Shooting Ear Protection

Although hearing protection is often recommended, there are still shooters that do not use it. Many may have a hearing loss already. For those with a sensor neural hearing loss, and for those new to the shooting sports without a hearing loss, it is important to protect all residual hearing. There are many forms of ear protection devices available today, but for shooters it is important to purchase devices designed specifically for shooting ear protection.

Exposure

Most people who perform shooting sports will have one ear, that has a greater hearing impairment than the other. This is due to one ear being closer to the end of the gun barrel of a rifle or a shotgun. However, if one does pistol shooting, the hearing loss may be the same in both ears. Shorter barrel lengths will also result in a greater noise injury. Many people who have had exposure to shooting sports felt that being in the open field was less likely to cause noise trauma than being in an enclosed space. Also many have thought shooting only once or twice a year was not likely to cause a hearing loss. However this is quite the opposite. In reviewing cases of acute acoustical trauma from gunfire, over 40% had noticeable acoustical trauma caused by a single shot. 92% of all of these traumatic incidents occurred within 6 feet of the firearm. Most wore no shooting ear protection when the traumatic episode occurred.

Shooting Ear Protection

When noise is too loud, it begins to kill the nerve endings in the inner ear. Prolonged exposure to loud noise destroys nerve endings. As the number of nerve endings decreases, so does your hearing. There is no way to restore life to dead nerve endings; the damage is permanent. Gunfire from any size gun produces higher decibel levels than a rock concert, a jack hammer, and the engine of a 747. With noise levels so dangerously high it doesn’t take a lot of exposure to cause permanent damage, and this is why it is recommended that you always use ear protection with appropriate noise reduction rating of at least 29 decibels. The evidence is clear that double protection like an ear muff worn over insert ear plugs is better; therefore double protection should be used if possible. Using shooting ear protection in the form of ear muffs and/or ear plugs is crucial for hearing preservation.

SportEAR Shooting Ear Protection

Armed with even a basic knowledge of the dangers shooting can impose on the ear, you will likely want the best shooting ear protection available on the market today. Incredibly, SportEAR has combined high-end hearing aid technology with state of the art hearing protection in a single device! If you have developed a love for shooting, don’t risk damaging your ears. SportEAR carries a full line of products from stylish shooting ear protection from inexpensive ear plugs to super-performing head muffs. SportEAR also offers high-end shooting ear protection devices that allow you to hunt, shoot, or work in loud environments and amplify your hearing at the same time!