Earpro for home defense.

A new funshop/range opened up right down the street from my house (literally. Hahaha! It's okay. Be jealous!) a few weeks back, and as my inaugural purchase from the new store I picked up a Mossberg 590 9 shot with all the trinkets and doodads I found desirable, and it is now my preferred HD shotgun, to complement the wifey's stoeger. This lead to several discussions between me and her about our various HD contingency plans, with inevitably lead to the subject of hearing loss.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have set off a cylinder full of full house .357 inside of an enclosed small room before in a shoot house, sans earpro. My ears were ringing for an hour afterwords, and I am not eager to repeat that particular incident.


So, I was considering the possibility of keeping some sort of electronic earpro next to/in the vicinity of the shotgun, incase i need to use it. Of course, that as also got me wondering about the general feasibility of such an idea.


Comments, suggestions, experience?

I dunno if I'd go with electronic, but maybe earplugs? Which do you think would be easier to put on in the dark, after hearing a bump in the night?

and yes, I am jealous about the funshop

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Originally Posted by DanH

I dunno if I'd go with electronic, but maybe earplugs? Which do you think would be easier to put on in the dark, after hearing a bump in the night?

and yes, I am jealous about the funshop

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I don't keep earpro near my home defense guns. IF I were to do such though it would be muffs (quick and easy to get on/off) and they would for SURE be electronic. I'd want to hear every small detail of what's going on up until and after the BANG, esp with my family in the house.

I have a set of Sordins near my bed. Not sure if I will use them if/when the time comes but they are there.

ear pro has no place in my hd planning. Don't see me rolling out of bed at a bump in the night and having the where with all to put on muffs or put in plugs as I grab my gun.

If it were in my plan, it would definitely be a type of ear pro that still allowed me to hear normally until the bang. In a dark situation your ears are just as important as your eyes if not more so.

Dwell time. If I have enough time from hearing someone breaking into my house till they actually make entry, I'm all about slapping on my electronic ear pro.

However, in my war gaming of possible scenarios, I just don't have the time to grab the firearm, dial 911 and put on ear pro, tac vest, Kevlar jockstrap or much of anything else.

Just put asuppressor on your HD gun. Problem solved (very expensively).

If I'm ever faced with a HD scenario, protecting my hearing will be a minor consideration.
Hearing EVERYTHING at that moment trumps hearing anything afterward. IMO, YMMV

Also...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachypsychia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Comb...ual_distortion

http://panicdisorder.about.com/od/gl...ditoryExcl.htm

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Originally Posted by RoyGBiv

If I'm ever faced with a HD scenario, protecting my hearing will be a minor consideration.
Hearing EVERYTHING at that moment trumps hearing anything afterward. IMO, YMMV

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ditto. I'll have to have built a fortified position in my house before giving two shits about ear pro. Living>hearing loss. Funny enough, I've got a set of electronic earpro on my nightstand.....but it's just by chance because I didn't feel like walking the extra 10 feet to put it next to my gun stuff.

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Originally Posted by RoyGBiv

Also...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachypsychia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_Comb...ual_distortion

http://panicdisorder.about.com/od/gl...ditoryExcl.htm

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That doesn't negate the fact that your hearing can be damaged by gun shots.

I was shot by a .45ACP in a vehicle and my hearing is fine. I sincerely doubt that at #Am, your first thought upon hearing a bump in the night is "ah, I must don my earpro!"

If the dog starts barking, I grab the following in sequence:

1. Pistol w/x300
2. Body armor
3. Electronic ear pro
4. Long gun

The more time I have, the further down the list I can get before reacting to the potential threat...

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Originally Posted by DocGKR

If the dog starts barking, I grab the following in sequence:

1. Pistol w/x300
2. Body armor
3. Electronic ear pro
4. Long gun

The more time I have, the further down the list I can get before reacting to the potential threat...

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Layers of protection... is the key. I like it and employ it similarly.


@ Topic

Hardened door jambs give me more time.
Dogs alert us and I grab the following:

1.Wife (move her to the far side of the room, heavy sleeper)
2.Pistol (and move offset of the door to the bedroom)
3.Electronic ear pro (it's on the dresser where I would move to)
4.Phone (also located on the dresser)

"Buying" more time isn't really expensive and could be the difference in just getting to your gun and moving to an advantageous spot. I think all in all, I spent about $300 to harden the entryways and buy more time.

Searched the site but couldn't find it here, it may have been on another forum, but the gist of the post was that auditory occlusion isn't as awesome as people have made it out to be. The brain not processing sound is far different than the physical damage to sensitive parts of the ear by the sound/shock wave. Parts of what I've read stated that people don't "remember" hearing the shots. That doesn't mean that the physical damage to the Cochlear parts isn't real.

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Originally Posted by DocGKR

If the dog starts barking, I grab the following in sequence:

1. Pistol w/x300
2. Body armor
3. Electronic ear pro
4. Long gun

The more time I have, the further down the list I can get before reacting to the potential threat...

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Once you have the pistol, how do you don body armor and ear pro? Do you put down the gun you just picked up for the other gear? I would prefer armor and ears, given the choice, but I think that being armed quickly and finding out what is going on is more important.

I can't see myself putting electronic earpro on to address a bump in the night. That just seems absurd.

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Originally Posted by Erik

Other than the gun shots, I hear more with electronic earpro than without, FWIW. That is, in fact, one of the considerations for keeping them handy. Whether I would have time and the wherewithal to put them on, should the event arise, who can say? But it certainly doesn't hurt to have them there, and might just help.

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This. I already own a set of Sordin Supreme Pros, and they sit on a dresser in the bedroom. There is a G17 and a BCM carbine next to them.

Like others, I've fired weapons in enclosed spaces. In my case, it was an M-16 and a M-60 (it seemed like a good idea at the time). My adrenaline was on the high side at the time as well. But it did permanent damage, and I am dang near deaf as a post without some form of electronic amplication.

Fortunately, I have a 90+ pound GSD mix that sleeps next to the bed. His hearing is much better than mine. He's real subtle, too.

Like a wise old Gunny told me once: "Better to have it and not need it, than ....." I'm not talking smack to anyone in this thread, please don't take it that way. I'm just employing the resources I already own.

I can't imagine having the time to put on stuff when my dog is barking. When my dog barks, he means business and I'm far more concerned about my family than my hearing (like I said, I've been shot in an enclosed space and I'm fine).

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Originally Posted by Jay Cunningham

I can't see myself putting electronic earpro on to address a bump in the night. That just seems absurd.

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Ha! That's what you think. You better don a respirator, booties and tyvek suit too, otherwise you and yours will die of lead poisoning after the shoot!

Also depends on what you are shooting. A buddy shot a grizzly bear in a semi-enclosed porch of his house with a four inch, ported .500 S&W. It was good that he killed the bear with first shot, because he said the concussion of the shot dropped him, in addition to the bear. I generally have not been bothered by gunshots in the hunting field, but in one dust up with a cape buffalo, with near a dozen shots of .375H&H and .416 Rigby, despite a charging buff, my wife's .375 going off next to my ear got real old after a few shots.

I would think a short barrel AR, in the house, would be very hard on your ears. I am just guessing, but a 18 inch shotgun, between the longer barrel and modest velocity, would seem to be about a lot easier on your ears?

Let's remember that a lot of the population thinks just owning, let alone daily carry of a firearm is absurd...

Good electronic hearing protection actually amplifies hearing and can be quite useful when investigating bumps in the night.

Attilla: Pistol goes in right hand, MAR-CIRAS w/open right side is grabbed with left hand and donned overhead without upsetting pistol in right hand. Left hand then grabs hearing protection from pouch on vest and jams on head, punching the on button on the left side of the Sordins. Total time from wake-up to having pistol in hand w/armor and hearing protection is about 10-12 sec.

I fired a 20" AR in a hallway without ear pro when I was a kid. 20+ years later, my ears are still ringing.

This is one reason I think a suppressor (if legal in your jurisdiction) would be a great HD addition. I wouldn't want to don non-electronic ear pro if something went bump in the night, but I don't fancy that constant ringing getting any louder either.

A quick google search turned up 12 gauge chamber pressures around 12,000 psi. .357 mag is up around 35,000 psi. Thats a much bigger blast hitting your ears. I wouldn't make a habit out of shooting hd loads from a shotgun without ear pro, but I would worry much about 1 or 2 rounds.

For some of us, it's "electronic hearing enhancement". Seems perfectly reasonable if there's time.

While I like the idea of enhanced hearing, I wouldn't like losing the sense of sound direction; for me it's just not the same.

-Sent using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by DocGKR

If the dog starts barking, I grab the following in sequence:

1. Pistol w/x300
2. Body armor
3. Electronic ear pro
4. Long gun

The more time I have, the further down the list I can get before reacting to the potential threat...

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Put me down as agreeing with Doc.

Electronic earpro is certainly nice...but it's not something you'll necessarily have time to don when bad things are happening.

There's this idea running around out there where people think that if you fire a gun indoors you'll somehow be incapacitated by the noise of the gun going off. These people are basing their understanding of sound on how "loud" guns sound when you're shooting them in a calm situation. It can be very loud and even somewhat painful if it's loud enough...but when you are feeling the effects of adrenaline, you may not even hear the shot you fire. I've experienced relatively mild auditory exclusion while hunting. I fired a .30 caliber rifle and the gun made a mild pop (sounded almost like a primer popping on a dud round) for the three shots I fired from it in rapid succession. My ears didn't even ring afterwards where they certainly would have had I been on the range firing without hearing protection.

I've also had the experience of being in a shoothouse with a bunch of dudes who were using 5.56 SBR's with muzzle brakes without ear pro. In a moment of range idiocy I had forgotten to take the ear pro from around the top of my head and actually put it on my ears before lining up in the stack and going into a room. In the first room we all engaged targets with multiple shots. As I was firing my weapon I distinctly remember thinking "Gee...this is an awful lot louder than it should be....ow." while putting several shots into the "face" of the paper bad guy in my sector. I corrected my ear pro situation quickly and moved on with the exercise. I did not fall to the ground with ruptured eardrums, utterly incapacitated. I'm absolutely certain I damaged my hearing to some extent with that bone-headed move, but it didn't cause any serious impediment to my ability to perform in the scenario.

If you believe someone is breaking into your house to do you harm, you're going to be pretty busy. If you have sufficient time to put on good electronic hearing protection to enhance your ability to hear (keeping in mind that most ear pro is directional, which is why it's sometimes problematic when hunting) then by all means do so. It's just that the sort of situations which you must solve with gunfire tend to happen in time frames that don't always allow you to have everything you'd like to have. That's one reason why I'm a huge fan of the night stand gun having a mounted white light...because if you're awakened at 3:00 AM by someone trying to beat your door down you can grab the gun and go deal with the problem or at least set up on the potential threat far enough forward that any attempt to get to your loved ones will have to overcome gunfire to succeed.

I'm in agreement with JV. Plus, if my dog is barking; it's not too difficult to find him and his ears are far better than mine. Not mention his ability to find intruders with his nose. I realize most folks are not equipped with a guard dog who only barks when there's some serious stuff going down and is also quite willing to attack an intruder but it works for me. Also, if he's barking; I'll be too busy hauling ass to my daughter's room to secure her to worry about anything other than grabbing the pistol with the light on it. As in a few seconds delay of putting on gear would not be tolerable to my parenting instincts.

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Depends on the gun how big a deal this is, to some extent. Indoors, low recoil buck from a full sized gauge (not that bad in my experience) is much nicer to one's ears than say a 2" .357mag.

I have a bud that lost 30% of his hearing due to a fight in a small apt. that involved a large pit bull and six rounds of 125gr Remington launched from a 4" model 66

I have a set of MSA Sordins that I wish I had owned before I lost so much hearing to gunfire and flash-bangs.

Unlike the Doc, I no longer live in California, and as a resident of a freed state, I exercise my right to keep and bear arms, including suppressors. So I don't concern myself much with it.

However, hearing loss, once set in, is permanent. There is no surgery, no hearing aid, nothing that will make it all better. The whole TachyPsychy thing is all well and good for the moment, but it doesn't stop permanent damage from taking place. Shooting guns indoors is loud. Duh. A discussion about which type of gun/load combination is better for your hearing is academic at best, and I can't see any measurable benefit to it unless it is backed by hard fact not "Bubba" logic.

For me, electronic ear pro only amplify the constant ringing in my seriously damaged ears, and takes away what little direction finding ability I have left. I have a suppressed carbine for my HD role, but that doesn't mean I won't start blazing with a shotgun just because I left my ear pro in my range bag..............

Wear ear pro, get a suppressor, or just deal with it. Your life, your situation, you decide what is right for you. Regardless of how you envisioned your shooting scenario to play out, it is very likely to be quite different in real life.

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Originally Posted by Sean M

Wear ear pro, get a suppressor, or just deal with it. Your life, your situation, you decide what is right for you. Regardless of how you envisioned your shooting scenario to play out, it is very likely to be quite different in real life.

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Sean... Is there any way that you and Tamara can get together and make a baby and then we can elect that baby as emperor of America?

I think that much common sense in one person would eradicate aids and cancer and all three seasons of Glee.

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Originally Posted by Ga Shooter

Just put asuppressor on your HD gun. Problem solved (very expensively).

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I'm leaning toward the supressor option. I want one anyway! Until then, hearing be damned.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DocGKR

Let's remember that a lot of the population thinks just owning, let alone daily carry of a firearm is absurd...

Good electronic hearing protection actually amplifies hearing and can be quite useful when investigating bumps in the night.

Attilla: Pistol goes in right hand, MAR-CIRAS w/open right side is grabbed with left hand and donned overhead without upsetting pistol in right hand. Left hand then grabs hearing protection from pouch on vest and jams on head, punching the on button on the left side of the Sordins. Total time from wake-up to having pistol in hand w/armor and hearing protection is about 10-12 sec.

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I love this...i would even have a set of eye pro handy if I had time.