I have never used any ear plugs or muffs when turkey hunting, never saw the need. Some of y'all must shoot some cannons....

and I damn sure ain't doing all that movement with a bird within 100 yards, bastards can sense movement THRU a rock wall....

My ears are super sensitive to loud noises. One shotgun blast will ring my ears for a day or two. A rifle will ring them for several days. I also have tinitus that I know is only going to get worse if I don’t protect them now. I know people who shoot all the time without protection and tell me it doesn’t bother them at all. I don’t see how.

what did you say???

I'm in this camp as well. I'll wear muffs when sighting, or plinking, but never hunting.
I've also experienced significant hearing loss in my left ear, but it's not from shooting. It comes from years of running equipment, looking over my right shoulder, and also many years of driving trucks with my window rolled down. Road noise probably is responsible for most of our hearing loss, especially us older guys who grew up without air-conditioned trucks

I wonder how much of the hearing loss issues are just genetic and guys think it is just from shooting, equipment, or whatever. My wife can't hear and neither can her dad or grandfather. The grandfather blamed it on WWII but I think most of it is just in the genes.

In the past I have never worn ear protection shooting, running chainsaws, tractors, working construction, etc. and hear just fine (maybe I'm lucky). Last couple years I've started wearing it some when I run my old 68 homelite or when sighting in a gun mostly because I'm around all these guys that can't hear a turkey drum if its on top of us. It has me a little more protective of what I've got.

I do it because loud noises are annoying, especially in a closed shooting house. I know most of y'all hunt barefoot with a bow and loin cloth

Good deal!

Dr. B

I think you are right. My high pitched hearing has been bad since I was a kid, and so has it been for every man in my family, on both sides. If noise did the damage, it happened before I was 14. People want me to get a hearing aid, but I can still hear a turkey gobble or drum. I can't understand women talking; I can live with that.

That would be me. I seldom ever wear hearing protection unless I'm sighting a rifle or patterning a shotgun and that's not always. I've shot all my life this way, granted that's only 37 years, but it's 1 more than my Buddy Brock. I've tried earplugs on dove hunts, but they last about two minutes and they got to go. My wife thought I was going deaf about a year or so ago and I went and had a hearing test. The lady at the office said, "you're definitely not losing your hearing, it's near perfect" Not sure what that phenomenon was about? Based on the amount of noise my kids make in my house, I have no ability to tune things out either. I'm constantly saying "yall are too loud!"

I also worked in a glove manufacturing plant for 6 years also, learned how to talk over equipment and then go into an office and cut the volume down and talk normal. I think I'm thinking like Semo.

The occasional pop of a 410 is bearable.

Well if you ask my wife she would probably tell you I can't hear her talking too. Some things do hurt the ears. lol

Sounds like a blessing:)