What’s that you say, sonny?
Hanging around old hunters, a conversationalist often finds he must repeat himself. Fact is, longtime deer and waterfowl hunters frequently have difficulty hearing clearly. Too much shooting over time, without using any kind of ear protection, has left them partly deaf.
Half of them don’t know it. Half of them won’t admit it. And most of them probably would do it all over again the same way.
“Men tend to lose hearing at a greater rate than women anyway,” said Mike Capps, a certified hearing evaluator for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, at a seminar this fall in Minnesota.
The easiest ways to damage hearing, he said, are by long-term exposure to 85 decibels or more or from a one-time exposure to a loud sound–such as a gunshot.
“Hunters say, `I’m used to it,'” Capps said. “No, you’re not. You’ve lost your hearing.”
Gunfire has been measured at between 140 and 190 decibels, Capps said.
“There is no exposure time that’s safe,” he said. “There is no time that you’ve fired a gun that you haven’t damaged your hearing.”
Over the years hunters have been reluctant to wear ear protection because it didn’t look impressive, Capps said. Earmuffs were ruled out as uncool. Foam stuck in ears worked only so-so. Guys just couldn’t be bothered. And years later, they pay for it.
Mike Reynolds, 45, of Westchester, who began hunting at 18, has hearing loss.
“My left ear has substantially less [capability] than my right,” he said. “Hunting certainly played a part in it.”
For the last year Reynolds has worn custom-poured hearing protection–fitted plugs that do an exceptional job of blocking out sound–that was prescribed by a doctor. While the hearing protection does help block out gunshots on a deer hunt, Reynolds said he has had trouble adjusting to wearing it in other circumstances because of distortion.
“The duck call sounds different,” he said. “I couldn’t get used to the duck call.”
Capps said hunters have been stubborn about adapting over the years, simply putting up with hearing loss and eventually turning to hearing aids. They may regret their actions when it’s too late to do anything about it. What Capps recommends is electronic earmuffs that block out a loud gunshot but permit conversation to be heard.
“And if it’s in cold weather, it helps keep your ears warm,” he said. “You may have lost some hearing, but if it’s noise-induced, you can preserve what you have left.”
Ron Sucik, 58, of Naperville, has hunted since he was 10. He believes a combination of factors has diminished his hearing, from being hit in the right ear with a snowball when he was 14 to working with planes in the Marine Corps to hunting.
Sucik never has worn hearing protection in the field because he was afraid he would miss out on hearing a deer walking behind him. However, he recently purchased hearing aids.
“They amplify all noises,” he said.
Sucik is a mild skeptic about how much his shooting harmed him. He said he goes out three or four times a year for bigger game like deer and might fire only 20 times.
“I can’t imagine it does as much damage as it would for an avid hunter,” he said. “But if I were to start over now, I would wear [hearing protection].”
It is ironic that hunters who readily invest large sums of money in the best of equipment, from camouflage clothing to first-rate shotguns, neglect their health.
“It’s a guy thing,” Adam Johnson said. “That’s definitely part of it.”
Johnson, 26, who represents a Minnesota company called Blast Blockers that manufactures hunter-friendly hearing protection, said hunters who don’t think the sound of a gun firing is hurting their ears in the long run are being naive.
“Every time you pull that trigger, you’re damaging your hearing permanently,” Johnson said. “At ranges, shooters wear protection all the time. For some reason, hunters think it’s OK to blast through a box of shells.”
Johnson said hearing protection is more sophisticated than ever and has been designed and perfected with hunters in mind. New items, which can cost up to $1,200, can be custom-fitted and last for years. Spending to buy the best product on the market is worth it, he said, “because once [your hearing is] gone, you can never get it back.”
Reynolds is one of the lucky ones. Not because his hearing loss will be restored by medical magic, but because he drives heavy machinery on his job and his doctor’s prescription for custom-made hearing protection was covered by insurance.
“It just wasn’t macho to do,” Reynolds said of wearing hearing protection when he was a younger. “There are a lot of old hunters going around saying, `Huh?'”
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lfreedman@tribune.com
