AR-15 BS Thread

No thanks. He's probably caused future damage as well. I have a mild case of tinnitus (flares up to moderate at times) from too many guns and concerts while in my 20's. Earpro all the time now, even for things like running a vacuum/shop vac. Usually double up with guns.

 

I grew up in So Fla, and I remember a night launch from late 60s (based on the house we were in at the time as I recall), I must have been 4 or 5. We watched the launch on TV then went outside and could see the engine flame from almost 200 miles away.

 

Must have been 62/63 1 yr before my uncle got out of the Navy he was stationed there @ Homestead before settling in the Fl Keys as a Charter Boat Capt later to go on to owning his own charter business...

 

A lot of times we would go out to Jetty Park (northeast end at the port inlet) and watch the launch maybe 6/7 miles away from the pad....

 

Im curious about this topic. Even the best hearing protection seems to “only” shave 30dB. If we assume a peak noise of 160dB (that’s what I read a 5.56 shot is), then good hearing protection brings that down to 130dB. Which still seems really high.

 

I used to design spacesuits. I got to go down to KSC a couple of times to see the Shuttle launch. It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. I wish I would have been around to see a Saturn V launch (I hear it was even more stunning).

 

lol I think that’s where we went. We lived right got across from Merrit island

 

except the difference is .50’s usually have a 30” barrel and a huge comp on the end. So the sonic boom of the projectile leaving the barrel isn’t happening 8” away from your face like in this case. That hurt to watch.

 

You guys are making me jealous with all this talk. I was born in the wrong time period. Wish I was alive during the space race. Had a manager when I was a teenager that always talked about how magical it was and I got hooked reading and watching all the documentaries I could about those events.

 

It was a great time to be a kid in Florida

 

rifles I rock plugs and muffs, just one or the other for pistols. I also have mild tinnitus from concerts, guns, and power tools when I was younger. I can definitely feel it in my ears if I shoot long guns with just muffs.

 

Do you get a true doubling of the sound reduction by using plugs and muffs? Or is it just two is better than one?

 

Yeah, I always wore at least one set of ear pro with that pistol, usually I would double up.

Absolutely, I’m not sure how much of his hearing loss is from .mil and how much this added to it but I’m pretty sure last time we talked about it he said the he was rated at 30% hearing loss. He has constant tinnitus and certain frequencies he’s nearly deaf, he can still hear his baby crying from another room though so he hasn’t completely lost his hearing.

Going by OSHA standards the decibel threshold for hearing loss from short pulse noise is 140DB, so going shooting in your back yard with limited exposure 1 set of ear pro is typically “safe”, going to a pistol/carbine class or shooting on a range with other people is where the line gets blurry on what’s safe or not because the sound moves from limited exposure to higher exposure with more people shooting for more seconds of the minute.
I don’t always double up, I wear a Walkers electronic headset and it sounds pretty quiet to me, however if I’m going to pull the suppressor off of my 11.5” 556 and shoot more than just a few rounds I have some sure-fire in ear plugs that I’ll throw in under the muffs.

He wasn’t smart enough to think like that when we were in college he barely scored high enough for 11B and was more interested in things other than critical thinking skills. On his last deployment he retook the asvab and did much better and now he’s an HVAC tech for the Air Force reserve, I think if I asked him about it now he would say he was stupid for doing a lot of the stuff he did without ear pro.

 

Depends on the type of plug, some plugs are made of the soft material that closes when the pressure wave hits it and the efficacy of those would be reduced under muffs, the biggest advantage I see for doubling up is those cases where your ear/muff seal gets broken in the middle of a string of fire so you aren’t hammering your ear with the full decibels.

 

https://www.coopersafety.com/earplugs-noise-reduction

 

For each decibel, it basically doubles the sound. 10 decibels is something like a 2000% increase in sound, or something like that.



5.56 rifles generally output 160-ish decibels

<---- Former 11B who has experienced a lot of loud noises

 

I can’t say it doubles the reduction but it definatley makes a big difference. If I have to use just one I typically go plugs.

 

Did you go to Cape View Elementary?

 

I always wear my custom molded ear plugs and electronic muffs

 

Nope Fairglen