Ear Protection

[Rara Avis]

Heck, just break the filters off of unsmoked cigarettes....stick them in your ears and they will work just fine. That is what we used when I was in the military.

HEY, SO HOW WAS IT DOWN ON THE FIRING LINE TODAY??

 

[tallyho8]

Heck, just break the filters off of unsmoked cigarettes....stick them in your ears and they will work just fine. That is what we used when I was in the military.

With the price of cigarettes today, you are better off buying ear plugs.

 

[Ridgewalker]

I now wear hearing protection but I do have some pretty significant damage thanks to lots of gunfire, rock music and machinery. I have a constant ringing in my right ear that will never go away. I can block it out but when in my deer stand its a big distraction.

Take care of your ears or you will wish you had!

 

[WarrenF]

HEY, SO HOW WAS IT DOWN ON THE FIRING LINE TODAY??

Now that was funny!!! I don't care who you are. Seriously, if you forget your earplugs or protection, they do work great. Ahhhh yes the innovation of the American mind....LOLOL

 

[excelagator]

I used to work around loud machinery and never used ear protection. I now work with hollow aluminum and we endmill it. Imagine the most horrible noise and your close!! I use ear muffs and if I didn't I would have a headache in 30 minutes. Because of this and more tractor work I have ear muffs on all tractors and in the shop.

Because of my job at work I have a very good set of ear muffs. I have increased the insulation in these ear muffs by taking foam and adding to what is there. It does help and can make cheapos better. Just don't pack it full.

 

[Wesdor]

I have some ear plugs from Howard Leight and muffs from Bilsom.

A great website to help you with hearing protection is:

Howard Leight | Hearing Protection and Hearing Conservation | The right fit for every user, every environment

Like many others have said, take care of your hearing - you only get one chance. Depending upon what I'm doing I wear the ear plugs, if the noise level is greater I use the muffs, and if it is really loud (chipping wood or running the ZTR) I wear ear plugs with muffs over them.

I never listen to radio or iPod while working, I find the volume needs to be turned too loud and in my opinion that is also heard on your ears. But I also love the silence of a forest, or listening the the sounds of the timber of field.

 

[mahlers]

I don't know if they're still available or not, but Amazon had the AOSafety (Peltor) Worktunes on sale a little while ago for $24. I bought a pair, and they are great - very comfortable, and the sound quality is good enough for me.

 

[Z-Michigan]

I usually wear shooting muffs good for 25-29db reduction. I figure the tractor is only 15-20db above a safe level anyway. I have no ears ringing after several hours of tractoring. The one time I did an hour of tractoring without hearing protection, I really regreted it.

Tip - hearing damage from loud noise is not instant, it's actually a matter of free radicals generated inside your ear and slowly killing nerve endings. You can slightly reduce hearing damage even within a couple hours after exposure by taking antioxidants. The military tested some recruits by giving them apple juice (yes, ordinary apple juice) after a shooting range session and found a small, but measurable, difference in hearing loss vs. a control group that didn't get the juice. Now this is NO substitute for proper protection, but I post it here for anyone to know in case they are accidentally exposed to loud noise but have a chance to get some antioxidants shortly after exposure. No, I'm not some crazy hippie who takes 50 kinds of supplements daily (I sometimes take a multivitamin - that's it).

I have been pretty good about protecting my hearing since late teen years, but had to work on my wife to get her to wear earmuffs for lawnmowing. I finally convinced her and am glad I did.

I watch for sales and recently got two pairs of Howard Leicht, made in Switzerland shooting muffs for $10 each from CDNN Sports. I think their NRR is 29 or 30db, among the best for muffs. There are earplugs that go up to about 33db that are easy to find and cheap. I don't buy earplugs unless they are rated at least 29db. My personal favorites are the green hexagonal "memory" foam ones sold at Home Depot, which I find more comfortable. I think their rating is 31 or 32db. Note that the db scale is logarithmic, so 33db is twice as effective as 30db, and 30db is ten times more effective than 20db.

If I'm doing something particularly noisy, I will sometimes throw on a pair of Peltor P9's AND foam plugs. The plugs have a NRR of 22, which I figure cuts the top 22 dB off the long term ambient noise.

While using both plugs and muffs will give better protection than either one alone, just FYI it doesn't equal adding the two protection levels together. Another military study I read about found that the maximum possible hearing protection from using both was 36db noise reduction. This is because sound can also be transmitted through the rest of the skull, and apparently 36db is about what the skull attenuates. Your alternate option would be a spaceman helmet, I suppose. Word to the wise - .50 BMG and magnum calibers on rifles with muzzle brakes will generate higher noise levels than are safe even with 36db attenuation. Certainly wear both plugs and muffs if shooting any of that really loud stuff.

 

[AchingBack]

For my money you can't beat a good old combination, hard hat/ear muffs, as used for chain saw, and other 2 cycle engine work. The face shield has even saved me from flying debris while bush hogging.

 

[bigshovel]

I was at Lowes last week an saw a display of the Peltor work tunes digital or analog 49.95. I really like them thus far and they are very comfortable.

Brad

 

[Jimmyp5]

For my money you can't beat a good old combination, hard hat/ear muffs, as used for chain saw, and other 2 cycle engine work. The face shield has even saved me from flying debris while bush hogging.

ditto... I keep it all hanging up with the keys... not that I put on the hard hat all the time... when cutting the fields., but when it time to clear brush out of the tree line... falling limbs = hard hat time!

I can put in my ear buds with my ipod type decice and not have to crank the sound up to max to hear! Like I have to do rideing the Harley!

 

[Foozle]

I find the chart below (published by OSHA) to be handy. For example, a chain saw generates 110 decibels of sound, so anything over 30 minutes of exposure could cause permanent hearing damage. I use a fairly cheap decibel meter to test sounds around the farm. For example, the sound level in the cab of my tractor is around 70-80 decibels, so I know I'm safe to go without ear protection. Of course, I generally use ear protection for anything "loud" even if the charts says I'm ok -- I wouldn't use a chain saw unprotected, even for 10 minutes.

I plan to get some custom molded ear plugs, but haven't yet. I've tried the generic soft plugs but have a difficult time getting a good seal sometimes and also worry about damaging my inner ear by forcing the plug in there. I also run into loud sounds elsewhere so would find them handy. For example, on an airplane, I've clocked some of the safety announcements at close to 100+ decibels. Interesting that the "safety" announcements create a different sort of safety hazard themselves (to hearing).


Sound (decibels) Hours Exposure
_________________________________________________
80................................... 32.0
81................................... 27.9
82................................... 24.3
83................................... 21.1
84................................... 18.4
85................................... 16.0
86................................... 13.9
87................................... 12.1
88................................... 10.6
89................................... 9.2
90................................... 8.0
91................................... 7.0
92................................... 6.1
93................................... 5.3
94................................... 4.6
95................................... 4.0
96................................... 3.5
97................................... 3.0
98................................... 2.6
99................................... 2.3
100.................................. 2.0
101.................................. 1.7
102.................................. 1.5
103.................................. 1.3
104.................................. 1.1
105.................................. 1.0
106.................................. 0.87
107.................................. 0.76
108.................................. 0.66
109.................................. 0.57
110.................................. 0.50
111.................................. 0.44
112.................................. 0.38
113.................................. 0.33
114.................................. 0.29
115.................................. 0.25
116.................................. 0.22
117.................................. 0.19
118.................................. 0.16
119.................................. 0.14
120.................................. 0.125
121.................................. 0.11
122.................................. 0.095
123.................................. 0.082
124.................................. 0.072
125.................................. 0.063
126.................................. 0.054
127.................................. 0.047
128.................................. 0.041
129.................................. 0.036
130.................................. 0.031

 

[Runner]

I found another good time to use my earmuffs (HF, $1.99 specials) - while working in my uninsulated metal building during a rainstorm. The noise is deafening, but with the muffs on, peace and quiet.

 

[MReeb]

I use a pair of these for most of the motorcycle riding that I do.Etymotic Research, Inc. - ER-6i Technical Specifications
They work very well for eliminating wind and engine noise but they are not the cheapest out there (definitely not the most expensive). If I want things really quiet while on the tractor, I slap a pair of Peltor earmuffs on over them. I usually go with one or the other because I kind of prefer to hear some of the noises the tractor and implement are making.

 

[daTeacha]

Midway USA has some electronic noise cancelling muffs for less than $30. They work well and allow you to hear things like conversation while running noisy equipment.

 

[RobJ]

I also have tenitus. The ringing never stops, I think it would drive most people crazy but I'm use to it now. As a result I and truely deaf in one ear and can't hear out of the other.

Muffs work ok but if you wear glasses(sun or safety) they need to fit tight. On the tractor I have a set of ear muff jelly plugs. They have a head gear that I lean back on my neck but the plugs are jelly. They will form to your ear and keep out the sound. They will also CLEAN your ears when you remove them!!. The foamys for great if you can get them to fit to your ear properly. One side I can twist them and they will stick the first time, the other side it seems I have to touch the other ear (from the inside!!) to get it to stick properly.

 

[DavidPerry]

I got a pair of Sony over the ear noise canceling headphones for use with an ipod or something similar. I can comfortably listen to music with the volume set to about half.