caorach
Well-Known Member
I think you somewhat misrepresent or misunderstand what I said, as does Big Ears, so perhaps I wasn't very clear.
I am not in any way advocating not protecting your hearing. I responded to someone who was mentioning that their left ear was more damaged than their right and I was detailing that this is a common occurrence but it may not be happening quite as we sometimes imagine it. What happened was that the military believed that if you shot right handed then your left ear would suffer most damage but they found that people who shot left handed also tended to mostly report damage to the left ear. Research was carried out and it was found that people have a "stronger" and a "weaker" ear and the stronger ear, most commonly the right, is less prone to damage. The research was specific to shooting. I'm not claiming this as my own work, I'm merely documenting what research is saying as it is a very interesting point that certainly changed my view on the matter. I didn't make this up as, quite frankly, I thought I knew how it worked and I would have the imagination to come up with this as a story. I suspect that Brian Moore discussed a possible mechanism for it in one of his books, I only own "Cochlear Hearing Loss" and "Introduction" so it will be in one or the other. Science is never settled, it might change or it might already have changed, but at the minute I suspect that we understand one ear to be less prone to damage than the other one. I also have made no claims that this means you don't need to protect your hearing, I have merely detailed an interesting phenomena and suggested a possible mechanism as to why many people report damage to their left ear despite, in some cases, shooting left handed.
Where confusion may arise that I am suggesting not protecting your hearing is when it comes to shooting a moderated rifle. As I've stated before some moderators on some rifles will reduce the sound pressure below the threshold for "instant" damage and into the world of "dose" and should you have such a moderator and rifle then it is safe to shoot it, for a limited number of shots, without wearing additional hearing protection. Some moderators claim an attenuation of 35dB as do some ear plugs and so both offer the same level of hearing protection, one isn't better than the other and you would gain no form of "magic" by wearing plugs instead of using the moderator. An attenuation of 35dB is an attenuation of 35dB. Some people may wish to wear plugs and use a moderator either because they are unsure if their moderator is adequate to protect their hearing, due to a medical condition, or just for the comfort factor of being doubly sure. In these cases what they are doing is a good idea, and if they are unsure about their moderator then it is very necessary.
The impact of the psychological condition of the subject on actual physical cochlear damage is documented in "Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing" by Brian Moore. I don't have a copy here (I own at least 4 copies all of which are on loan to various people) or I would reread it to confirm that what I have said precisely reflects the science on the matter so I would suggest that anyone with an interest does double check this statement.
