Hearing Protection

I use the foam jam-in-your-ear type, I often go to large factories that issue them to visitors as compulsory safety gear for entering the production areas. I keep them for use at home when making a racket.
I haven't always played it that safe and have probably lost about 10% of my hearing to industry. I'm 46.
 
I agree and I too wear hearing protection when warranted. I have been working in a professional maintenance shop since I was 19 years old and although I did not wear much in the way of PPE(Personal Protective Equipment) on the farm growing up prior to my career, I have been very pro-active with wearing all necessary PPE when called for both at work and at home since 19 years of age.

I have enforced it with my son since he was old enough to be in the shop. My son and I even went to the extreme when we were racing two-stroke quads and hill-climbing snowmobiles that we had hearing protection to wear in the trailer when wrenching between heats.

Mike.
 
I use custom formed ear-plugs. You can get these from the local sports store now (finally) and mine cost $15 at Gander Mountain. It's some sort of two part silicone rubber that you knead together, split in two and stick in your ears. I forget how long you wait, but it's not long and you have custom fit earplugs that work better than the foam plugs, and don't get in the way of your face mask like the head-phone style can. I use them for shooting, mowing, and in the shop. Well I also use them for the 4th of July parade that goes in front of our house! :rofl:
 
MikeWi said:
I use custom formed ear-plugs. You can get these from the local sports store now (finally) and mine cost $15 at Gander Mountain. It's some sort of two part silicone rubber that you knead together, split in two and stick in your ears. I forget how long you wait, but it's not long and you have custom fit earplugs that work better than the foam plugs, and don't get in the way of your face mask like the head-phone style can. I use them for shooting, mowing, and in the shop. Well I also use them for the 4th of July parade that goes in front of our house! :rofl:
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I'll have to check this out, Mike. I have those foamie types all over the place but, they get dirty from handling them and swarf can get embedded in them. They used to have a booth at Camp Perry where they made the kinds you're talking about but, I never tried them out.


Ray
 
Ray C said:
They used to have a booth at Camp Perry where they made the kinds you're talking about but, I never tried them out.
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<sigh> When I shot Bullseye Pistol it was my dream to go there, but it never happened. Anyway, it used to be that you had to be at some special event like that or pay a vendor to come out to your club, but not any more!
 
I lost my hearing in my left ear at 5 years old, so I always wear muffs when in my basement home shop and the shop vac is on or any loud machine.
I also have tenitus , from menieres disease, which makes certain frequencies louder or lower.
So i avoid anything that goes inside my ear, even An eardoctors probe , I have had my ear drum pierced with a needle filled with some cortisone, and the dr. Went a little to fast to deep, and :panic:That hurt.
Nothin smaller than my elbow goes in my ear.
Jon
 
I started flying lessons at age 17 (I'm 39 now)and the instructor impressed upon us to wear earplugs. That was the start, although I still thought it wasn't terribly macho to wear them. When I was in basic training for the Army, I forgot to put in my earplugs one day on the rifle range. I shot 20 rounds without them and my ears rang for several days after that. That impressed upon me the importance of hearing protection, but one incident in particular made me especially cautious about earplugs.

I went in for my annual hearing test while I was on active duty Army. I had been in my home shop cutting aluminum on the bandsaw the night before. The hearing test showed a significant shift in my threshold from the previous year. When they asked about activity, I mentioned the aluminum cutting. They asked me to come back the next morning after not doing anything loud that night. My hearing recovered, but it really impressed upon me how short exposures to loud noise can have a big impact. I now keep two pairs of muffs in my garage and they get used for lawn care duty, bandsaw/table saw, pressure washing and any time the air compressor kicks on.

I also wear the roll-up foam type while I'm in the lab at work because it can be quite loud.

I hadn't heard about the custom molded ear plugs. I'll have to look in to those.
 
I ride large, fast motorcycles and already have tinnitus, so.wear the quietest helmet on the market (a Schuberth, German, about 800 USD new, ouch) plus soft.earplugs every time I.ride and I've noticed that even the.choice of.jacket can make a big difference. Exposure to loud noise seems to make the tinnitus worse temporarily and I'd like.to keep the hearing that's left! I.keep plugs.and ear defenders (Peltor muffs) handy for most metal and.w**d working, about the only thing that doesn't warrant them is a clicking ratchet, :-)

I've found its the high-frequency content that causes worst effects, e.g. the tinnitus started after taking my son to.see.a death-metal concert - it wasn't the volume, it was the.distortion that set it off, I've.seen louder before and since without harm that I can notice!
 
Vavet said:
I also wear the roll-up foam type while I'm in the lab at work because it can be quite loud.
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got a tip from another shooter way back when that you can still get a lot of noise past any of the in-ear plugs because of bone conduction and that's why a lot of people shooting heavy calibers where both plugs and over the ear type muffs. If you've got ear issues, it's worth a try. Worked great for me at a certain small indoor range that had a guy who liked to shoot wildcat .44 mag loads "because he liked the boom". That guy would drive everyone out of the range before getting kicked out himself, but he'd always be let back in another day. LOL

BTW it's been awhile since I mentioned the custom plugs. Anyone try them out yet?
 
The 44 magnum is loud, but the little itty bitty 380 Auto in a Short barreled pocket pistol is LOUD! One of our members used to shoot one and drove us crazy. Here we are trying to improve our slow fire technique and he is blasting away rapid fire and less then 3 feet away from the next shooter. I'd rather deal with the 44 or 10 mm!
Plugs and muffs required, especially in an indoor range!
Pierre
 
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