mine is partly from gunfire in the military when I was younger. My tinnitus really hit doing drilling exploration. As a former avid hunter I would say something like 50% of all shooters hunters have a form of tinnitus. If you go over to
www.acccuratereloading.com , the world's largest shooting forum and ask there, you will get some idea from all of the pro hunters and lifetime shooters. Tinnitus is extremely common for them. A lot of them are ex military folk, including ex vietnam vets. Funnily enough most don't care, they seem to have that 'gradual stable hearing loss related' tinnitus that either doesn't scare them or they just learnt to get used to at some stage, since they all still enjoy hunting. This is probably the same statistic as for the military, and again most have levels that do not bug them like we have it. However there are a few cases in where they get the instant version from just one shot or shooting session like yours. These guys find it a lot harder to adjust since one minute they are fine, the next its with them. The consolation is you will find most adjust to it .
Personally I quit shooting when my tinnitus got very bad last year. The fact is even with the best hearing protection, or two sets of hearing protection( earmuffs over earbuds) the impulse noise of most guns being 140-160db is only reduced to 100-120db per shot. One off or seasonal hunting I don't think it would be too bad, you only fire a few shots a year at game.But as I shot high volumes at public ranges( where you are also exposed to
the other 10-20 shooters blasting away for an hour) I realised I would be getting exposed to thousands of shots too many.
Don't cry over split milk though, none of us can read the future and no point being hard 9n yourself. A million people use guns all their career without hearing protection and never get T. You weren't to know you would be in the other group. Me either. I suggest talking to some hunting and shooting forums really. You have some rough tough professionals as well as doctors dentists and CEO's on these sites with T, and not inclined to let it stop them living, they might be able to help you change your prespective on it. On the website I suggested contact MacD37 username in a new thread. If he is still around he has a story of when he got tinnitus I think in the Korean war. Just one session, quad mounted 50 cals as a young man, and he had both ears going like sirens ever since in his words,( suggesting severe bilateral multi-tonal tinnitus). He got used to it though, and went on to be an airline pilot and amateur big game hunter until he retired half a century later.
Member
