In a home defense situation, what is your max caliber / load without hearing protection?

Please, if at all possible, let's avoid the Mall Ninja "Better Deaf Than Dead!" type talk. Just curious as to who has thought this through and what conclusions they have reached.

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You're shy a few manners.

...I've never even thought about hearing protection in a home defense situation...if I was seriously concerned about hearing loss defending my home..I think my bigger concern would be moving elsewhere...I did touch off a primed only shotgun shell in my parents house once...walked around the house afterwards checking for cracked windows because it really rattled them...

...my go to HD gun is a 12 gauge...so I guess that's my answer...

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A Country Boy Can Survive

I have a 9mm handy, would let my qualified wife have that. My go to gun for "night noises" is a 9 shot 12 gauge Mossie. If needed I would fire it inside, multiple times if necessary!

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

45acp ball or equivalent.

No way would I use a 357 or 44 mag or +p anything.

Basic parameters: sub sonic, large caliber.

HUH? What was it you were asking--I don't hear so well anymore.

Oh yea, I shot a .44 special/mag CCI Shotshell at a rat indoors in an old farm house about to be torn down. Man was it loud. Missed the rat too!

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Possum—The other white meat!

Having known lots of LEOs who have fired everything from 9mm to .44 Magnum inside a residence or warehouse with no loss of hearing there isn't anything I wouldn't fire indoors that I would not fire anywhere else.

An acquaintance fired 4 rounds of 12 ga. and 18 rounds of .44 Magnum inside an apartment. He killed the guy with his last round as he ran out of the apartment... He experienced no hearing loss...

Read the books on gunfighting and you will find the body shuts down the auditory system during high stress encounters. It is like the difference between shooting on a range and shooting at a deer that jumps up and front of you and runs.. One round on the range can ruin your hearing yet the same round out of the same gun while hunting you won't remember hearing...

Bob

Even a 22 will make your ears ring in an enclosed space.

Hornady .38 Spl. 110-Gr. FTX (Standard Pressure) Part #90310
Noise & flash not bad and effective if I do my job.

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In Omnia Paratus

Well, it's hard not to go Mall Ninja to honestly answer this. The only reason I would fire a weapon inside my home is I'm sure my life is in danger, so I'll shoot whatever I've got in my hand at that very second. I have four ready weapons in different locations. Two .357 Magnum revolvers, both are loaded with HOT 38 special +P ammo. One 870 Wingmaster "riot gun", and a Ruger AR-556 carbine. The revolvers would be the preferred choice, but if push comes to shove I'll grab whatever is closest.

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Always Stay Strong!

My preferred calibers are .45ACP and .44 Spl, which will still make your ears ring. Truthfully though, I'm with Old Bear. If I'm in danger in my hacienda and I've got my .416 Rigby in my hands, it'll be used.

Biggest thing was a 40 S&W out of a glock 23. Chronic tinnitus is not your friend.

Now I would rather use an M41A pulse rifle.

Good point, and I only hope that my auditory system would should down far enough to prevent hearing loss from the 45ACP HD ammo I have. (High stress also induces a "tunnel vision" degrading of the visual system, I have been told.)

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Ukraine -- now more than ever

...my wife's uncle used to sit in his living room easy chair...drink beer...and shoot rats with a 22...his hearing seemed ok...maybe the beer protected him...hey now...there's an idea...

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A Country Boy Can Survive

I don't worry about noise levels in a self-defense situation.

I'd rather have hearing loss, even permanent hearing loss, than lose my life.

My home defense gun is a 3 1/2" M1911, the same gun I carry every day. It's what I trust to stop an unlawful deadly force threat against me.

only place for hearing protection is the range.

I have a M640 .357 Magnum loaded with 125gr. Hormany Critical Defense. Since I have a 70% frequency hearing loss I doubt if I would be that effected and I'll rather be alive.

I make low end .357s that are better than any +P+ .38, but are not so painful indoors. We have sensitive ears. I also count on the fact that in the heat of a life or death moment, you don't hear that loud of a bang(s). The nines shoot standard loads.

This made me think of a story about firing a gun in a close space:



The Night The Ghost Got In - James Thurber

To make a long story short, a 'ghost' in the house in 1915 caused such havoc and confusion that the police were called and entered the attic where their senile grandfather slept:

...When I got to the attic, things were pretty confused. Grandfather had evidently jumped to the conclusion that the police were deserters from Meade’s army, trying to hide away in his attic. He bounded out of bed wearing a long flannel nightgown over long woolen underwear, a nightcap, and a leather jacket around his chest. The cops must have realized at once that the indignant white-haired old man belonged in the house, but they had no chance to say so. “Back, ye cowardly dogs!” roared grandfather. “Back t’ the lines, ye ****** lily-livered cattle!” With that, he fetched
the officer who found the zither a flat-handed smack alongside his head that sent him sprawling. The others beat a retreat, but not fast enough; grandfather grabbed Zither’s gun from its holster and let fly. The report seemed to crack the rafters; smoke filled the attic. A cop cursed and shot his hand to his shoulder. Somehow, we all finally got downstairs again and locked the door against the old gentleman. He fired once or twice more in the darkness and then went back to bed. “That was grandfather,” I explained to Joe, out of breath. “He thinks you’re deserters.” “I’ll say he does,” said Joe.

The cops were reluctant to leave without getting their hands on somebody besides grandfather; the night had been distinctly a defeat for them. Furthermore, they obviously didn’t like the “layout;” something looked—and I can see their viewpoint—phony. They began to poke into things again...

.... The cops followed him, the one grandfather shot holding his now-bandaged arm, cursing and blaspheming. “I’m gonna get my gun back from that old bird,” said the zither-cop. “Yeh,” said Joe. “You—and who else?” I told them I would
bring it to the station house the next day“What was the matter with that one policeman?” mother asked, after they had
gone. “Grandfather shot him,” I said. “What for?” she demanded. I told her he was a deserter. “Of all things!” said mother. “He was such a nice-looking young man.”

Grandfather was fresh as a daisy and full of jokes at breakfast next morning. We thought at first he had forgotten all about what had happened, but he hadn’t. Over his third cup of coffee, he glared at Herman and me. “What was the idee of all
them cops tarryhootin’ round the house last night?” he demanded. He had us there.


From 'My Life And Hard Times", c 1933.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I'm the dinosaur. A guy was trading fire down a hallway from around the corner with 9mm armed officers. I fired one round of 125 grain .357 Magnum ammo from a 3 inch Model 13 in the 48 inch wide hallway. There was a stunned silence on all parts. There was a five inch wide crater ib the brick wall. Then, the .32 ACP was tossed out into the hall.

Worked out well. I already had hearing loss, but the tinnitus was worse for a while.

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CPT, Armor (Ret)
Luke 22:36

I would use whatever was available to stop a threat. In all likelihood it would be a .45 ACP or .357 Magnum, but I would not hesitate to use a 7.62x51 (or .45-70). I had a truck battery explode in my face, and could hear nothing for nearly 3 hours, not even my own voice. It got better quickly.

I have never shot a gun anywhere near that loud. I wouldn't do it without good cause, but turning up the volume on Fox News is better than not being around to hear it.

I'd rather have both.

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"He was kinda funny lookin'"

I have 45 acp & 12 ga 00 buckshot as my home defense ammo.
Would not worry about hearing lost if I had to shoot.

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2B1ASK1

I keep ear plugs right next to my go to 1911 just for this reason.Does not take much time or effort to put them in,and I can still hear pretty good with them.Better to train and be prepared for multiple armed intruders,then just one.Saving your hearing is worth it.

The 357 in the nightstand is loaded with 38+P because it doesn't shoot as much flame and it doesn't kick as much as 357. Controllable followup shots are important.
I don't really care about the noise.

And you will tell the police about the danger to your life, or that of loved ones, that was so imminent as to require deadly force but that allowed you sufficient time to put on your ear plugs instead of spending the time calling the cops?

Doesn't sound like a very good plan to me.

Never gave it any significant amount of thought.
I've always figured that in that sort of scenario, hearing protection would be the least of my worries.
I'll use whatever I can get my hands on first.
Multiple rounds of 9mm, or (hopefully) fewer rounds of either 357mag or 44spl.

For handgun calibers, I've replaced my HD .357's with 9mm, partially for sound but mostly for convenience. Still keep the .357's loaded with SD rounds and would use them without reservation if needed, though they are staged last in line now.

And spending time grabbing a gun instead of calling the Police as well? If the boys in blue are there quick enough to see me discard earplugs,then they can take care of the bad guys for me right.

Never gave hearing protection a thought when it comes to home defense. Call it mall ninja or whatever you want but it's simply not something that concerns me. I don't foresee a running gun battle or trench warfare. A few rounds aren't going to make a difference.

Ill add that I have shot.....
9mm, 38spl, 357 mag, 45acp, 556, 7.62x39, 7.62x54, 50AE, 12G.....all indoors, in a soundproof room, and all without hearing protection. Not all at once and not whole magazines, but one or two rounds. It's very doable and your ears don't explode, or bleed. You don't go death. All that happens is your ears feel weird for 2 minutes.

My nightstand gun is my carry gun so I'd shoot 9mm but only because that's what I use. If it were 308 or 12G I'd be fine with that too

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For the next 9 months or so, I have my Five-seveN and Dead Air Mask silencer. I have SS198 (fast 27 gr.) loaded because subsonic SB193 won't cycle.

Once my SBR'd PS90 barrel is approved it will be my home defense firearm of choice. SB193 cycles just fine.

Auditory occlusion is an unwise bet to make. Macho BS.

I firmly believe that the Hearing Protection Act is long overdue. Suppressors need to be made much more readily available.

I have a M94, 30-30 standing beside the bed. I have never shot it in the house but I bet it will make big bang. Larry

You may have some permanent hearing damage that you don't even realize you have. I once fired a 357 magnum inside a small room and my ears bothered me much of the rest of the night. I now have a 44 special as a bedside gun so I can shoot a big bullet without as much roar as the 357 magnum. I know a number of long time shooters with partial hearing loss that they attribute to firearms.

I have a 50AE.If you can shoot that round indoors without hearing protection, and without suffering ear damage,then you are extraordinary.

Possibly. I don't know because I have no problem hearing. But those were not all at once or a lot. Probably happened within a span of two years. One round here and there

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I posted earlier about using a 12G in a Inside home defense situation.


I did have one bad event out hunting back in the late 70s. I was hunting deer and had my 29 4'' with full house factory loads. I was watching down a small valley and this deer came "the wrong way" from behind me. I managed to slowly get the gun up and fired hitting him square in the chest between his front legs.

The blast was quite loud. I did not realize how loud at the time till about 10 minuets latter my buddy came over from behind me and taped me on the shoulder. I jumped Olympic class distance. as I never heard him come over to my area. He said he heard the shot and came over to help me and he was yelling at me for the last 50 yards or so. I never heard a thing. I was deaf/half deaf for about 3 hours more but I regained my hearing. It did not appear to have lasting problems as to this day I hear OK. Passed DOT physicals no problem!

So if its a shoot situation you do what you got to do.

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14 S&W Revs none with locks!

180 gr. 10mm loaded w/ low flash powder @ 1225 fps. Have shot it at night, no blindness.
I haven't shot any (.38+P, 9, 10) of my SD loads without ears to judge noise, however.

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an actual conservative

Seems logical to avoid hi pressure magnum loads, 9mm are bad enough- but that's what I got.

I think you mean with no apparentloss of hearing I shot an 8 inch howitzer for 4 years and various 155mm howitzers for 6 more with no apparent loss of hearing. Then I woke up one morning and realized I was asking my wife tho repeat herself frequently and turning up the TV louder and louder and louder (I started using captions about a year ago).

Now I can't use a telephone, I listen to music and half of it just isn't there for me. As I mentioned previously I use the captions when I watch TV.

Hearing loss is incremental and permanent . Once it's gone it's gone.

No. Just, NO.

Auditory exclusion means you don't remember how loud the gun shots were it doesn't mean they won't damage your ears. One of the most common medical complaints among veterans of the current war is permanent hearing loss and tinnitus. If auditory exclusion protected you from hearing loss this wouldn't be the case.

A gun shot is 160 db anything over 140db causes permanent hearing loss.

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Retired Career Security Guard

My thoughts exactly. I'll swear this has never crossed my mind.

That weird feeling was your ears telling you they've been permanently damaged

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Retired Career Security Guard

I'm sure it is but once again it was over a couple of years. At work we had access to a empty building and once in a while someone would bring in something to shoot. Wasn't all shot at once. This happened from 1998 - 2002 I have no problem to this day. No ringing, not hard to hear, no whatever would be associated with this. I'm sure prolonged exposure would be very bad but it's no different than having a accidental discharge.

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Just a note for you tilt-barrel design type of folk - if you do decide to acquire a silencer, you may very well want to include a "Nielsen/booster" device too. At least inquire whether your chosen suppressor might include one in the price. Typically, there's just not enough OOmph to cycle the action with subsonic ammunition.

I have no limit. I've posted a chart on here before.357,9mm, 12GA, 5.56 - not that much in it less than 10db. They were in the 115-120db range

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K & N S&W revolvers

In a legitimate, life-or-death, self-defense situation? 105 mm.

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Pisgah

Ditto.

I suppose that saving one's own neck could outweigh the risk of hearing loss. I get that. However, I can't imagine touching off a .357 or .44 Magnum in the hallway of my house. I'm pretty sure it would be the last sound I would ever hear.

I personally don't believe the stories that the body attenuates auditory stimulus in stressful situations. Your brain may not hear it, but your eardrums will take a pounding just the same.

My 9mm edc sits on the nightstand beside me, but I also have a .40 S&W nearby. In a home invasion I would not hesitate to use either out of concern for potential hearing loss. Having said that, I do keep ear plugs on the nightstand as well, and given the time, I will use them.

Hearing loss is not recoverable, and if I can take such a simple step to protect mine - I will.

.357, .44 magnum etc. are calibers that I would not shoot indoors for self-defense, not just over concern of noise level or muzzle flash, but because (IMO) they bring nothing to the table that cannot be handled by my current choices.

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Stay protected my friends.

Okay, my unfortunate/fortunate incident above notwithstanding, my nightstand gun is a S&W Model 12-2 .38 Special with a 2 inch barrel and standard pressure ammunition. Sitting on top of it are my electronic earmuffs with fresh batteries. I don't want to damage my hearing any more than it is, and I can use (really use) the amplification that they provide. The alarm system and dog give me my early warning, and the wife would call 9-1-1.

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CPT, Armor (Ret)
Luke 22:36

Nobody knows how much and when the noise will be great enough to cause hearing loss. In my world hearing loss would be the least of my problems, I've got tinnitus and it's no joke. Most likely the result of an accumulation of a life time of exposure to noise. I am more scared of an increase in tinnitus than I am of a home invasion. I will be beating my intruder with a bat.

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Back to back World War Champs.

For me, I would say the noise of gunfire in a HD situation would be a consideration, but not a driving factor in my choices. For example, if I had a .357 Magnum revolver, I'd probably keep it loaded with .38 Special. FWIW, I remember seeing some decibel charts that showed .45ACP to have the lowest sound pressure of the most common service calibers.

Also, as others have said, auditory exclusion is a perceptual phenomena, in that you're brain may not perceive the noise, but that doesn't change the effects that high sound pressures would have on the physical components of your ears.

All through college I worked in nightclubs, and in the summers I did concert security. I remember coming home from work with my ears still ringing, lasting at least a couple hours. I can't say that I didn't have loads of fun in my college days, but I'm beginning to wonder if it was worth it. Now, almost 40 years later, I have a hard time hearing normal conversation if there is any background noise at all, a dishwasher for example. In a quiet room, I'm starting to notice some tinnitus creeping in.

As far as gunfire, I can count on one hand the times I've fired a hunting rifle without ear pro. Despite the fact that those events involved non-Magnum calibers fired outdoors, I know I've experienced hearing loss from that too.

Hearing loss is cumulative, so you better believe that I double up, using both plugs and muffs, at the range. In a home defense scenario, anything more that a .22 short will be pretty loud and damaging indoors. Electronic ear pro enhances my failing hearing, which I hope would be defensible in court after a justifiable shooting, especially from a barricaded position. Unfortunately, I doubt that a suppressor would be equally defensible in most courts.

I hate the thought that I would spend the rest of my days with tinnitus, never being able to enjoy music again, because some loser at life invaded my home. Maybe I should consider other options for a home defense tool. A Katana or Wakizashi would be whisper quiet, always loaded, and have far better retention than a handgun. But unlike a round from a handgun, this option wouldn't leave a trauma surgeon with much to work with. Oh well, at least it's not an evil gun with a "silencer."

My hearing has suffered too, primarily from my exposure to running aircraft engines. I always used hearing protection but once in a while got caught without.

It boggles my mind that the U.S. government restricts silencers, instead of promoting them. I guess it's the Hollywood effect...