Why Bring Headphones When Shooting

Why should the range bring headphones? It is estimated that everyone can answer, protect hearing! How much hearing damage does gunfire really have?

When a person is exposed to more than 85 decibels of sound, it may cause hearing damage, and if the damage is not large, hearing can be restored after rest. If exposed to strong noise for a long time, auditory fatigue cannot be recovered, and over time, organic lesions occur in the auditory receptors of the inner ear, causing permanent hearing damage, that is, noise-induced deafness.

When people are exposed to high-intensity noise (140~160 decibels), acute trauma will occur to the hearing organs, causing tympanic membrane rupture and bleeding, middle ear auditory ossicle misalignment, labyrinth bleeding, ligament tear, spiral acute peeling from the basement membrane, a stimulation may make people completely lose hearing in both ears.

According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), people working in noise environments should wear hearing protection when performing work with noise equal to or more than 85 dBA. Workers exposed to any single impulse noise level above 140 dBA should wear double hearing protection (i.e., earbuds and earmuffs should be worn at the same time).

So, how loud is the gunshot, and how much damage is to human hearing. The gunfire was far beyond the safe range. If it is in an indoor shooting range, the sound of gunfire is reflected back and forth on the wall, and the harm to hearing will be even greater.

Therefore, the reason for the legal use of silencers in the US private market is hearing protection. Silencer manufacturers have even launched a "muzzle noise reduction" campaign in the name of one time. But even with a silencer (suppressor), we still need to wear headphones to protect our hearing when practicing shooting. Because even if the muzzle pop is eliminated, the mechanical noise when the firearm is fired is very large.