Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Tinnitus

Is it possible to spend a lifetime shooting and not have ringing in your ears? I'm honestly to the point where I need to stop shooting without ear protection even in hunting situations, which is the only time I ever do shoot without protection.

Same. Suppressors should be encouraged and over the counter.

I have tinnitus, sometimes worse than others, but there is always a buzzing in the background.

I'm nearly deaf in my left ear due to having someone fire a rifle with the muzzle within 12" from my ear.

WHAT

I am with all of you. The ringing my ears sometimes is enuff to drive me INSANE. I use hearing protection and have. But have also worked in noisy shops or around equipment alot and it all has effected my hearing......
Suppressors should be cheap and over the counter to prevent this for everyone..........

Ouch. A "friend" did that to me once because a deer ran out in front of us. I know what that's like.

Yep had it for years, a constant ringing in the left ear.. Sometimes better than others. About deaf in that ear, right is also going down hill. In fact I am now looking into hearing aids.. Sometimes it sucks getting old.

I've had it for many years. I blame most of it on riding tractors without a cab, that had load exhaust. I've used hearing protection for shooting for a very long time, except in hunting situations. I have hearing aids, mainly because my insurance paid for them. I also have some Walker Power Muffs that I use on occasion when hunting. I guess I've gotten used to the constant ringing, and I have quite a bit of hearing loss as well. I've noticed the hearing loss more this turkey season than at any other time. I'm having trouble hearing them gobble, especially telling which direction it's coming from.

Hunting, plinking, whatever, if a gun is being regardless of caliber or gauge, I wear hearing protection.

I have had tinnitus for more than 40 yrs. now, some idiot fired a .357 Magnum before I had my hearing protection on. I tried hearing aids, none of the blocking features masked the ringing. I have learned to live with it, the left ear is the worst of the two.

I've had it for 45 or so years now.Mine was from long days driving those tractors on the farm when I was younger.I've tried taking things that are supposed to help with no luck.I try to remember to wear hearing protection when I'm doing activities that can cause tinnitus.If I don't the ringing gets worse.I can hear purty good,but some things distort my hearing,like a ceiling fan.Even though the fan is quiet,I can tell a big difference when it's off.

The shame of it is there is nothing they can do for it

35 years of printing presses gave me a chorus in my ears. I worked so many nights and didn't wear protection because senior management wasn't around. I try to liken it to the summer nights in Iowa growing up. Chicadas sounding off in the night air. Only way I keep what sanity I have left.

Since my teens I've worn something like these around my neck while hunting. Takes just a few seconds to put in your ears and well worth it

The guy who fired the rifle close to my left ear was a roommate at a house that I rented in Manhattan, KS, in 1983/84. We were hunting coyotes with our other roommate near White City, KS, and jump a coyote while headed to the spot where we would split up up along a canyon rim. The coyote ran to our right and Bill, who was a lefty, decided to shoot at it with the 222 barrel of his Savage 24V combination gun. He didn't get the coyote, but the muzzle blast sure got me.

There is hope on the horizon, gentlemen.
It would make my life easier, as well.

http://newatlas.com/hearing-loss-ha...tm_term=0_65b67362bd-593b4676bb-90030290

Zackly what I use.

Seems to me the shame of it is ever thinking you could do without ear protection.

For me? The shame of it is having to know I'll never do without it. Don't even remember what "silence" is anymore.

I'm with you gentlemen...have had the non-stop ringing for over 40 yrs. When I was a kid, daddy always made us put cotton in our ears. But when I became invincible (age of 15 or so...which coincidentally is the time I got a driver's license and a little freedom) I enjoyed taking my uncle's snub nose 38 and trying to melt the short barrel on it. Then when I was 20 I went to work in the oilfield around big engines and never wore ear protection. But by the time I realized I wasn't bulletproof, it was too late...but you already knew that.

Eddie