Always use ear plugs.. or head phones, unless you are in a serious situation... Don't pull our ear plugs for that.. haha
Always use ear plugs.. or head phones, unless you are in a serious situation... Don't pull our ear plugs for that.. haha
I'll fire an occasional 9mm or .38 without any ear protection(but never magnums or multiple rounds), simple to keep myself aware of what they sound like so i'm not thrown off mentally if I ever had to use a gun in self defense. I know that experts say that the perceived sound is almost non existent in a high stress defensive situation, but I figure that knowing as much as possible with what i'm dealing with is always an advantage, as long as I don't damage myself in the process. My brother is an audiologist, and he swears up and down that it's constant sound or repeating constant sound that does the actual damage such as working in a factory, not short bursts of sound like gunshots or loud music for a few minutes, sure you could blow your ear drum if too loud but a shot here or there or a single shot in hunting season is no big deal, and a knowing what to expect is good thing.
Bit of an aside, the yellow 3M classics are my all time favorite for work. Being around jets all day I'm still surprised at the number of other pilots that will go wandering around a busy ramp without ears in. And no one ever seems to make a connection to all the old guys around saying "what was that" all the time. I have some high-freq loss from the job, I can't get that back, but I never hesitate to take a sec to pop in ear plugs now.
For shooting I always double up. It's just not worth it.
So what then when you get into a self defense shooting you are guaranteed to lose your hearing? WTF
Yes, that is a real possibility. But, you know, suppressors...just sayin...
Silencers are now legal in Michigan fyi