The goal being to completely surround the fired round and sending all of its noise into the silencer. And, to completely silence an auto pistol…each round needs to be jacked by hand, as the slide is prevented from automatically blowing back when fired. Don’t bother trying to silence a revolver, you can’t…much of the sound made from a revolver is created at the gap between the cylinder head and the barrel. 9mm auto…and another attached to my M4 carbine. I like the idea of paying the $200 dollar fee.and using a silencer, which has been perfectly matched to my. The last thing I worry about is hearing loss in a home combat situation… However, if I was the one doing the breaking in.I would be wearing electronic headsets with noise limiting capability turned WAY UP. Half the time it’s my little buddy Rocky Raccoon stealing the cat food on the porch. Mother Bear is a very light sleeper and will wake me up from time to time whenever she hears something. Ancona snores quite loudly, I keep a pair on the nightstand anyhow, and sometimes I am even wearing them while I sleep. The point however, is well taken, and since Mrs. I cannot imagine the damage that could be done from shooting a weapon indoors without hearing protection, but if forced to choose between my hearing and my life, I will certainly choose my life and my family rather than elect not to shoot. 223 at the range after going from “cold range” to “hot range” and forgetting to pull the muffs back down, and I’ll tell you that my ears rang for two hours afterward. I hope I never have to find out if I have enough time to don them before shooting an intruder though. At the range, I like the electronic pair because i can have a conversation with my daughter while folks are shooting and not have to yell. I own both electronic muffs and plain muffs. This is very important when identifying the location of a threat. This means that each ear is independent and will enable you to ascertain direction from sounds (important!), whereas mono ear-muffs will not enable a sense of direction. You might also consider electronic ear-muffs that are stereo.
It happens instantly… within 1 or 2 milliseconds. The electronic amplifier circuit automatically shuts off at a certain threshold of louder sounds (a gun shot). gunshot), the electronic amplifier instantly shuts off, relying on the muffs themselves to mute the external sound.īasically, your ears will be protected by the sound-deadening of the ear-muff itself. Those lower levels can also be amplified (made louder) via their volume control.
Lower level (normal level, conversation level) sound is electronically amplified into the ear muff speakers. How do electronic ear muffs work? There’s a speaker inside each ear muff, and a built-in microphone to ‘hear’ external sounds. in a quick-access safe), you might also keep (close by) ear protection for home defense. Here’s a suggestion… In addition to the firearm that is kept near your bedside (e.g. So back to the original thought… What about the self defense scenario, inside your home, say… at night, where you are awakened by the sounds of an intruder in the home.Įlectronic Ear Muffs – Ear Protection For Home Defense The louder the sound pressure level, the less time that it takes to cause permanent damage. All hearing damage accumulates over time. 375 - 18″ barrel with muzzle brake, 170 dB Loudness of a CENTERFIRE PISTOLĪs you can see, ALL gunshots are exceedingly LOUD !ĮVERY shot taken without hearing protection WILL cause permanent damage in varying degrees. How Loud Is A RIFLE – CENTERFIRE RIFLE DATA Krammer, Ph.D., Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana has documented the following sound pressure levels of a gunshot. Sound (Sound Pressure Level) is measured in decibels (dB).ġ10 dB Beginning threshold of pain, Car horn at 3-feet, Live rock musicġ20 dB Close thunderclap, Chainsaw at 3-feetġ30 dB Painful, Military jet take-off from aircraft carrier with afterburner at 50-feetġ40 dB Very painful, Aircraft carrier deckġ50 dB Jet takeoff at 75-feet, Potential eardrum ruptureĭr. To keep it simple though, and in the context of perceived loudness,Ī 10 dB increase will sound about twice as loud.Ī 20 dB increase will sound four times as loud as the original reference.Ģ0 dB (Volume Loudness 4x louder than 0, 2x louder than 10)ģ0 dB (Volume Loudness 8x louder than 0, 4x louder than 10, 2x louder than 20) The decibel (dB) is logarithmic (not linear) and can be a complicated subject to grasp. But before that, lets get some reference…
Lets look at the noise / sound level of a gunshot.