Is It Necessary For Hunters To Wear Ear Protection?

By Author: Christian Pogreba
Total Articles: 2
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Are you someone who goes out and uses a rifle to go hunting on a consistent basis? As a hunter, are you wearing the necessary protection to protect your ears? The blast from a rifle is extremely loud, measuring in at close to 160 decibels.

It has been documented that someone who goes out target shooting will be exposed to the amount of noise that you should experience for an entire year in just a few minutes. A lot of hunters go out and prepare themselves for the elements in numerous different ways; however, they tend to forget about the importance of protecting their ears from the damaging effects of the gunshot.

In order to be safe, it is recommended that hunters are always equipped with ear protection because there is no way to predict when you are going to need to fire off a shot. Small game hunters are normally going to use guns that will send an impulse noise that is loud enough to cause loss of hearing and tinnitus with just one single shot, as long as the acoustic conditions are right.

If you are experiencing a ringing in the ears, you are probably dealing with tinnitus. This condition is irreversible, ...
... so the best way to eliminate the worry of tinnitus is to protect your hearing from the very beginning.

Hunters could benefit tremendously from a non-linear plug or one of the electronic hearing forms of protection. The electronic devices and the plugs will allow the user to be able to hear the softer sounds that are going on around them, yet they will block out the louder sounds to maintain a safer noise level.

It is estimated that roughly 40 percent of hunters have never used any form of protection when they are at the shooting range. Only 10 percent of hunters make sure that they are using protection at all times.

During hunting, there are fewer than 20 percent of hunters that will wear hearing protection. Can you imagine how much you are putting your hearing at risk by the severity of the gun blasts? Your hearing is at a substantial risk if you fire multiple shots from a large firearm within a few seconds.

This does not mean that you are going to notice the hearing loss instantly, but rather it is going to happen over the course of time. You may not notice the hearing loss from the first day of shooting and it may not even be noticeable in your normal everyday environments.

It may have affected the ability of the hunter to be able to interpret the words that are being said at a distance of 40 feet away; whereas, the day before the hunting trip he was able to interpret words from over 50 feet away. In a normal daily living environment you may not even notice that there is any deterioration in the levels at which you are hearing. However, when you are in a noisy environment you will be able to tell that there is a difference.

As the course of time goes on, you are going to be able to notice the hearing loss more and more with each shot that is fired without protection. You will begin to ask people to repeat themselves on a regular basis and the television will suddenly become very loud just so you can hear it at a normal level. This hearing loss is not reversible, so try to avoid hearing loss that is noise-induced at all costs. There is also the possibility for an acoustic trauma to occur, if you are exposed to extreme levels of noise.

Christian Pogreba was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, but has lived in Virginia for over a decade. Christian loves working with people and helping them regain the conversational ability they have lost. He realizes that as we age we have a lot to share and if we are hearing impaired, that limits our ability to have truly meaningful conversations.