Hearing Protection while stalking
- Thread starter Terrydeer
- Start date
You won't know until it's too late. For what it's worth, you might as well shove in a pair of plugs and hopefully retain the good hearing that you've got....that's my concern, but I honestly don't feel any effects of it. Is it damaging me and i can't feel it or any discomfort it? Is my set up of a a big mod and a slow moving 2600ft per second pill having minimal sound impact?
I wish I'd been more inclined to use hearing protection when I started shooting years ago. I had really good hearing then. Now a lot is masked by the constant ringing in my ears, which is sometimes loud enough to keep me awake at night. It is also at precisely the same pitch as the high temperature alarm on my chiller, so I often have to go and check it, convinced that I can hear the alarm sounding.
The fact that I now stalk without a mod has made me much more inclined not to take chances, and my hearing hasn't deteriorated further, or my tinnitus worsened, in the past few years even though I'm now shooting a lot more often.
caorach
Well-Known Member
I presume a DPT is a moderator? In that case you are doing what the science says you should do. There are sort of two ways to damage your hearing one is through a "dose" of sound - you'd see this in a factory for example where a worker might be exposed to 90dB(A) for 8 hours and this would cause damage over time. The other damage comes from a very short duration but extremely loud "impulse" of sound and this is where you can "instantly" cause damage in a tiny fraction of a second. There is a sound pressure level where the damage potential transitions from the impulse type damage to the dose mechanism - below this point the short impulse won't do damage on its own but a "dose" of them over time will. In this sense "time" is normally considered to be a 24 hour period as a lot of the research relates to noise in a working environment. A rifle shot is very loud but of extremely short duration and so if you can moderate it so below the sound pressure level where it causes instant damage and into the "dose" region then you can be safe from damage until the time duration of your shots, accounting for the SPL, reaches the "dose" at which damage takes place.
It is likely that some moderators move some rifles down from the "impulse" damage region and into the "dose" region and in that instance you'd need a lot of shots before you'd do damage and I would suggest that this is where you find yourself with your rifle.
As an aside the catch with a lot of this is that measuring the sound pressure level of a rifle shot is an extremely complex process requiring gear that is probably only available (if at all) in the military and a few universities so measurements of moderator performance are likely to be flawed and probably not useful for comparing one moderator to another as the gear used is likely to be operating outside of its linear operating range.
glasshalffull
Well-Known Member
Nor the wife's snoringDon’t have to listen to peoples shite I supposeit has upsides
I use MSA Sordin Pro-X electronic hearing protection. All the protection yet still completely in tune with my surrounding. They are also completely waterproof and have a 5 year warranty! After damaging my hearing, I won't shoot without them on, well worth the investment!
My son gave me a pair of electronic ear defenders and they are v good. Use them when range shooting or using shotgun. Most annoying is they are plastic and get v sweaty in the summer I wish they would make leather or suede covers. I also have custom made insertable ear plugs. I don't wear either when shooting with rifle and wildcat moddy. I have significant hearing loss and have hearing aids which are very good.
Hearing was destroyed by pigeon shooting in my youth without hearing protection.
D
Hearing was destroyed by pigeon shooting in my youth without hearing protection.
D
ISOtunes Sport Caliber Ear Defenders | ArdMoor
ISOtunes Sport Caliber Ear Defenders are lightweight wireless in-ear hearing protection with Bluetooth connectivity and sound control
www.ardmoor.co.uk
Has anyone used these?
To broadly sum up some of the posts above, there seems to be a position of "well, the odd shot or two here and there without protection will be alright". How do you think I ( and an awful lot more of us on this forum ) got into our present situation ? Look after your hearing at all times. I wear a seat belt when I drive, even though I do not expect to crash.
Me too - RIP @Alantoo
I guess it depends on how many deer we shoot, I always wear ear defenders on the range (inc zeroing over land) and for all shotgun shooting. My personal risk assessment is that one or 2 moderated shots a year will be OK.
Have a read here
www.cdc.gov
What Noises Cause Hearing Loss? | NCEH | CDC
Noise is a significant source of hearing loss, but you can protect your hearing. An important first step is to understand how noise causes hearing loss.
www.cdc.gov
A Generalisation but gives you an idea.
270 Winchester and similar rifles produce 160-170db. A good moderator may reduce this down to 130-140db. 150db is 32 times as loud as 120db. 123db is twice as loud as 120db.
270 Winchester and similar rifles produce 160-170db. A good moderator may reduce this down to 130-140db. 150db is 32 times as loud as 120db. 123db is twice as loud as 120db.
RescueMe0007
Well-Known Member
People should be aware that the scale for measuring sound pressure energy is logarithmic, so for every 3dBa the sound pressure energy doubles. It is that energy that damages ones hearing. Shooting firearms absolutely requires hearing protection, unless one is happy to become deaf and socially excluded.
caorach
Well-Known Member
Sound pressure levels are often misunderstood or misrepresented. The key thing to remember is that a decibel is a ratio and not an absolute value so you can increase something by 3dB, or reduce it by 3dB, but it can't ever have an absolute value of 3dB. Therefore any measure of absolute "sound" has to be relative to some fixed reference and any discussion must make this reference clear hence why you will often see sound stated as 50dB SPL or 50dB(A) or 50dB(C) as these sounds will be 50dB "louder" than the 0dB reference level for that particular standard.
Knowing this is a useful first test for any document you read about sound or noise as if they are quoting 50dB as the "level" of the sound then they don't understand the most basic principles and believe that 50dB can be an absolute measure of sound pressure. You can stop reading right there as the person who wrote it knows less than you do.
In theory using decibels to measure sound (and you could measure anything using decibels as it is simply a ratio so it isn't specific to sound) makes life easier for everyone but in practice it can be confusing and lead to people getting "mixed up." I work with sound, in decibels, all day every day and even then I often mess it up or have to go and get the books out to understand something very basic so in casual conversation on a forum like this it is certainly no big deal getting a bit mixed up or not quite getting the terms correct as long as your message is understood. What I would say is that it is necessary to be very careful if reading material from "experts" or marketing material where they get the basics wrong. As you would understand someone who can't get the basics correct in what is a rather complex field is unlikely to ever come to the correct conclusion and is also extremely likely to fail to understand many other aspects of what they are writing about.
Knowing this is a useful first test for any document you read about sound or noise as if they are quoting 50dB as the "level" of the sound then they don't understand the most basic principles and believe that 50dB can be an absolute measure of sound pressure. You can stop reading right there as the person who wrote it knows less than you do.
In theory using decibels to measure sound (and you could measure anything using decibels as it is simply a ratio so it isn't specific to sound) makes life easier for everyone but in practice it can be confusing and lead to people getting "mixed up." I work with sound, in decibels, all day every day and even then I often mess it up or have to go and get the books out to understand something very basic so in casual conversation on a forum like this it is certainly no big deal getting a bit mixed up or not quite getting the terms correct as long as your message is understood. What I would say is that it is necessary to be very careful if reading material from "experts" or marketing material where they get the basics wrong. As you would understand someone who can't get the basics correct in what is a rather complex field is unlikely to ever come to the correct conclusion and is also extremely likely to fail to understand many other aspects of what they are writing about.
Washing your hands is critical!
I remember being out pigeon shooting, had taken one out to take a phone call, rolled and re-inserted then looked at my hands covered in pigeon blood, thought to myself ‘shouldn’t have done that’! Sure enough, 1 week later I had an ear infection…..
roaring_stag
Well-Known Member
It would appear this isn’t just an ‘old chap’s’ issue.
I am 32 years old, and have recently visited the audiologist. I have partial hearing loss in my left year, and have developed persistant tinnitus in the same ear. I am religious about wearing ear def (CFG passive moulded units) when i am shooting my shotgun, however I have never worn ear def when stalking and using a moderated (or unmoderated) rifle.
My job requires me to shoot a moderated rifle, multiple times per week (deer contractor), and I am advised to think really long and hard about the choice NOT to wear ear defence when shooting a rifle. I am told by my audiologist that a 12ga shotgun discharging next to your head is almost as damaging to one’s hearing than a centrefire moderated round being fired next to your head.
To that end, I have recently invested in someextortionate Expensive hearing defence from CENS. I plan to use them as often as I can, and hopefully I wont be entirely deaf by 40!
RS
I am 32 years old, and have recently visited the audiologist. I have partial hearing loss in my left year, and have developed persistant tinnitus in the same ear. I am religious about wearing ear def (CFG passive moulded units) when i am shooting my shotgun, however I have never worn ear def when stalking and using a moderated (or unmoderated) rifle.
My job requires me to shoot a moderated rifle, multiple times per week (deer contractor), and I am advised to think really long and hard about the choice NOT to wear ear defence when shooting a rifle. I am told by my audiologist that a 12ga shotgun discharging next to your head is almost as damaging to one’s hearing than a centrefire moderated round being fired next to your head.
To that end, I have recently invested in some
RS
I take it you went digital then?
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