Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

Well I am going to miss out on a lotta fun shooting this weekend. I have shot a .50 Barret and up to a .458 Winchester many year's ago. With my shoulder damage and surgery this year (twice) and the failure of both I am limited to a sling on pain of death by my wife. As far as hearing is concerned I am all but deaf in the right ear (70%) loss and (50%) or more in the left ear. This is from over 40 years of shooting in competition both a rifle and a handgun. People wear your HEAD SETS and or ear plugs. I have 2 very expensive hearing aids on my dresser collecting dust ($4,800.00) that I hate to wear.
Bill

SgtBill wrote:. As far as hearing is concerned I am all but deaf in the right ear (70%) loss and (50%) or more in the left ear. This is from over 40 years of shooting in competition both a rifle and a handgun. People wear your HEAD SETS and or ear plugs.

+100 here, folks best shooting hobby money I spent was to goto an audiologist and have custom ear plugs made. Super comfortable, and give better noise reduction than ANY other in, or over, ear hearing protection device I've ever used.

Looks like I can't make it to the shoot, bad as I wanted to.

+1 on the hearing protection. It's too late for me, I can't hear it thunder any more. But I use it now to keep from getting any worse. The book that came with my Bushmaster BA-50 .50BMG said to use DOUBLE hearing protection; which I took to mean earmuff-type AND plugs. My son and I disregarded that the first time we shot it, and we just used the muffs. He said his ears were ringing afterward. My ears ring all the time anyway. So now we use plugs and earmuffs.

dorminWS wrote:Looks like I can't make it to the shoot, bad as I wanted to.

+1 on the hearing protection. It's too late for me, I can't hear it thunder any more. But I use it now to keep from getting any worse. The book that came with my Bushmaster BA-50 .50BMG said to use DOUBLE hearing protection; which I took to mean earmuff-type AND plugs. My son and I disregarded that the first time we shot it, and we just used the muffs. He said his ears were ringing afterward. My ears ring all the time anyway. So now we use plugs and earmuffs.

That's what Garret recommended when I shot it last year and I had no ringing. Sorry you can't make it!

Jakeiscrazy wrote:

dorminWS wrote:Looks like I can't make it to the shoot, bad as I wanted to.

+1 on the hearing protection. It's too late for me, I can't hear it thunder any more. But I use it now to keep from getting any worse. The book that came with my Bushmaster BA-50 .50BMG said to use DOUBLE hearing protection; which I took to mean earmuff-type AND plugs. My son and I disregarded that the first time we shot it, and we just used the muffs. He said his ears were ringing afterward. My ears ring all the time anyway. So now we use plugs and earmuffs.

That's what Garret recommended when I shot it last year and I had no ringing. Sorry you can't make it!

+1

Most hearing protection is at best around 30dB (all testing and modeling objections aside) which means that a .50BMG is going to be mid 140s. Cheaper muffs may only reduce it to low 150s. Unfortunately they don't add linearly so doubling up doesn't provide nearly 60dB, but rather the muffs only add approx. 10dB on top of the plugs.

LOL. Speaking of suppressing a 50BMG...Barrett redesigned their bolt carrier group to permit it.

http://www.barrett.net/firearms/m107a1

Designed to be used with a suppressor, this one-of-a-kind rifle allows you to combine signature reduction capabilities with the flawless reliability of the original Barrett® M107. An all-new bolt carrier group has been designed that is key to making the rifle suppressor-ready.

Hope it's not too late, but Michael would love to shoot it again. Put us down for 5 rounds please. Thanks for bringing back ,he loved shooting it last year. It was the highlight of the weekend for him.