Hearing and Ear Protection for Shooting

How Can Shooting Affect Your Ears and Hearing

Firing a gun has the ability to hit over 140dB to 190dB, this is enough to permanently damage your hearing when not wearing ear protection.

Due to the angle at which you fire a gun, means that one ear tends to be more exposed than the other. Being right handed this will be your left ear and being left handed this will be your right ear that is most exposed. 

Noise Induced Hearing Loss

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Constant exposure to the loudness level of shooting causes damage to the inner ear hair cells especially those responsible for high frequency hearing. Noise induced hearing loss is permanent and measures should be made to reduce the occurance of it. It is also noted that with noise induced hearing loss can result in tinnitus (see http://www.hse.gov.uk/research/rrhtm/rr768.htm(link is external)) . 

Best Ear Protection for Shooting

Protecting your ears while shooting is crucial. It is one of the only sports that exposes your ears to sudden loud blasts over 140dB. It can be enough to cause permanent hearing damage and tinnitus. There are a few different methods and choices from in the ear devices, to noise cancellation headphones. Due to the nature of the sport and the potential dangers that come with using a riffle the ability to hear conversation and some of your surroundings helps with your safety and general enjoyment and should be a factor when finding ear protection that it takes this into account. Below are a few options to make you think about the pros and cons of what choices are there for you.