One of the pleasures of writing a blog is the correspondence you get from time to time in the form of comments. I have learned many things from people that have contacted me. Sometimes it may be an opposing view, but for the most part it has been an expansion of the subject or related information.
This past week I was contact by John O’Connor who thought I may be interested in a cause he supports that affects all of us that enjoy the shooting sports. I have an article John sent me for this post , and I fully support his recommendations.
As a young man I spent many years in very close proximety to loud farm equipment and even louder aircraft engines and propellers. I can remember that when we went shooting we thought it was less than “Manly” to wear hearing protection. This just shows the recklessness of our youth and as a result I suffer from significant amount of hearing loss at some frequencies.
Today, I wear protection no matter how small of a caliber I am shooting. I use amplified headphones when instructing to assist with normal conversations with the student. And I must say that I have found these same amplified headphones to be a major plus when deer hunting. Sitting in a woods that is still dark waiting for the sunrise I can hear every twig snapped by a hoof , and every leaf nibbled!
John’s Blog post and links follow:
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Hi my name is John O’Connor, I am a father, outdoorsman and passionate about living a healthy lifestyle. Over the past few years I have become more and more interested in hearing loss. My father and grandfathers, who are and were all hunters, are affected by hearing loss. I feel that there is a general lack of understanding around the issue and it is our job to spread awareness where we can. Check out my new blog at bloggingwjohno.blogspot.com!
Hunting Can Contribute to Hearing Loss
Did you know that certain recreational activities can contribute to hearing loss? Activities that involve loud noises, such as hunting, can damage your hearing. If you plan on going to the shooting range or heading out into the woods you must always protect your ears from the loud noises that a gun can generate.
When visiting a shooting range or while hunting, you should wear earmuffs that are designed to protect your hearing. If you don’t have access to ear muffs, you can just as easily wear earplugs. These will keep the loud noises from reaching your eardrum, thus protecting your hearing and decreasing the chance that you will damage your ears.
You may not always be able to notice right away that you are damaging your ears when being exposed to loud noises. While the sound of a shotgun may be uncomfortable, you may feel that since you are not necessarily exposed to the sound repeatedly, that you are not harming your ears. This quite often is not the case. Any loud noise can be damaging whether you hear it once or over and over again.
What many people do not realize is that the inner ear contains many tiny hair cells. These small structures are essential to good hearing. Once they are damaged or destroyed by loud noises, they cannot be repaired or replaced. This leads to permanent hearing loss.
When you are hunting, you should wear earplugs or earmuffs which will block the loud noise of a shot gun from reaching your inner ear. By doing this, you will be protecting your ears from irreversible damage. My father who has been into target shooting and hunting for years, has irreversible damage to his ear drums due to not always wearing the proper hearing protection while shooting. He wears a hearing aid in order to amplify sounds and increase his hearing levels. Although he has been affected by the loud noises from hunting, he still loves to get out there and practice at the range throughout the summer and hit the woods in the fall. He just makes sure that he is always properly equipped with the right hearing gear in order to prevent himself from experiencing further hearing loss.
If you like to practice shooting at the shooting range, you should protect your ears before entering the range by placing muffs or earplugs in or over your ears. This will protect your ears from the shots fired from others’ guns while you are setting up and getting ready to shoot and while you are practicing as well.
If you’ve been a hunter for many years, perhaps you have hunted several times without protecting your hearing. It is possible that you’ve damaged your ears because of this. If this is the case, you can still continue to hunt but look to make smart choices when heading out next time and bring the right protective gear.