I started shooting about 30 years ago in college. My roommate had a Sig P226, and we went shooting maybe 2 or 3 times. we never used hearing protection and, as far as I know, I didn't suffer any noticeable hearing damage, although undoubtably some damage did occur.

Today, I took my girls to the range, and I let loose with some 357 magnum rounds from my GP-100, the gun I keep close at hand for home defense. Between rounds, I could hear the guys a few lanes down saying things like "I don't know...must be a magnum". Clearly, the rounds I was firing were much louder than 9mm.

My question to you is, have you ever fired a 357 magnum without hearing protection? What was the immediate and long-term effect on your hearing?

I have, actually. Just one round, and it was indoors. Like stuffing my ears with cotton for maybe half an hour. I don't think there was long-term damage, but short term was most impressive, I must say.

Haven't and wouldn't.

I never used hearing protection when I used to hunt. Always wear it now for any shooting.

I have both a 9mm 226 and a gp-100 and have shot them both outdoors with out hearing protection. I don't think i have suffered any hearing damage from it but thats just a guess. I try to always wear hearing protection now.

Any revolver will be louder then a semi, especially from the side, due to the gases escaping between the cylinder and the barrel.

We were training with some South Korean Special Forces here in the USA using pistols in the shoot house. They refused to wear ear protection because in the words of their leader "we must battle harden our ears".

I kept quiet and let them do as they wished. Pretty hard group of men.

Sure. When we were young, we never wore hearing protection. Revolvers up to .44 magnum, magnum rifles, untold thousands of rounds of shotgun at ducks.

Yes, my ears ring all the time.

Although forms of hearing protection were available when I joined the Army, they were pretty much unknown to most shooters and seldom seen. I didn’t have a 357 Magnum revolver until after I returned from Vietnam, but while there I was frequently exposed to gunfire noise and the usual consequence was that my hearing was muffled and my ears rang for hours to a day or two. The loudest noise I was exposed to there was when a partner fired a 12 gauge shotgun shell from an M79 grenade launcher using a 9 inch barreled adapter. My ears started ringing again after that shot and haven’t stopped since. That was almost exactly 50 years ago.

Huh? What'd you say?
In all seriousness, try to wear hearing protection as much as you can, and don't shoot indoors without it unless you have no choice. I wish I could get back that hearing range to be able to clearly hear my children's voices.

I've gone twice without hearing protection in shooting range settings.

The first was a range trip where we shot with hearing protection for most of the session. I had always been curious about what I should expect to experience hearing-wise should I ever use a gun in a defensive situation so, after the guns and gear were packed for home, I strayed towards the firing line but held back about 30-40 ft. and removed one of my ear plugs while other shooters fired various calibers. It was quite loud but I have no way of describing the level.

The second occasion was on a hunting trip. Shortly before the trip I had come into a gun show deal on a rifle that I wanted to take on the trip. Pressed for time before the trip I mounted a new scope and took it to the range to sight in. I got to the range later than I had planned, had started the process of sighting in, but a young shooter next to me was having difficulty with a used scoped .22 rifle that he had just bought, and I ended up spending time helping him. Long story short, my new rifle and scope were only roughly sighted in. Then, a friend who didn't know any better, started twisting the scope knobs. I quickly adjusted the clicks back to where I thought they should be, but at that point the rifle was a bit of an unknown quantity.

I decided to take the rifle with me on the hunt, along with others. On the day that we were to leave our camp site to head home we had already completely packed up all our gear when my friend and hunting partner suggested that we fire a few rounds through my new rifle/scope combo. The rifle was fairly easy to access, but my ear plugs were buried down in the packed gear.

We fired maybe 6 or 7 rounds of .30-.30 with no hearing protection. Again, I was a bit taken back by just how loud it was. My ears were definitely ringing for some time after that.

I've been around everything from lawn mower engines, airplane engines, jack hammers and loud equipment, loud concert music etc.. and I'm certain they have all had some impact on my hearing so it is difficult to say how much shooting without earpro has degraded my hearing as compared to the other loud noises.

Middle-aged, my hearing is above average, but I tend to lose some ability to hear conversations in a crowded room or hear a TV when conversations are taking place, and I have some mild ringing in my ears that is probably undiagnosed Tinnitus.

If I had to do it again I would have limited my exposure to loud sounds even when I was much younger and didn't realize how that exposure can affect one later in life.

I started shooting in 1954 at age 7. Shot 12 ga., 30-30, .300 Weatherby mag., without. Later, hearing protection wasn't available when I joined the army in 1967. I was initially trained as an infantryman, so shot everything; .45 ACP, M-14 & M-60 (7.62), M-79 (40mm), M-2 (.50 BMG), and the 3.5" rocket launcher (a.k.a., bazooka), all without protection. Switched to field artillery and shot everything from 105mm to 762mm (Honest John), again all without protection. The damage is permanent but my VA hearing aids help...some.

I would not purposefully shoot today without hearing protection.

We shot a lot of skeet growing up in the 1970's and never wore hearing protection.

I got used to suppressed. plinking 22 rifle and pistol, .45 on an ar. just having fun and had a Dammit, I haven't hit my carry in MONTHS! moment. so loaded up and went out to my range and DUh.. forgot the ears. Figured I could cycle the ammo in the carry mag at least. Nope.. made it through 5 rounds of .45 through a 3.5" barrel and packed it in for too much stupidity. was achey after just that.

I had a "Before you get old baseline hearing test" at the ENT recently, came out perfect. (dont tell the wife) Age rated at a 24 yr old.(I aint. ) That's because I can count all the rounds I've shot unsuppressed/unprotected. ~5 rounds of .410 through a long barrel, ~5 rounds of .22 through a long barrel, 2 .22 rat shot indoors short barrel, and those 5 rounds of attack of the stupid.

Wear your ears.

I've shot a lot of firearms without hearing protection, with military ordinance and hunting with many calibers of rifles, shotguns and handguns. That said, the absolute worse was my 4" 686 in 357 mag by a huge amount and that includes 44 mag. I made the mistake of shooting that gun with my field dog present. It took a long time before he stopped being gun shy in the field. Dumb!!

Jim

I shared in firing a box of .357 from my buddy’s 3” Model 13 S&W w/o ear protection back in the early 70s. Afterwards both of us noticed that every sound had a buzzing quality to it. Fortunately it seemed to diminish a lot by the next day. We didn’t make that mistake again.

I made the mistake of shooting a 22 Magnum North American Arms revolver once in 1993.
That particular "crack" resulted in tinnitius, and 60% hearing loss in my right ear.

Too late for hearing protection for that instance, but I use hearing protection now to try to preserve whats left.

quote:

Originally posted by Sunset_Va:
I made the mistake of shooting a 22 Magnum North American Arms revolver once in 1993.
That particular "crack" resulted in tinnitius, and 60% hearing loss in my right ear.

Too late for hearing protection for that instance, but I use hearing protection now to try to preserve whats left.

Those are plenty loud.

Back in the late 1960's my college room mate and I put a box or two of .357 through by 4" Smith Model 28, outdoors, without hearing protection.

Short-term, we both had hollowness and hissing for a day or two.

Long-term, I spent a bunch of years racing cars and he became a dentist during the high-speed drill era.

We both have tinnitus now, mine is very bad, and used to trigger dizziness when the background noise went up, such as in the old McCormick Place during the Auto Show. Lipo Flavonoid helps the dizziness, but the ringing never eased up. He uses hearing aids.

My house gun is currently a 9mm, but because of my tinnitus, I'd replace it in an instant with a .45acp if I had one. Believe it or not, the .45acp is apparently easier on my tinnitus than the higher-pitched 9mm.

For both of our sakes, I wish I had known what the consequences of an hour in the back pasture with that .357 would be.

I wear bilateral hearing aids & it's a pain in the ass. I blame my hearing loss on M60s & Hueys, but years of loud rock n roll & Harleys probably have as much to do with it as anything else.

Wear hearing protection when shooting. Every shot without hearing protection has a cumulative effect.

There are two times when I wish I had worn hearing protection: The first was six rounds from a S&W 29 when I didn't have any plugs with me and was too young to care. The second was a 40-pound cratering charge in the Army when I forgot to put my ear-plugs in. Hard to say which hurt more, but I have the tinnitus and hearing loss to remind me to always wear them now.