Can a Gunshot Damage Hearing from 150 Meters Away?

[nikkinikki]

Yesterday I woke up in the night with a spike (tinnitus for 8 weeks now, probably noise induced from an isolated incident). I even took the day off work to make sure I wouldn't aggravate the spike by being in that environment.

This afternoon I wanted to walk around my neighbourhood, so I went down to the path by the water. I didn't bring hearing protection, as it's always quiet down there. BUT TODAY, some people were racing their sailboats using a starting gun. The minute that gun fired, I turned tail and went home.

So my question is, can a gunshot from ~150 meters away, outside and over open water, be damaging to unprotected ears from that distance? Should I be worried?

 

[astaff14]

Maybe. Tinnitus is fickle, and if there's one thing I've learned is that it won't always make sense. I've gotten a spike from 5 minutes of listening to earphones a little too loud, but been fine at a loud bar with music blasting all day. your best bet is to be careful, always carry hearing protection and see if your tinnitus has any patterns in terms of what will and won't spike it.

 

[dan]

Maybe. Tinnitus is fickle, and if there's one thing I've learned is that it won't always make sense. I've gotten a spike from 5 minutes of listening to earphones a little too loud, but been fine at a loud bar with music blasting all day. your best bet is to be careful, always carry hearing protection and see if your tinnitus has any patterns in terms of what will and won't spike it.

What I've learned from having severe tinnitus for 10 years:
Your safest bet will be to climb under your bed and never come out. Seriously.

 

[jjflyman]

So my question is, can a gunshot from ~150 meters away, outside and over open water, be damaging to unprotected ears from that distance? Should I be worried?

IMO: No, won't cause any damage.

 

[Tommo5]

What I've learned from having severe tinnitus for 10 years:
Your safest bet will be to climb under your bed and never come out. Seriously.

I'm 5 months in and still a bit of a rookie with this. Does this mean cut myself off from anything that's loud? In my case society in general.

 

[dan]

I'm 5 months in and still a bit of a rookie with this. Does this mean cut myself off from anything that's loud? In my case society in general.

You must decide that for yourself bro.
All tinnitus is different and drastic measures don't apply to all. Just saying that if you want to be 100000000% sure you never get a spike or worsen then yeah...