unprotected. Extremely DUMB but nobody advised me otherwise back then.
Now I wear ear protection even when I mow the yard and always when target shooting. I rarely do when hunting, but I rarely notice the shot as being loud then either. I believe it has something to do with "auditory shutdown" (proper term?) during stressful or exciting events (hunting). That doesnt mean it doesnt cause damage though.

Tinnitis sucks.
 
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Protect your hearing or it will be gone!

I use Pro Ears while waterfowling and will be wearing them on stand this season too. At 34, I'm pretty hard of hearing already...
 
I've been around various loud noise sources for many years, and it has cost me. Like other posters have said the locusts sound 24/7 is nerve damage and is called Tinnunitus (SP?). If I wear my hearing aids, the buzzing sound goes away while I'm wearing them and usually for about 20 minutes after I take them off to goto bed. If I don't wear the hearing aids, I hear the buzzing sound 24/7. I've learned to blank the buzzing sound out. I have the expensive digital hearing aids, and I hate them. However, I have to wear them to hear the wife because she is so soft spoken.

One of the issues I have with hearing aids is the problem with sweat. When I sweat, the sweat will short them out. So I cannot wear them while hiking in Arizona's spring, summer, and fall. Because of my tinnunitus, I also cannot hear rattlesnakes. I almost stepped on one that was really buzzing, but I could not hear it. The wife was 20ft behind me and she could hear it. It wasn't until she screamed at me that I stopped. Remember I don't hear her worth a darn without the hearing aids. She yelled my name and said "snake". I said where? She said right in front of you. The snake's tail was going to town and it was like nothing was there.

I was at a club meeting where a herpatologists brought it some snakes. He had this little diamonback going to town in the cage. I stood there and took the hearing aids in and out several times. I was amazed that I could really hear the snake with the aids in and could not hear it at all without them.

I'm giving this to the readers of PM for one reason: Protect your ears. Anytime you do anything that causes your ears to buzz, you are doing a little bit of damage to them. Simply try to avoid doing anything that will damage your ears

On the brighter side, I've thought about suing Az game and fish under the ADA act because they won't let me hunt coyotes with supressed weapons. I doubt I will go thru with this idea, but it is a nice thought.
 
I cant hear worth a darn and I'm only 24!! I have some hearing loss in my right ear and cant hear anything that is high pitched.

I work as a network engineer and that involves working on servers and computers most of the day. Anytime there is a hard drive going out or an alarm on one of the servers I can't ever hear it. All my co-workers always mess with me about haha.

My hearing loss is a mix of extremely loud music(stereo competition's) and gun fire over the years. So be careful out there it doesn't take long to effect your hearing.
 
I shot without hearing protection till 1997 (not to mention chainsaws, lawnmowing, two stroke dirt bikes, etc). I now have about 45% hearing loss in my right ear and around 20% in my left, I'm really looking forward to getting hearing aids sooner rather than later /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif. I have a constant ringing in both ears and like some others here have said, I can't hear electronic alarms, beepers, and worst of all, my kids when they talk low. The last one kills me. When my kids talk to me they know to stand in front of me and I'm constantly getting them to repeat things cause I didn't hear certian words correctly (the eight year old isn't too bad but my five year old is harder to understand). They have compensated by talking loud when they talk to me (nothing better than a kid having to adapt to a problem that you got from being stupid). This problem also makes it so that at times I talk too loud and overpower people with my voice...nice, frigging great /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif. I am teaching both my little ones to wear protection so they don't have to have the "Huh???" or "Come where I can see you talk", response to their kids when they talk to them. The worst part is how simple it is to prevent and being young and stupid, I chose not to do it. Stupid me.

Trashcan
Death Card Calls
 
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There's some pretty good electronic muffs out there for less than $75. You'll spend that much just getting evaluated for hearing aids. And even if you have partial hearing loss, electronic muffs can help by amplifying non-harmful sounds.

Get some kind of protection, even if it's the cheap foam plugs.
 
Unless Im hunting I always wear ear plugs.The first time I shot my uncles Bond Arms Defender my ears were ringing for 3 hours our better and I didnt even notice how bad it was until I was driving home and I couldnt hear the radio.I turned it up and the next time I got into my truck and started it up the radio came on at the same setting I had left the volume at and about blew my eardrums out again.After that I started wearing ear plugs,even if Im out in the field huntin I always carry a set of them.I dont wear them while Im huntin but if I see a critter like a skunk and I have time I'll put them in and proceed to get rid of the nasty varmint with my .22Magnum pistol.Which also rings your eardrums pretty good.My uncle has a constant ringing in his ears,he wears ear plugs as much as possible but he didnt used to.Hearing loss is some pretty serious stuff,protect your hearing because once its gone your not gonna get it back.
 
sounds like you got all the advice you need but i am going to throw alittle more at you

im a B-52 crew chief been for over five years, working around jet engines and everything else that makes a buff fly, you gotta protect your ears man we are required to wear double hearing protection all the time and my hearing has dropped 40% in five years and that ringing noice sucks when your 24 years old and knowing that it wont get better. alway always wear your protection
 
I stepped outside once with my .357 revolver to fire a few rounds of reloaded ammo, first shot it was so loud both ears instantly rang so much i could hear hardly a thing, for three days all i could hear was that ringing, and when trying to talk everything was just a mumble, like i had plugs in my ears..after 3 days the ringing got to be much less, and when someone talks i hear them fine, my permanent damage was very minimal...but there is damage.
anytime i mow or use a chainsaw or anything that will be loud for extended periods i wear the foam plugs, if i am shooting i will wear the foam plugs and muffs, it is worth it. I have gotten to the range to only find out i forgot my hearing protection, turned around and went home. never fire a gun without it..even hunting i will slide in so canal caps to reduce the noise from the muzzle.
 
Watch for any antibiotics that have miacin (arithromiacin) on the end of their name. Got my 24/7 ringing from it. The warnings on the label but who reads
all that tiny fine print.
 
My brother liked to listen to his stereo loud when we were kids. So load that I had to set within 6' of the tv and have it cranked to barely hear it. Even with a head set he still likes his "music" load. When he moved out the sound got turned down, way down. He now needs hearing aids and can't figure out why I don't.
 
My ears have been ringing since I was 16. At first is comes and goes. Then it becomes constant. I'm 32 now and I have been told that even with a hearing aid my left ear would not be back up to normal hearing. Wear plugs!!
 
Yes you better protect what you have! All of the above is good advise! Seeing that I have already lost over 50% in both ears due to various things including shooting without protection, that didnt help much! Now when the kids shoot even a .22 it is mandatory they wear protection! I tell you what though, being hard of hearing aint so bad because whenever I do wear my hearing aids it makes me a nervous wreak because of all the noise, and whenever I want piece and quite I simply take off the aids! By the way, if you think guns can be exspensive, go and buy a set of hearing aids! WOW!
 
As has been said, any shooting without hearing protection will damage your hearing, one shot at a time, once it's lost, it's gone forever. Even the miniscule 22Lr generates 134dB, hearing damage starts above 85dB!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

http://www.keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?id=2052

Table 2. SHOTGUN NOISE DATA (DECIBEL AVERAGES)

.410 Bore 28" barrel 150dB
26" barrel 150.25dB
18 " barrel 156.30dB
20 Gauge 28" barrel 152.50dB
22" barrel 154.75dB
12 Gauge 28" barrel 151.50dB
26" barrel 156.10dB
18 " barrel 161.50dB


CENTERFIRE RIFLE DATA

.223, 55GR. Commercial load 18 " barrel 155.5dB
.243 in 22" barrel 155.9dB
.30-30 in 20" barrel 156.0dB
7mm Magnum in 20" barrel 157.5dB
.308 in 24" barrel 156.2dB
.30-06 in 24" barrel 158.5dB
.30-06 in 18 " barrel 163.2dB
.375 18" barrel with muzzle brake 170 dB


CENTERFIRE PISTOL DATA

.25 ACP 155.0 dB
.32 LONG 152.4 dB
.32 ACP 153.5 dB
.380 157.7 dB
9mm 159.8 dB
.38 S&W 153.5 dB
.38 Spl 156.3 dB
.357 Magnum 164.3 dB
.41 Magnum 163.2 dB
.44 Spl 155.9 dB
.45 ACP 157.0 dB
.45 COLT 154.7 dB

Recall that sounds over 85-90 dB can lead to permanent hearing damage without hearing protection. As can be seen from Table 2, even firing a .22LR (134 dB) has the potential of causing permanent, irreversible, inner ear damage.


 
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