Saeed,

Best description of what I hear -- Cicaidas in my ear.

Rnovi -- Your wife doesn't know what you hear and don't hear. I used to play a game with mine and see how may times I could get her to repeat something. Record was five, but then she figured out I heard her the first time.

I used the PH's rifle in Cameroon January. It was a Christensen Arms 375 with a muzzle brake. My ears are ringing right now.

quote:

I used to play a game with mine and see how may times I could get her to repeat something. Record was five, but then she figured out I heard her the first time.

Dangerous. Simply dangerous.

She's a good sport, but knows I'm deaf. She's about to take her second trip to Africa, this one complete with tsetse flies.

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Saeed,

Best description of what I hear -- Cicaidas in my ear.

Rnovi -- Your wife doesn't know what you hear and don't hear. I used to play a game with mine and see how may times I could get her to repeat something. Record was five, but then she figured out I heard her the first time.

I love it!

At the range-always. Hunting-never.

quote:

Originally posted by RAC:
I used the PH's rifle in Cameroon January. It was a Christensen Arms 375 with a muzzle brake. My ears are ringing right now.

For that reason I won't hunt with anyone, PH's included, that use a muzzle brake.

Since- as a younger hunter- they don't make us as tough as the guys who can't hear anymore, I've always used ear plugs for all my shooting.

I like these silicone ones from hardware stores, they are cheap enough to replace if you lose them, conveniently fit around one's neck or rolled up in a pocket. When I start a stalk I keep one ear plugged, and push in the second just before the stock. It's really such a small movement it can be made with the same movement that removes the safety. One can still hear whispered tones, but they protect against the pain and damage of the shot.

They're not adequate for sustained shooting sessions...but better that than the fancy noise-cancelling electronic headphones one sees people endlessly fiddling with in hunting videos.

The only time I can recall hot having had time to put in the plugs was during a lion charge that caught me unprepared with no rounds in the magazine (story to come shortly!). Certainly experienced some ringing after that fusillade...

[IMG]https://tigersafety.co.uk/images/pictures/temp/delta-plus/delta-plus-conicfit01-32db-orange-corded-silicone-(gallery).jpg?v=1d3e1032[/IMG]

Smart young man. Too late for most of us.

I got one thing to say about all this bs:

WHAT!

quote:

Originally posted by chuck375:

quote:

Originally posted by RAC:
I used the PH's rifle in Cameroon January. It was a Christensen Arms 375 with a muzzle brake. My ears are ringing right now.

For that reason I won't hunt with anyone, PH's included, that use a muzzle brake.

I too have Cicadas living in my ears and they don't stop in the winter either, they're going at it 24/7 all year round.

My hearing didn't really have a chance, as young kids my brother and I sat on bulldozer seats with our father for hours on end during school holidays, no cab and a straight exhaust pipe only about 18" above the engine cowl. Then at high school we had school army cadet training having great fun learning to operate the Bren squad machine gun. Not only did we shoot them we also had to lie beside the shooter and change the barrel over when it got hot, your ears then were right beside the action where the barrel change handle was. I recall my unprotected ears blocked and ringing for days after shooting the Bren.
Then we shot a lot of deer by spotlighting at night with my father often resting his 7mm Magnum on my brother's or my shoulder to get a steady rest to shoot while the other one of us held the light which had to be held forward of the scope to prevent glare in the ocular lens so you were basically standing right alongside the rifle when it boomed sometimes multiple times when we got onto mobs of deer (shooting for money).

Virtually all young shooters here today use suppressors and even old fellas like me have mostly come round to them too. A different world altogether. My 7mm WSM shoots with just a crack like a 22 mag, no ear splitting boom, crash, blam. Don't need ear protection.

I think all shooting organisations worldwide should be pushing their governments to make suppressors legal and simple to buy. It would be the greatest item of PPE available to the world of shooting, not just for the shooters but all those around them.