Dang it, y'all locked the thread!

Brian, I dunno if little ears are more sensitive than adult ears or not, but hearing damage is not reversible and accumulates over our lifetime. They need to have their little ears protected - from loud TVs, music, etc, not just firing impulses. Age-related hearing loss is also driven by genetics, not simply environmental factors.

Off-the-shelf hearing protection is NOT one-size-fits-all. I used to take my kids in to the Health Clinic and have them properly fitted for hearing protection by an audiologist - well, except for our deaf daughter, LoL! Before taking kids shooting, I strongly recommend having them fitted for ear plugs about each time they out-grow their shoes. One side benefit of doing that is when my now-older kids go to a concert or fly, they wear earplugs...

FWIW, properly fitted and worn triple flange ear plugs offer the most attenuation of high frequency impulses, muff claims notwithstanding. Belt-and-suspenders approach is plugs and muffs.

Ever stood next to C4 or TNT going off? Tank main gun? Fired 90mm Recoiless Rifle prone? Now THAT's loud! Makes a shotgun seem less than finger-snapping.

BTW, Wyoming jackrabbits sneer at body hits with a 22 lr. You should invite Bountyhunter down there to show you how it's done... as long as he agrees in advance to eat what he catches... <grin>

Tom

That is very interesting about the kids and ear plugs. I asked my son's (former) pediatrician about earplugs for my son and she told me to "just use some cotton". Needless to say I was not impressed. IMHO he's still too young to get anything out of going to the range or anywhere else that is inherently loud so I haven't given it much more thought but I will certainly follow your example and seek a second opinion before I do take him to the shooting range, the drag races or anywhere else extremely loud.

I saw something very interesting the other day, stick on ear muffs!
The helicopter transport teams use them for kids, I have no idea where to get them, or how large they get.
Mostly, they are used for infants and toddlers. Big kids get foam ear puffs.

Brian,

"Audiologist", not kiddie-doc, LoL. Your son needs to be old enough to sit still for a few minutes for a fitting - usually about 4-5 years old. The Audiologist will measure both his ear canals, fit ear plugs if an appropriate stocked size is available (or sizes, if both are not the same size), and then stick your son in a booth and TEST according to a protocol to measure the actual attenuation. If all is well, the Audiologist will then instruct you and your son on how to properly insert the ear plugs. (And in an even more thorough procedure, they test beforehand for an absolute baseline, rather than an assumed baseline - but that's tough for a little guy to sit through twice.)

Sometimes ready-made plugs won't properly fit a youngester (or an adult, for that matter), and a custom pair must be moulded. Fine for an adult, but kids outgrow them at a pretty good clip.

BTW, that's the best procedure for an adult to go through, not just kids. Astonishing how many folks don't know how to fit themselves and don't know how to properly insert formed ear plugs. The expanding foam ones are a lot better than nothing; a lot better than poorly fitted muffs, but even THOSE have to be inserted properly to do their job. (And they're too big for little kids)

A trip to an Audiologist trained and equipped to fit and test earplugs is an investment that returns handsomely in retained high frequency hearing. We live in a noisy world...

HTH,

Tom

AyersTG:

Instead of throwing the the whole cartridge at your Wyoming jackrabbits, try firing the bullet out of a rifle at the jackrabbits. It works better that way and they will go down from a body hit. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Bountyhunter <img src="/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

I use the triple seal ear plugs AND ear muffs when target shooting.

My favorite range has a lousy air cleansing system and I am seriously considering wearing a microfilter mask to keep from tasting powder and lead residue for days after target shooting.

Bountyhunter

Brian,

In the junior division of our gun club, we have been using Howard Leight's Max Lite low pressure foam earplugs. We have no connection to this manufacturer other than as satisfied users/coaches. We use the smaller size for the kids. I have personally tried them and found them to be somewhat more effective in reducing the sound of gunfire than the non-disposible plugs (a triple flanged model from Silencio) which I normally use. However my own plugs are much easier to seat, and are generally used in conjunction with ear muffs. Thus the combined hearing protection is normally ample.

I have found that when I use my custom fitted plugs under muffs they tend to work loose. However, I have not tried the custom units under the muffs without the connecting cord which may be contributing to the loosening. I tend to reserve the custom fitted plugs for hunting trips where circumstances make it difficult to also wear muffs.

I have cut the smaller foam plugs approximately in half lengthwise with scissors for my then 9 year old son. That allowed them to be seated well. They seemed to provide good hearing protection.

My family went to the drag races a few years ago. We all used plugs and muffs. We found that level of protection to be barely adequate. Indeed, at ground level next to the track near the starting line, the level of noise was sufficiently loud that we could feel the sound waves reverberating throughout our entire bodies. One remarkable discovery was that nearly 1/2 of the audience appeared to be using no hearing protection at all. There is much to be said for Darwin's theory of naturally selection. <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> I also suspect that one could do a thriving business selling inexpensive hearing protectors. Come to think of it, our Boy Scout troop, or at least the friends thereof, could always use another fund-raiser.

It's fortunate that you were more knowledgeable than your former pediatrician. Incidentally, we found our otherwise very skilled and well-informed obstetrician to be admittedly ignorant about any potential deleterious effects of shooting on my then pregnant wife and unborn child.

Good luck,

John

I have always used foam plugs on myself both with and without muffs depending on the situation and I wasn't quite sure what to do about the kiddo but now I have got a couple good options. Thanks guys.

I don't shoot, so I don't need hearing protection for that. But I fly, so I always wear a good ANR headset when I do. I also fly aerobatics, and there's one guy in our club who has a Staudacher S-330. It has a boosted AIEO-540 with short header pipes, no muffler. That's a 330 horsepower plane, only 1200 pounds. He wears an ANR headset AND foam earplugs!

ANR works well with engine noise because it's a constant, steady noise that can be predicted and cancelled out. I'm not sure how well it would work with gunfire, which is neither constant nor steady.

Just an observation, I have no special expertise in any of these areas.