Ear Protection???
 

HI everyone.
Im just curious as to peoples thoughts on this subject.
I live up in New Hampshire and this will be my first season trying duck hunting a couple friends have offered to take me and tech me the basics. So ive been picking up things for duck hunting to get started and one of them was a set of electric ear muffs that are supposed to help you hear and protect your ears when you shoot. I told the guys what I picked up this weekend for stuff when I mention the ear muffs all of them said they wear no ear protecting and think its not worth me using the muffs I bought. Is this common for duck hunting?? I was thinking shotguns are loud and unlike deer hunting where I only plan one 1 shot I'm assuming there will be multiple shots fired close to other people that are also firing shotguns. I thought it was a good idea to buy ear muffs but figured Id see what all of you thought because my friends are making me feel like a moron for wanting to protect my hearing while duck hunting..

:hit:

You tell your friends that when their ears ring 24 hours a day they just may wish they had worn hearing protection. I started wearing it a bit too late and now I wish back when I was a young man I would have worn it because I have Tinnitus, mine is a constant hissing noise. I was wearing hearing protection before the problem started but noise damage to your ears is cumulative and the damage that is done is always there and one day out of the blue, bingo, tinnitus. Wear your hearing protection.

Thanks i'm glad to hear that i'm not the only that thinks its a good idea.
Honestly after working at some noisy machine shops even though I wore ear plugs there I found out at the new shop I work for after they had a shop wide hearing test I found out my left ear is already worse than a coworker that's almost twice my age.

Use ear protection, you wont regret it...people can poke fun all they want but when they can't hear or end up with a constant ring they wont be laughing then.

Electronic earmuffs are nice, but I find that you really have to figure out where to set the adjustment knob. Too low, and you won't hear well. Too high, and it gets very annoying after a while. You honestly might be just as well served by buying a standard pair and slipping them on when your buddies spot ducks and begin calling them in.

My dad rarely ever used hearing protection when he went hunting. It's definitely taken a toll on his hearing.

Ear protection is a must I must say. Unless you want to lose your hearing power, you should protect your ears. It won't effect instantly, but gradually.

Hearing protection is MOST important. I have a custom set of hearing aids made for
hunting and love them

Hearing Aids
 

Definitely use them. I'm in the same boat, my first year too and I'm planning on wearing mine this Friday for doves and any waterfowl hunting I do too. Especially since you may be closer to your hunting partners in dove and waterfowl hunting.

ear protection with the ability to hear are the best one's to get

not sure it's a good idea, but I've heard it's more important for your lead ear to have protection than the other ear.

Ie., right handed shooters left ear protected.

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?

Actually, I always use earplugs. Nevertheless, it once happened they didn't protect me. So I frequently struggle because of it.

I heard this is a good brand. Thanks!