"I can shoot most of my guns without needing hearing protection, as long as its in a fairly open area. Hopefully you wont have to be shooting 30+ zeds at once. Or any at all for that matter, I would try to avoid being noticed, or move away from them if i wasn't bunkered down somewhere.

I fire much louder guns than a 9mm and can hear just fine after, or within a few minutes I can. As long as you aren't shooting too many rounds at once you should be ok. I only have 5 guns that I will ALWAYS use hearing protection for, and those are LOUD."

"if you see a zombie indoors, you probably wont have a lot of time to react. So you will have to shoot before you can put your ear protection on. If you say you should have it on already... well then your already deaf to the noise that a zed would be making in the first place. So, its either go in to the fight not being able to hear a zed because of your hearing protection, or go in being able to hear them, until the shots start."

"I can shoot most of my guns without needing hearing protection, as long as its in a fairly open area. Hopefully you wont have to be shooting 30+ zeds at once. Or any at all for that matter, I would try to avoid being noticed, or move away from them if i wasn't bunkered down somewhere.

I fire much louder guns than a 9mm and can hear just fine after, or within a few minutes I can. As long as you aren't shooting too many rounds at once you should be ok. I only have 5 guns that I will ALWAYS use hearing protection for, and those are LOUD."

"There are a large number of electronic, and non-electronic hearing protection that allows you to hear normal sounds while suppressing high-dB sounds. For example, "Combat Ears", a simple ear plug, has a small vent that can be opened or closed. The open position allows normal sounds ot pass through, while suppressing gunshots (at a slightly lower dB reduction level) while the closed position protects from continuous noise or a higher dB reduction level.
They cost about $4.
While electronic muffs limit your spatial recognition of hearing (especially since they usually amplify sounds as well), they do protect your hearing while allowing you to still hear the outside world no problem. They range from $10 to $700, including some earplug models with behind-the-ear mics/batteries.


No excuse for destroying your hearing now."

"I've never heard of those I'll have to look it up. Is that what the military and police use?"

"Damage is done in one shot. That single impulse of high dB levels instantly damages your hearing beyond the level of repair your body can do. Any time your ears ring, damage has been done, usually unrepairable.. Any time they hurt, damage has been done, for sure unrepairable. Any time you stop being able to hear for any period of time, damage has been done beyond even that.

The dB levels produced by .22LR in both rifle and pistol are well above the threshold for instant damage. The only thing I would ever chance it with is .22Short, and that's because out of a rifle (all I have in that caliber), some pellet rifles produce a louder impulse.

I exclusively use earplugs, mostly disposable Silencio plugs, and a couple pairs of nicer reusable 5-flange plugs for when I plan on removing them a lot. I throw on my $10 electronic muffs over the plugs for anything over intermediate calibers for rifles. Cranked all the way up, I can hear normally."