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Going Hunting? 4 Tips For Protecting Your Hearing
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Hunting is a very popular activity for men, women, and children. It provides just enough challenge and excitement to make it entertaining for many. However, if you enjoy hunting, you are potentially putting yourself at risk of early hearing loss. This is especially true if the necessary precautions are not taken. Read on to learn a few interesting facts and how you can protect your hearing when out in the woods.
Surprising Facts About Hunting and Hearing Loss
A published study showed that men between the ages of 48 and 92 years old were more likely to experience high-frequency hearing loss if they regularly participated in target shooting and hunting. That risk increased by about seven percent for every subsequent five years that the men engaged in hunting.
That same study showed that roughly 38 percent of target shooters and about 95 percent of regular hunters did not ever wear any kind of required or recommended hearing protection when they were shooting.
Steps to Take to Protect Your Hearing
As you can see, it is extremely important to wear hearing protection while hunting. This includes the proper size of hunting earmuffs that fit snugly over your ears. However, there are other ways you can protect your hearing as well, including:
- Consider a Silencer – A silencer, which is also known as a gun suppressor, can significantly reduce the amount of sound that your firearm gives off when fired. It is important to become familiar with state regulations regarding silencers to ensure they are legal where you are hunting.
- Take Breaks – Hunting isn't an activity that ends in 30 minutes or an hour. It is a prolonged activity. However, it is important to take breaks when you are shooting. This is especially true during target shooting. The extended exposure to the sound of continuous rifle shots can be damaging.
- Use Different Rifles – Consider having a couple of rifles at your choosing during the hunt. You should make sure to have a low-volume rifle (with a gun suppressor) on hand to switch out with your regular rifle every once in a while. This will reduce your chances of suffering hearing loss.
- Alternate Shooting Arms – Most people only use one arm to shoot. This causes that one ear to be more frequently exposed to the loud noise of the rifle shot. This can result in asymmetric hearing loss, which is also called shooters ear. To help prevent this from happening, alternate between your left and right hands/arms so that both ears are exposed to similar environments.
Rifle shots exceed the normal noise level that you are regularly exposed to each day. Therefore, to prevent hearing loss, it is critical that you take the aforementioned information to heart so that your hunting experience can be that much more enjoyable now and for years to come. If you need help finding the proper hearing protection, contact your audiologist, such as at White Mountain Hearing Service LLC, for assistance.
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