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Message
re: Muffled hearing and tinnitus from gunshot
Posted on 10/12/25 at 4:26 pm to LegendInMyMind
Posted on 10/12/25 at 4:26 pm to LegendInMyMind
Yep. I've had non stop ringing of the ears (tinnitus) since 1999. Mine happened after hearing a new sound system in my friends truck with brand new loud speakers. After seeing an ENT, I had 2 ear masking devices similar looking to hearing aids that "blended in with the ringing" to help me not notice the ringing so much. That helped me a little but I soon stopped wearing them. After 25 years, here's what I know about tinnitus and what you can do about it....
1. SLEEP. Get you a white noise machine to put by your bedside. You will not get a good nights sleep without noise in the room to keep
you from hearing your ringing.
2. DON'T PANIC. You need to realize that you have been forever changed because there is no cure for tinnitus in my research but you can overcome this. It may seem hopeless but it's not. You have to fight for your sanity.
3. SODIUM does make tinnitus worse after you eat a lot of salt but the ringing eventually gets back to your normal level of ringing.
4. STRESS makes tinnitus more noticeable.
5. DON'T BUY TINNITUS CURES because there are none. I've bought everything on the market and NONE of it works. Ginko Biloba is the one that they advertise the most.
6. WEAR EAR PROTECTION when using power tools or around loud noises. The ringing can get worse permanently if you don't protect your ears from this day forward.
I'm not gonna sugar coat this problem of tinnitus. The first time I was fishing on the lake and realized just how bad the ringing really was, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I did notice when I was catching fish that the ringing was less noticeable lol. On a serious note, I was borderline thinking of wanting to end this problem and stop my misery but those thoughts were only during the first week or so. It took me about a year to get use to hearing it 24/7 and I did a lot of damage to myself with drugs, alcohol, conflicts, fighting and rough times with friends who didn't know why I had changed so much. I'm sober now and have a good life with a great wife and Jesus as my pilot. I don't know how anyone tries to live with tinnitus alone because you need a partner/friend or family member to reel you in because it it not easy to accept the ringing. God bless and I hope my post helps you even if it's a little bit.
1. SLEEP. Get you a white noise machine to put by your bedside. You will not get a good nights sleep without noise in the room to keep
you from hearing your ringing.
2. DON'T PANIC. You need to realize that you have been forever changed because there is no cure for tinnitus in my research but you can overcome this. It may seem hopeless but it's not. You have to fight for your sanity.
3. SODIUM does make tinnitus worse after you eat a lot of salt but the ringing eventually gets back to your normal level of ringing.
4. STRESS makes tinnitus more noticeable.
5. DON'T BUY TINNITUS CURES because there are none. I've bought everything on the market and NONE of it works. Ginko Biloba is the one that they advertise the most.
6. WEAR EAR PROTECTION when using power tools or around loud noises. The ringing can get worse permanently if you don't protect your ears from this day forward.
I'm not gonna sugar coat this problem of tinnitus. The first time I was fishing on the lake and realized just how bad the ringing really was, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I did notice when I was catching fish that the ringing was less noticeable lol. On a serious note, I was borderline thinking of wanting to end this problem and stop my misery but those thoughts were only during the first week or so. It took me about a year to get use to hearing it 24/7 and I did a lot of damage to myself with drugs, alcohol, conflicts, fighting and rough times with friends who didn't know why I had changed so much. I'm sober now and have a good life with a great wife and Jesus as my pilot. I don't know how anyone tries to live with tinnitus alone because you need a partner/friend or family member to reel you in because it it not easy to accept the ringing. God bless and I hope my post helps you even if it's a little bit.
This post was edited on 10/12/25 at 4:29 pm
1
Posted on 10/12/25 at 4:37 pm to sledgehammer
Could be temporary Noise Induced Hearing Loss, NIHL, and it may subside. My FIL’s loud TV was giving me nausea and a bit of temporary NIHL. I asked him to turn it down but he can’t hear it too well so I try to go there at lunch time, bring him a sammich, and then head on home.
My hearing improved when I stopped getting hammered by those loud noises.
In the future you should have everyone in your shooting group declare RANGE HOT and everyone replies as a protocol before slapping a mag in. My sons and I and any friends do that wherever we go to shoot.
Good luck with your hearing issue!
My hearing improved when I stopped getting hammered by those loud noises.
In the future you should have everyone in your shooting group declare RANGE HOT and everyone replies as a protocol before slapping a mag in. My sons and I and any friends do that wherever we go to shoot.
Good luck with your hearing issue!
Posted on 10/12/25 at 4:50 pm to sledgehammer
Buddy shot a deer from the cab of his truck once. Lost all hearing in one ear
Posted on 10/12/25 at 4:53 pm to sledgehammer
When I was in high school my dad took me to my uncle's place out in the country and we shot up a whole box of rounds with his .38 special. No hearing protection, just fingers in ears when you weren't the one firing.
I had the same issues you describe for a couple of weeks, primarily in my left ear. The pressure feeling went away, but tinnitus and some hearing loss was permanent in the left one. That's been over 30 years.
I had the same issues you describe for a couple of weeks, primarily in my left ear. The pressure feeling went away, but tinnitus and some hearing loss was permanent in the left one. That's been over 30 years.
Posted on 10/12/25 at 4:55 pm to beerJeep
quote:
One shot turned your ears into bitch mode?
My ears growl and ring constantly and it was only caused by a decade and a half of heavy duck hunting and many hundreds and hundreds and hundreds or discharged shot shells. We didn't do hearing protection. One interesting thing is the ear positioned opposite the report is not as bad as the other. You gotta have one good ear.
Posted on 10/12/25 at 4:55 pm to redneck hippie
I went to a Motorhead Concert in KC.
It was a 7.00 ticket.
It was already deafning loud. The loudest concert I have ever been too.
Lemmy "Do you guys want to hear louder"
The crowd roars.
I was already like, its freaking too loud.
For a 10 days my ears had a constant ring. But it slowly went away.
It was a 7.00 ticket.
It was already deafning loud. The loudest concert I have ever been too.
Lemmy "Do you guys want to hear louder"
The crowd roars.
I was already like, its freaking too loud.
For a 10 days my ears had a constant ring. But it slowly went away.
Posted on 10/12/25 at 4:55 pm to sledgehammer
Was the range hot?
Did you call it cold?
I was next to an idiot who let go on an 8mm MG42 when the range was cold and let the entire belt rip and I was fine after a couple of days of muffled sound. We are constantly damaging our hearing day by day, loud, not loud, whatever, it should subside but that is not my area of expertise.
I have shot with military guys that never used hearing protection in the Military. My fishing partner tells me stories of the air force needing to get rid of a pallet of ammo and they would go dump it all with no hearing protection. He is in his 30's and his hearing is fricked but he can still hear to communicate...
TLDR, I wouldn't worry about one shot.
Did you call it cold?
I was next to an idiot who let go on an 8mm MG42 when the range was cold and let the entire belt rip and I was fine after a couple of days of muffled sound. We are constantly damaging our hearing day by day, loud, not loud, whatever, it should subside but that is not my area of expertise.
I have shot with military guys that never used hearing protection in the Military. My fishing partner tells me stories of the air force needing to get rid of a pallet of ammo and they would go dump it all with no hearing protection. He is in his 30's and his hearing is fricked but he can still hear to communicate...
TLDR, I wouldn't worry about one shot.
Posted on 10/12/25 at 4:59 pm to sledgehammer
What this thread tells me is that, God forbid, you ever have to fire at a home invader, you're pretty much fricked for life.
Posted on 10/12/25 at 5:00 pm to Sunnyvale
quote:
Motorhead Concert in KC.
It was a 7.00 ticket.
F. Yes.
OP, also flush your ears, you may have wax buildup that occurred around the same time. I spent over a month suffering probably a 10db loss in one ear before I gave the flush a shot. The plug of wax that came out of my ear was shockingly large, and my hearing was restored immediately.
The tinnitus I have from various things over the decades will never go away unless I spend less time in the gym, so it's never going away. Having good noise canceling headphones seems to have made the problem worse, but that could just be age.
Posted on 10/12/25 at 5:01 pm to sledgehammer
Had the same thing happen while dove hunting with some folks I promptly quit hunting with. It took enough of my hearing that after that, I couldn't deal well with conversations in a noisy environment like at a restaurant.
Posted on 10/12/25 at 5:02 pm to sledgehammer
tyfys
Posted on 10/12/25 at 5:20 pm to Woobie
Thank you. I’m still waiting for my Purple Heart to come in the mail. 
Posted on 10/12/25 at 5:23 pm to LemmyLives
I legit belive, flushing my ears would improve my hearing.
Just no one does it around here.
Just no one does it around here.
Posted on 10/12/25 at 5:24 pm to Yeahright
quote:
Yeahright
That's a very good post and description of learning to deal with it. Those first few weeks made me want to pull my hair out. The worst part is that there is just no escape, it is always there. You notice it more at times than others, like just the act of typing this and reading about it brings it out of the background and to the forefront, making me focus on it. I think the brain compensates, learns to tune it out for the most part.
I use a sound machine at night. For anyone wondering, I use the Dohm Classic that just has a fan and an on/off, high/low button. It sounds like a loud fan or quiet window A/C unit. It works.
This post was edited on 10/12/25 at 5:25 pm
Posted on 10/12/25 at 6:00 pm to beerJeep
Yes for me but eventually recovered. I remember my left ear heard the voice message (female voice) sound like a chipmunk for months.
Posted on 10/12/25 at 6:11 pm to sledgehammer
If the issue doesn't resolve, don't rule out inner ear conditions which may also be causing symptoms like the ones you're describing. This may be an incorrect spelling, but an otolaryngologist (or close to that) specializes in conditions of the inner ear.
Posted on 10/12/25 at 6:35 pm to LegendInMyMind
Yes to what Yeahright and you describe. Tinnitus cures don’t exist. Masking helps. Some hearing aids with with phone apps can mask it by playing different frequencies in background.
It can get noticeably worse when you focus on it. Ignoring it helps.
TLDR: you learn to live with it.
It can get noticeably worse when you focus on it. Ignoring it helps.
TLDR: you learn to live with it.
Posted on 10/12/25 at 6:42 pm to sledgehammer
I have had Tinnitus to various degrees for several years.
As others have suggested here, a "Sleep Sounds Machine" helps with sleep.
Reminder: The body does tend to heal itself so don't panic, be patient and let God do His thing.
This may be helpful.
As others have suggested here, a "Sleep Sounds Machine" helps with sleep.
Reminder: The body does tend to heal itself so don't panic, be patient and let God do His thing.
This may be helpful.
Posted on 10/12/25 at 6:45 pm to sledgehammer
Also, Dr. Berg
Besides other different head-neck-ear manipulations, there is a new form of vitamin B1 (Benfotiamine) that helpful for nerve damage.
Hang in brutha.
Besides other different head-neck-ear manipulations, there is a new form of vitamin B1 (Benfotiamine) that helpful for nerve damage.
Hang in brutha.
Posted on 10/12/25 at 6:58 pm to sledgehammer
You took a bad hit to the ears.
Don't let any of these soft handed sissy fricks that live on this board tell you any different.
How old are you?
Aside from not having that answer (because according to ENTs who I've gone to multiple times for hearing tests, when you've take a sudden, acute decibel hit to the ears, age matters when it comes to recovering back to physical and psychological normal), you've injured your ears.
Odds are, the muffled sound will clear up, so will most of the tinnitus (likely all of it), but from a lifelong, avid and serious firearm user who used to NEVER use ear protection as a shite eating kid 25 years ago and who has had several muzzle blast events like yours in a duck blind, let this be a lesson: invest in the most effective and comfortable (because you'll actually use it if it's comfortable and effective) active & passive hearing protection you can afford. These are the good ol' days when it comes to functional hearing protection.
Don't move around on the range without it once you've found your protection. Doc told me I'll be deaf by 70 at the latest if I make it that long. It's already done, you can't reverse it, so mitigate for further events, but one single report is not going to irreversibly destroy your sense of hearing unless you're elderly.
Don't let any of these soft handed sissy fricks that live on this board tell you any different.
How old are you?
Aside from not having that answer (because according to ENTs who I've gone to multiple times for hearing tests, when you've take a sudden, acute decibel hit to the ears, age matters when it comes to recovering back to physical and psychological normal), you've injured your ears.
Odds are, the muffled sound will clear up, so will most of the tinnitus (likely all of it), but from a lifelong, avid and serious firearm user who used to NEVER use ear protection as a shite eating kid 25 years ago and who has had several muzzle blast events like yours in a duck blind, let this be a lesson: invest in the most effective and comfortable (because you'll actually use it if it's comfortable and effective) active & passive hearing protection you can afford. These are the good ol' days when it comes to functional hearing protection.
Don't move around on the range without it once you've found your protection. Doc told me I'll be deaf by 70 at the latest if I make it that long. It's already done, you can't reverse it, so mitigate for further events, but one single report is not going to irreversibly destroy your sense of hearing unless you're elderly.
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