I have two 20” barreled 700’s in 30/06 and made the mistake of shooting a coyote with one of them from an enclosed blind with no hearing protection. Never again. Ouch.
I now keep my amplifying earmuffs on my thigh until the last half hour or so of shooting light. Then I’ll either put them on just above my ears or turn them on and put them on my ears.
This is why I've been selling things off to fund a handful of hunting rifles with suppressors and short barrels. My ears are more sissified than my shoulder.
A 22" barreled 308-based round in a bolt gun will seldom give me problems. A 22" short-magnum has, on a few occasions. A 20" lever gun in 30-30 or .35R also doesn't seem so bad, due to the lower pressure, like JWP mentions above. I've noticed that same effect with centerfire youth or reduced-recoil loads. They aren't ear ringers, even in 20" barrels. Full-house loads can bump things up to a more notable level. That's why I don't encourage anything shorter than a 20" for a kid's gun. It might be fine with lower-power loads with that 16-18" tube, but it'll be blasty if they move up to full power loads. 21"-22" is actually a good spot for a kid's bolt gun in something burning 40-45gr of powder.
