It is not a good idea. Both ears need protection.

I have hearing loss but from old age according to the audiologist. I am not so sure of that because I used to work around heavy equipment, jack hammers and drills. Anyway, I now have hearing aids and they help a great deal. The hearing protection I currently use is a set of Howard Leight hearing enhancers/protection. I can hear turkeys gobbler that i could not before and the blast of the shotgun is very muffled. I think I got mine from Amazon

take a look at
soundgear.com

I have a constant noise in my ears. I tried to use ear protector to prevent this noise to get louder. But when hunting geese i need to hear them in air to start calling them. And i always forget to put ear protectors before shooting. Noise wil not get louder and i forget about protectors at all :)

Tinitus in my ears for 6 years. It was like hell when it starts.. now i live with it very good ... i have visited a lot of doctors, even world famous doctors.. all of them says - you can not get rid of this noise and i will live with tinitus all you life. That answer helps me. Now i dont care about tinitus.. Do not wear ear protector. Noise in my ears doesnt get louder.

I have had it for a long time. The only thing that helps is when I have two Scotches in the evening, it goes away for a couple of hours. I have hearing aids that play un synchronized chimes, that helps a little to take your mind off the noise.

A lot of truth in that. There are some OTC meds that can help but nothing seems to take it away. After a while, however, you learn to ignore it or not think about it. I don't know that it can't get worse as I've been pretty diligent at protecting the hearing that I have left. I do know that i can still get a ringing in my ears if I don't use hearing protection when shooting.

For hunting, I use Walker's Game Ears. They help you hear more sounds around you and seem to work okay for rifles and shotguns that aren't ported. I don't own a ported rifle or shotgun so cannot speak to how well they work for them. I do know that they don't quite cut if for shooting a centerfire pistol. I don't currently hunt with a pistol so that's not a problem. When I'm on the range or target shooting, I still use electronic ear muffs.

I hope you know that your tinitus may not get worse and I don't think that is true,but your hearing can get a lot worse if you do not wear hearing protection, without it you are just heaping damage on top of more damage. On day you may not be able to hear anything but the ringing in your ears.

Ear Protection 👂
 

Hey there we use open semi auto's on Canadian geese 4x shooters in our group, so we use electronic muffs to suppress our shotguns. & you can hear really well like geese approaching you from a long distance away. A great tool to save your hearing and you can turn them down or off if your fiends talk too much.

I often have tinnitus. So thaks for advice. Any other good tips?