Posted: 1/1/2005 8:01:23 AM EDT
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I need help. I'm 36 years old and I'm loosing hearing in my left ear. Yes, I know its from hunting. I am psychotic about wearing hearing protection when shooting and always use both plugs and a headset when shooting rifles or shooting anything indoors. Outdoor shotgunning and pistols are done with custom molded ear plugs. Hunting is another story. I still hunt, stalk and stand for deer. I need to hear what is going on around me. Well, as punishment for many seasons of successful deer hunts, my left ear has lost a considerable amount of high frequency hearing. My last day of hunting was 2 days ago and my left ear is still ringing from the 4 shots I took with my .376 Steyr (long story about a problem scope mount). I've done a number of searches for hearing aids and all I can find is advertisements. I can't find any actual reviews of what works for hunters. I've tried the Walker's Game Ear and it sucks. I wouldn't consider it for a number of reasons. I'm looking at the Magnum EAR Digital model here. Do any of you have experience with this model? How about hearing aids in general? Do conventional digital models filter out gunfire? With only mild loss, should I instead be considering the non-enhancing model and just use it to filter the gunfire and not worry about amplifying regular sound? I would appreciate any input from those with any experience with this. |
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Make sure you get a hearing aid that covers your loss and more - get digital hearing aids. Because of your shooting and hunting, you have the potential to lose more of your hearing. If you lose more of your hearing, digital hearing aids can be programmed to handle the new loss. For example, my hearing is a 75 db loss in the 1khz and 2 khz. My audiologist picked a set of hearing aids for me that handles my loss and is capable of being programmed to handle a 100 db loss in the event that I lose hearing due to aging. It is important to find an audiologist that you can trust. Do a search on the general boards, going back 3 months with the the search term; hearing aids. There were some posts regarding that subject. Even though my hearing aids have a hearing threshold programmed in to handle loud noises, I have been advised to wear hearing protection on top of my hearing aids. Good luck and if you have any questions, feel free to IM me or send an e-mail thru the site. |
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Huh? Seeing an audiologist is the best advice. I damaged my hearing before I was 25 with all the usual suspects: gunfire, chainsaws, explosives, etc., etc. One told me I would have to have hearing aids before I was much older. I know there are different things that happen to ears, but I started wearing hearing protection for everything from mowing the lawn. There seems to be some debate (because of different people doing some of the earlier tests) whether my hearing has improved slightly or just hasn't gotten any worse. In any case, it's not too late to use hearing protection for all noisy activities. I've heard from a lot of people that hearing aids suck bigtime - but I have no firsthand experience to back that up. Maybe the newer ones are much improved. NMSight |
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I probably should have mentioned that I have seen an audiologist. That's how I know its only in the left ear and only in the higher frequencies. Sometimes, it seems like its more though. If I'm laying on my right ear in bed, my girlfriend sounds quite muffled. I was hoping somebody here had used the Magnum EAR and had some feedback on it. After more consideration, I'm thinking I might just live with the reduced volume in the left for now. The right ear is unaffected and the hearing loss isn't severe enough to justify a young man like myself wearing an actual aid at all times. I've nawwoed down my choices to buying a hearing aid just for hunting or perhaps a non-amplified electronic earplug for hunting that cuts off gun blasts. There is also a couple of non-electronic plugs that claim to not affect normal hearing but will cut off blasts. |