Hello all. I have been lurking around on this site since acquiring my Tinnitus in late December of last year, and I 've finally decided to sign on and share my feelings on a few things.
First my background on how I acquired my Tinnitus. Last December while hunting I was exposed to several blasts from a 12 gauge shotgun, both from mine as well as my hunting partners. The result is a constant ringing in my left ear, along with, according to my ENT, a slight hearing loss only in the highest frequencies. All noise from my left ear also is "muffled", though I believe that it has gotten slightly better in the last few months. I also suffer a sharp stabbing pair deep in my ear periodically, though it is not that bad and quickly fades. I feel that on most days the tinnitus is starting to lessen in volume. Symptoms aside, on to the reason for my post.
Ever since acquiring my T I am now passionate about protecting my hearing. WHich means when I shoot, I now wear deeply inserted foam plugs with the highest NRR muffs I could find, 31 NRR. With this combination the blasts from all types of firearms, even big bore revolvers and muzzled breaked rifles, is muffled to such a high degree that I am completely comfortable, it's so effective that one can barely hear the report of a 22. rifle.
I have seen various people here ask opinions on whether T suffers should give up shooting or not, and folks saying that people with T should not shoot guns anymore as it's too big of a risk (police and military have T suffers, do they stop shooting?). Examples given I've seen sound like "If you still use ear protection your ears are still taking damage". Im not convinced that's the case.
Which leads me to the Decibel number game I like to call it. I understand that 30Nrr muffs and 30nrr plugs does not equal 60 nrr protection. And I"m also aware of the various degrees of decibels for firearms, a 357 magnum for instance is around 165 decibels. This is the part I have trouble understanding and am skeptical of. Lets say my 33 nrr plugs and 31 nrr muffs are giving me a total nrr of 35. Which would mean that this would reduce a 357 magnum shot to 130 decibel's. I find it hard to believe that considering how muffled it sounds with proper hearing protection, and that it is, after doing the decibel math, as loud as a 22. rifle without hearing protection. My point of all that being is I don't think you can simply take the number of decibels from gunfire and equate that to how much noise your ears are going to take.
With that said, I personally refuse to give up on my passion of shooting. Although I am young, 29, I strongly feel that as long as I am careful as can be, and as overprotective of my ears as possible, I can still enjoy my passion. Giving up on shooting and having that stress lingering on my mind would probably cause my tinnitus to spike worse than the shooting ever will. In a way there is one positive thing that came of my tinnitus, and that's I'm more protective of my hearing now that I ever would have been had the T not been there. I hope to hear from other shooters here and how you feel about shooting and your tinnitus. Sorry about the long winded post, glad to be here!
First my background on how I acquired my Tinnitus. Last December while hunting I was exposed to several blasts from a 12 gauge shotgun, both from mine as well as my hunting partners. The result is a constant ringing in my left ear, along with, according to my ENT, a slight hearing loss only in the highest frequencies. All noise from my left ear also is "muffled", though I believe that it has gotten slightly better in the last few months. I also suffer a sharp stabbing pair deep in my ear periodically, though it is not that bad and quickly fades. I feel that on most days the tinnitus is starting to lessen in volume. Symptoms aside, on to the reason for my post.
Ever since acquiring my T I am now passionate about protecting my hearing. WHich means when I shoot, I now wear deeply inserted foam plugs with the highest NRR muffs I could find, 31 NRR. With this combination the blasts from all types of firearms, even big bore revolvers and muzzled breaked rifles, is muffled to such a high degree that I am completely comfortable, it's so effective that one can barely hear the report of a 22. rifle.
I have seen various people here ask opinions on whether T suffers should give up shooting or not, and folks saying that people with T should not shoot guns anymore as it's too big of a risk (police and military have T suffers, do they stop shooting?). Examples given I've seen sound like "If you still use ear protection your ears are still taking damage". Im not convinced that's the case.
Which leads me to the Decibel number game I like to call it. I understand that 30Nrr muffs and 30nrr plugs does not equal 60 nrr protection. And I"m also aware of the various degrees of decibels for firearms, a 357 magnum for instance is around 165 decibels. This is the part I have trouble understanding and am skeptical of. Lets say my 33 nrr plugs and 31 nrr muffs are giving me a total nrr of 35. Which would mean that this would reduce a 357 magnum shot to 130 decibel's. I find it hard to believe that considering how muffled it sounds with proper hearing protection, and that it is, after doing the decibel math, as loud as a 22. rifle without hearing protection. My point of all that being is I don't think you can simply take the number of decibels from gunfire and equate that to how much noise your ears are going to take.
With that said, I personally refuse to give up on my passion of shooting. Although I am young, 29, I strongly feel that as long as I am careful as can be, and as overprotective of my ears as possible, I can still enjoy my passion. Giving up on shooting and having that stress lingering on my mind would probably cause my tinnitus to spike worse than the shooting ever will. In a way there is one positive thing that came of my tinnitus, and that's I'm more protective of my hearing now that I ever would have been had the T not been there. I hope to hear from other shooters here and how you feel about shooting and your tinnitus. Sorry about the long winded post, glad to be here!
Member
