Understanding Hearing Damage -- The Hunter/Shooter’s Perspective
First thing’s first: to understand your hunting and shooting hearing protection options, you need to know a little bit about why gunshot noises are so dangerous, and about how those dangerous sounds work to damage your hearing.
Hearing damage depends on two factors: volume (how many dB’s of noise you’re hearing), and time (how long you’re exposed to the sound). So if a noise is loud enough -- 115 dB or louder, to be specific -- then hearing damage can occur instantaneously. But you can generally get away with exposure to slightly less dangerous levels of noise for short periods of time without suffering damage. In general, the rule is this: the longer you are exposed to any noise, the greater the chance your hearing will be damaged. And the louder the noise, the less time it takes to do serious damage to your ears.
For the hunter/shooter, that means that the longer you plant to shoot, the more protection you need. If you’re shooting a .22 caliber rifle, you might get away with firing quite a few rounds without suffering any damage -- but try the same thing with your .357 Mag. and your ears are going to suffer. So one important thing to consider when choosing the right hunting/shooting hearing protection is how frequently you’ll be firing your weapon, and how loud your weapon is (relatively speaking).
Turning Down the Volume: Understanding NRR
The next thing to consider is that not all hearing protectors are made equal. The most basic information you need when comparing hearing protectors is NRR (Noise Reduction Rating). NRR is a single number, measured in dB (decibels), which indicates how well a given device can protect your hearing from loud noises. The higher the NRR, the more protection you get.
So how much NRR is enough? Well, the absolute maximum NRR earplugs or earmuffs can provide is 33 dB. A NRR of 33 indicates there is zero sound getting to your eardrum through your ear canals. (That’s why the maximum NRR you’ll ever see on a pair of earplugs or earmuffs is 33.) Yet, as you may have already noticed if you’ve tried it, you can actually still hear a gun blast while wearing NRR 33 hearing protection!
Why? The answer is that there are other ways noise can get into your head… literally! While most of the sound you hear comes through your ear canals, some sound is also simultaneously being conducted into your ears through the bones in your head. So even if you block all noise from reaching your ear canals (by, for instance, wearing NRR 33 hearing protection), you can still perceive very loud noises as they resonate through your head! This is particularly true of loud sounds with a lot of bass, as those low-pitched sounds resonate better with the bones in your head. (Further, even if you could cut off all sound transmission via the ear canals and the bones in your head, a third sound pathway exists via the soft tissues of the torso and up through the neck! Of course this pathway is not very efficient; you may never even notice the sound you’re “hearing” through your body -- so this third pathway can be completely ignored for purposes of protecting your hearing.) Still, in the vast majority of situations we are ever likely to encounter, it’s the sound that travels directly through your ear canals that can potentially cause hearing damage --
So focus on protecting your ears.
Stay tuned for more hunting season hearing info!
And if you ever can't find the answers or information you need in our blog, please drop us a line at info@earplugstore.com. We'll be glad to help you choose the right hunting/shooting hearing protection for your unique ears!
Until next time, be safe and do the right thing.
--Tom "Dr. Earplug" Bergman
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