March 15, 2023. All shooters, including rimfire enthusiasts should wear ear protection at the range. A typical rifle gunshot can be heard at 140 to 170 decibels (the pain threshold being 130-140 db). A single shooting session can cause permanent damage to your hearing if you don’t use ear protection. You can permanently damage your hearing if you don’t use earplugs.
Multiple delicate internal membranes, bones and nerves make up the human sense of hearing. While shooters know the importance of protecting their hearing and may be aware of the bio-mechanics behind it, they may not be able to understand the bio-mechanics. Auditory Transduction is how we hear sounds. The eardrum (tympanic membrane) vibrates with sound waves, but that’s only the beginning. These vibrations are transmitted via tiny, rocker-arm-like bone to be “processed”, in a spiral chamber called the cochlea. The cochlea separates vibrations into frequencies, which are then sent to the brain as neural messages. It is a complex process that seems almost miraculous, especially when you consider the bio-engineering involved. The video above explains and illustrates the process of human auditory transduction. It is illustrated with 3D animation. This video is a must-see. You will be amazed at your hearing abilities by the end. Electronic muffs can be used to spot other shooters and for working close to the firing line. These muffs allow you to hear normal conversations and still provide vital hearing protection. You can also wear earplugs underneath muffs to increase sound attenuation.
OHS Online states that the combined attenuation of an eye plug and an ear muff does not simply reflect the individual protectors’ performance. This is due to the acoustic interaction between the ear muffs and the earplugs that causes them to interact as a system. OSHA now recommends that hearing protectors be combined to provide a typical benefit of 5 dB. Source: OHSonline.comEar diagram by Siemens Medical Solutions.
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