If you go on hunting from time to time, you already know how much you need each of your senses for it, especially hearing. As you need to be fully aware of your surroundings, you need your ears to be on high alert. So, it can be a real struggle for people who have hearing loss to some degree. If you cannot hear too well, your attention to detail gets weakened, and your reflexes won’t be quick either. Hunting hearing aids can be a good option to tackle the problem of hearing difficulties while hunting.
So, if you like to go hunting, but have a hearing loss problem, it can be too hard for you to go for it. But there are some hearing aids specifically designed to amplify ambient sound to help you a lot during hunting. You’ll be able to have a better understanding of your surroundings despite having hearing loss.
How Hunting Hearing Aids Work
You have primarily heard of hearing protection while hunting due to having protection from loud gunshots, as the deafening noise of guns can be highly damaging to hearing. So, to protect yourself from noise-induced hearing loss, you must use high-quality ear protection whenever you go hunting or go as a part of a hunting expedition. Using earmuffs or earplugs is a must during that time.
However, ear protection and hearing aids aren’t mutually exclusive, and manufacturers of hunting hearing aids are well aware of the need to allow sufficient protection for ears. Many have even incorporated ear protection into hunting hearing aids. When a weapon is fired, the amplifier circuit of the hearing aid reacts immediately to limit the volume of the sound that enters your ears to a safe level and prevent a ruptured eardrum. The hearing aids continue their task of amplifying ambient sounds once the loud sound is over. As a gunshot ranges from 140-190 decibels that is enough to cause immediate and permanent hearing loss, special hearing aids for hunting are a great innovation that can help you to keep your ears safe from further hearing loss.
Credit: Parker Hearing
You can go for discreet hearing aids that resemble earplugs more than standard hearing aids, as hunting hearing aids can take the form of electronic earplugs very often, which sit in the ear entirely, or in other words, are in-the-ear (ITE) hearing aids. These don’t have behind-the-ear hearing aids properties at all. With a compact in-ear design, these hearing aids provide enhanced situational awareness.
Why You Need Hunting Hearing Aids
The University of Wisconsin has found through a study that men aged 48 to 92 who were regular hunters are more likely to experience high-frequency hearing loss than men who don’t go hunting. And the risk increases seven percent for every five years more a man keeps hunting. Even though shooting is a prevalent pastime for many people in the States, many still aren’t using the proper ear protection while hunting. In fact, they are putting their long-term hearing health at significant risk of suffering permanent damage.
In that study, 38 percent of the 3,753 study participants were target shooters and 95 percent of the hunters stated never using hearing protection while shooting in the past. Many people don’t realize that it only takes one shot to ruin the hearing and cause permanent hearing loss, or tinnitus. And they don’t use ear protection as a result. Loud noises might not seem as scary as other dangerous health threats, or physical risks, but they are dangerous all the same.
If you aren’t using a gun silencer or suppressor, take frequent breaks away from shooting to give your ears the chance to decompress, always wear ear protection when you’re waiting your turn at the shooting range. These things will help to preserve your hearing, and allow you to maintain an edge when hunting.
It would help if you had this insight into hunting and hearing loss to understand why hunters can benefit from hearing aids. If you use a hearing aid or amplifier while hunting to hear better where the target is, then you will be less concerned about earmuffs or earplugs limiting your hearing ability and you’ll wear them to protect your ears from the noise. If the hunting hearing aids can simultaneously protect your ears and amplify sounds, then you’ll have even more incentive to use them.
Moreover, as shooters who don’t use hearing protection are highly likely to have hearing loss to some degree from hunting or shooting throughout their lives, they can struggle to hear games due to hearing loss. They would benefit from the enhanced hearing a hearing aid provides.
So, when you’re going to choose a hunting hearing aid, look out for features such as background noise suppression, multiple channels, whistle cancellers, and custom molds. You should also be able to find out the level of noise protection a product provides. If you can ensure to have these features in your hunting hearing aids, and have a great amplifier of ambient sounds, and a good level of noise protection, you can go for that one to help you with your hearing aid hunting.
Learn more about some of the Best Hearing Aids for High-Frequency Hearing Loss.
Final Words
Hunting is something that you can’t do without a proper hearing. Also, hunting without ear protection can cause you hearing loss problems, or damage your already damaged hearing ability. So, make sure to wear hunting hearing aids while hunting to protect your hearing ability from further damage, and have a great hunting experience. However, if you don’t have hearing loss problems yet, make sure to wear ear protection during hunting to prevent it.
Frequently Asked Question
Q. Can a gunshot make you deaf?
Ans: You might not go deaf permanently but the sound of a gunshot can cause hearing loss &Tinnitus.
Sources:
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Published by NIH Publication, No. 14-4233, March 2014
https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/noise-induced-hearing-loss
This article incorporates the text of the 20th edition of Gray's Anatomy (1918)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eardrum
Published by MayoClinic
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tinnitus/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20350162