Three old shooters were sitting on the park bench. First one said Windy isn't it? Second one said no, I think it's Thursday. Third one said I am too, lets go get a drink. I think I was one of those guys and I am too vain or poor to get hearing aids. I don't remember when hearing protection started for shooters, but it was too late for me. Does anyone else have this problem?

I'm 73, and always wore hearing protection (muffs, not just plugs). My hearing went to hell anyway, and now I wear hearing aids. The audiologist said its likely that the guns were not the main cause. My hearing aids are a "life saver" for me. Yes they are expensive...mine were $4,200.

I have hearing loss in a certain frequency range. I also have tinnitus in my left ear, the result of shooting a single Treasury load from a 2" Detective Special without hearing protection.

I don't mind the high cost of hearing aids but the problem is, they only last a few years and must then be replaced.

I now wear hearing protection when shooting, using certain power tools and when attending weddings, where DJs tend to use weapons-grade sound systems that can blow your brain right out of your head.

Flying helicopters for a career ruined my hearing. Got hearing aids through the VA, thank goodness, but they aren't worth a **** in a crowded room. They are great for one on one conversations.

I never thought about the VA even though they are my primary health care. Did your hearing loss have to be service connected? I don't know what ruined my hearing. I never did all that much shooting in the military but I don't remember any hearing protection either.

I remember being "young,immortal & stupid'! Didn't use no stinkin ear protection....fired 44 mags.outdoors! MEN....didn't use them.....ringing ears....were a sign of being tough!! Man...if I had only known!
Jim

Tinnitus and some hearing loss. The damage was done by college. Too many concerts and all the unprotected shooting didn't help either I'm sure. I worry for today's kids who have earbuds jammed into their ears for hours on end and music so loud you can hear it across the room from them.

Uncle Sam gave me a 105 howitzer, but nobody said diddly about ear protection. 20 years later, audiologist with no history from me yet said: "You were either on a 105 or a 155, sometime in the mid-1960s, weren't you?" Of course, the M60, 3.5 rocket launcher, and M14 all did their shares. WTH, tho. I'd do it again. Duty, and all that.

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de minimus non curat lex

Tinnitus and some hearing loss.Always wore hearing protection when shooting,but it never dawned on me to wear it when building

Yep, shot all sorts of calibers when I was a kid. Had a little loss when I went in the service. By the time I got out the high freq end was pretty much gone. Course by the time I had been in a couple of years and my primary flight duty had shifted to radio, I would wear my rubber ear plugs under my helmet to cut down the static from the HF radio.
Works OK thought. The high pitch whines that drive other people crazy don't bother me at all. It is also an acceptable excuse for not paying attention to my wife sometimes. Larry

You too? I thought I was the only one

Until I went to an audiologist as part of a physical and proved I do have moderate hearing loss, my wife always thought I had selective hearing. She doesn't know it, but I actually have both.

I'm kind of like arjay. I always wore it shooting. It's that 20 years in a plastic molding plant and a lot of loud rock n roll over about 45 years, plus 25 years of drag racing motorcycles that have taken a toll on my ears.
I'm surprised that this thread has gone this far and no one yet has blamed marriage.

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Wayne
Torn & Frayed

Wife has always says I have a "selective hearing" problem. I said It doesn't work that well, because I can't hear the tv over you talking.

I still love her though.

Wife gave me fits for ignoring her when she was talking until I visited her at work. She put me in the hearing booth, looked at the printout and exclaimed "you really cannot hear".

She was a nurse in a paper mill, so now she has hearing loss also. The neighbors think we scream at each other from anger and do not understand our hearing problems. "Get the kids in the house quick, they are at it again!!"

Shotguns, industrial noises, wind noises in cars and other things worked together to remove selected frequencies. Certain frequencies are heard just fine while others I cannot hear.

Yes, no matter what the ads say, they do not magically get rid of background noise. I even have trouble if two people are talking at the same time. Usually, it's one-on-one or forget it.
Also, some rooms give a echo, especially high ceiling ones.

I did some shooting without hearing protection in my younger years, but that's not what caused my problem. My problem was operating farm tractors, often 12 or more hours a day, for many days at a time, without hearing protection.

My dad was cheap. If a muffler on a tractor wore out, he never bought a new one. He just happened to have a bunch of pipe lying around the farm. He would just go out and get a section of pipe with an expanded end on it; which, curiously enough, always fit the tractors' manifold outlets. He would then take a hammer and tap it onto the manifold until it bottomed out, and wah-lah! -a new exhaust! To be fair, though, I really don't know how much difference a new muffler would have made. Tractors are just plain loud.

. . .Especially if they have a certain kind of powerplant. Our neighbor, who lived on the next road, had an Oliver 1950 with a 4-53 GM 2-stroke diesel. This was his primary tillage tractor, and spring and fall we listened to him plow a mile away. Those GM/Detroit 2-strokes are infamous for "turning fuel into noise." I don't know how he could hear a thing -he never wore hearing protection.

I'm guessing there aren't but a few farmers who post here; but if any of them see this, please make sure your sons and daughters are protected when they run your equipment. Otherwise they may end up like me, catching about half or less of what people around them are saying.

Regards,
Andy

You know, every time I forget my tinnitus someone starts a thread about it. IT'S BaaacK!

Same here, in different ranges. Overall affect is I hear fine. Sometimes my son hears things I don't, like annoying high-pitched sounds, which, of course, I'm glad not to hear.

100% hearing protection at range for many years now. But I don't wear any when hunting.

I'm usually pretty good about wearing hearing protection on the range.

Now, if I had just taken that same advice working in industrial enviornments in my youth, I wouldn't have hearing loss on certain frequencies with occasional tinnitus.

Sometimes, it's bad enough that I need to have "white noise" in the background when I'm trying to sleep.

Nowadays I wear hearing protection when I use power tools or even a vacuum cleaner. I carry a small bag with some earplugs in my briefcase "just in case." I recall reading one of Bill Jordan's columns-over 30 years ago, where he noted his last set of hearing aides cost over $1,000. Just looked at a brief web article which said jet engines spurred the development of ear muffs and when I went through BCT in the Summer of 1967 we carried our earplugs in a little plastic in the top button hole of our fatigue shirts.

I lost a lot of my hearing in the USAF as a Jet engine Mech. Standing under a B66 bomber with engines running at max power in order to adjust the output and check for leaks. I used hearing muffs since the 70's for shooting. When I got out of the USAF in 63 they told me I might qualify for a partial disability for hearing loss. I didn't want to spend another week at Ft Dix, NJ so I opted to go home. Fast forward 40 years later and my tinnitus was keeping me awake at night and I can't hear the ringer on my office phone. I did contact my local Veterans rep, and he got paperwork rolling and within 6 months, (and a couple trips to a VA Hospital for testing and fitting) I have some decent hearing aids and it helped tremendously with my Tinnitus. In addition I now get a monthly VA check for $133. After 5 years I had to reschedule hearing evaluation and they offered my new hearing aids, and I am very glad I took them. The advancements are unbelievable. These new Phonak aids have adjustments of 5 levels up and 5 levels down. They are computer analyzed to mesh with just the ranges I have the losses in, and when in a crowded room, I can adjust the level down and kick out the extraneous noise. Just yesterday I was at an gun auction with 600 people, and by knocking them down 2 levels I could hear well and not put up with all the excess noise. So in most cases you can be helped. I was well pleased with the VA and what they did.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

What???

Viet Nam ruined my hearing, and the VA gave me pretty good hearing aids. I learned the very first time not to wear them in a restaurant - nearly drove me crazy. I had to remove them.

I went to the audiologist with my wife. The testing determined that I had lost 1/3 of my hearing, all in the upper range.
The audiologist had treated many older L/E and Fire Service veterans. He attributed much of the loss to the mounting of sirens on the roof of emergency vehicles. He felt that the elevated adrenaline of responding to an emergency run accelerated loss.
When he told my wife that I really couldn't hear ladies voices and I was not ignoring him, I could have given him a big ole kiss for that license to steal.
The siren speakers are now mounted under the hood or on the front bumper in front of the driver.

To Crazyphil, huh, what did you say?

Tinnitus, constant ringing, some frequencies lost, I shot lots and lots when young. Some farm tractor stuff. When I was an LE I used to squirrel hunt with my python using 38 wad cutters, not loud, I'd never worn protection and had done thousands of rounds in my Colt 1911.

One day I was hunting and it was close to qualification time, I being very smart decided to use Super Vel 357's that day, it was 1980. I do remember this. I used a tree for a rest, right hand over my left arm at the tree. At the shot the tree forced the noise back to my left ear. It hurt unreal. It has never quit ringing. After that I use hearing protection for everything, remodeling and the Remington concrete nail drivers are bad dudes.

I have been around chain saws all my life up to 1986 and lots in the last 5 years. I keep muffs with them. I have remodeling ear muffs for my wife.

After I hurt my ear I told my Bro and Dad, we all cut wood and shot. Both immediately bought and used muffs. It was too late for Dad, untold 06 and Thompson 45 acp's in WW II. I read an article about the good old DNA **** and hearing loss like many others is passed down. I asked my Mom if Dad's parents had hearing problems, she said Dad's Mom had almost complete loss and wore aids for years. Not from shooting, from her ancestors.

My Bro did not shoot as much as me with pistols and shotguns, rifles oh heck yea. His loss is not as bad as mine.

I've grown used to the ringing. Some time it sounds like a favorite song.

My wife has a lite little girl voice. If she turns towards me and speaks I can hear her. If she turns her head or starts talking as she heads out of the room I ask her to repeat, this tends to irritate her. I tell her my hearing loss can be dealt with if you speak towards me and a little louder.

I may have an ally in Rock and Roll, she listened to it loud, i mean LOUD. Now she is often saying huh? I've always made her use muffs when target shooting but not when hunting.

Her kids are saying things to her like that's not what I said. Gee it's the same she's said to me over the last few years. I guess we can text each other.....

Go to the VA get help & file a claim , in service shooting the the only ear protection was cig filters Old Seabee

30 years of flying helicopters pretty much destroyed my hearing, even using foam plugs and a helmet. I went to the VA clinic to see about hearing aids and they told me as a retired 0-3 I make too much money to use the VA. That didn't make sense and I ended up spending 5K for hearing aids at Miracle Ear. How does one get a VA disability for hearing?

Tradewinds36, contact your local VA rep. Look in the phone book under Veterans Administration. Take a copy of your DD214 and any correspondence you have.

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H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

For some biological reason, my hearing has always been a bit more sensitive than other people's. I found that out for sure as a kid back in the 1960s when we went to an open house at an air base, an F-104 (remember the old Starfighter?) did a fly-by and climbed out on afterburner, and I peed in my pants (literally). My dad was not amused, but I learned that I better be careful around sudden loud noises.

So I've always been that anal-retentive guy you see at the range who stuffs foam plugs into his ears and then puts the regular hearing protectors on over that. Fortunately, on occasions such as hunting the adrenaline somewhat buffers the receptors.

My hearing is doing okay so far. Sometimes being dorky pays off in the long run.

I learned to wear Hearing Protection years ago when a Moron decided it was a good idea to shoot His 357 Magnum in the Basement.My Ears didn't stop ringing for a entire day,From then on I wore hearing protection when shooting.

Tradewinds36, go to the VA and request a hearing exam from an audiologist. I didn't retire but got RIF'ed as an O4 and have full VA coverage because of a Purple Heart.