Hearing Bugles Until Your Last Hunt, By Weston Adkins

[Justin Crossley]

Weston Adkins (@westonadkins ) is an audiologist currently working at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, specializing in diagnostics and cochlear implants. He earned his Doctorate in Audiology from the University of Iowa in 2017. He grew up in South Dakota hunting pheasants and whitetail and spent summers in college rock climbing and backpacking. Combining these two passions, he is now an aspiring backpack hunter.

Give him a warm Rokslide welcome and enjoy his article on hearing loss and protection.

Hearing Bugles Until Your Last Hunt

 

[robby denning]

Weston Adkins (@westonadkins ) is an audiologist currently working at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, specializing in diagnostics and cochlear implants. He earned his Doctorate in Audiology from the University of Iowa in 2017. He grew up in South Dakota hunting pheasants and whitetail and spent summers in college rock climbing and backpacking. Combining these two passions, he is now an aspiring backpack hunter.

Give him a warm Rokslide welcome and enjoy his article on hearing loss and protection.

Hearing Bugles Until Your Last Hunt

Welcome and great topic Weston.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Josh Boyd]

Thank you for the great info @westonadkins . This really hits home with me as I've lost a fair bit of high frequency hearing in my left ear from shooting. I can still hear bugles but have a hard time with the direction. I hope the information presented will prevent some younger guys from making the same mistakes I did.

-Josh

 

[westonadkins]

Thank you for the opportunity! If anyone has any thoughts or questions, I'm happy to discuss as best I can.

I'm out elk hunting in Wyoming at the moment so forgive any slow replies.

-Weston


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[DavePwns]

Thanks for sharing, I'm planning on building my hunting rifles around having a suppressor to help decrease the risk of hearing damage

 

[CoffeeGoat]

Excellent - now I have a surefire argument to buy that suppressor I've been looking at - it's for my health!

 

[westonadkins]

Excellent - now I have a surefire argument to buy that suppressor I've been looking at - it's for my health!

Sounds like a foolproof argument to me!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[westonadkins]

Thanks for sharing, I'm planning on building my hunting rifles around having a suppressor to help decrease the risk of hearing damage

Excellent idea. Get it under that 140 dB Peak mark and good to go!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[robby denning]

Excellent - now I have a surefire argument to buy that suppressor I've been looking at - it's for my health!

Yeah just tell her to check rokslide if she doesn’t believe you. We got your back man

 

[elkguide]

I need to get on this band wagon NOW!

 

[Jbehredt]

Welcome! I’m the dork who wears ear muffs when I mow my lawn...... and it’s largely because I LOVE hearing bugles.

 

[CoffeeGoat]

Welcome! I’m the dork who wears ear muffs when I mow my lawn...... and it’s largely because I LOVE hearing bugles.

I'm that guy as well, I worked construction and all the older guys had hearing loss, they made it clear that I needed to wear the gear (safety glasses and ear plugs). One of them was completely deaf to his cell phone ring, apparently it was the same frequency as his circular saw - it was convincing. But I certainly never wore anything in the duck blind or out elk hunting, looks like that is going to have to change.

 

[whaack]

I have mild high frequency loss in my left ear from shooting without ppe when I was young and dumb. Now I wear protective gear whenever there’s a chance I might need it. I’ve considered wearing ear muffs when I vacuum the house too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[westonadkins]

I'm that guy as well, I worked construction and all the older guys had hearing loss, they made it clear that I needed to wear the gear (safety glasses and ear plugs). One of them was completely deaf to his cell phone ring, apparently it was the same frequency as his circular saw - it was convincing. But I certainly never wore anything in the duck blind or out elk hunting, looks like that is going to have to change.

Noise tends to damage our high frequency hearing first, especially at 4,000 Hz. It interestingly doesn't matter the frequency of the noise. It damages high pitch hearing first because of our outer and middle ear resonance and how our inner ear is shaped. They've done studies where they expose animals to noise at a low pitch, say 250 Hz, but they still measure hearing loss at around 4,000 Hz.

Clinically, we will measure a "noise notch" like you see in the picture. Then gradually the high pitches keep slipping until a guy can't hear a cell phone ring like your example.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[westonadkins]

I have mild high frequency loss in my left ear from shooting without ppe when I was young and dumb. Now I wear protective gear whenever there’s a chance I might need it. I’ve considered wearing ear muffs when I vacuum the house too.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hah. You and me both!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[BRTreedogs]

True stuff at this time in life loosing my hearing is my biggest regret in life. I'm about 30% and rite in the bugle range.
Its terrible I hate myself for it at 39 its already making life pretty difficult.

 

[trophyhill]

So a buddy of mine has constant ringing in his ears that stemmed from a gunshot. Based on what he has said, this is not enjoyable and he calls it “tenitis”. Not sure I got the spelling right there but I have experienced ringing after attending concerts earlier in life but it typically subsided after a day or 2.

in addition to the “proper” insertion of the ear plugs as illustrated, we were trained in an OSHA class on how to do this, and test to make sure they are inserted properly. Simply cup your hands over your ears after the plugs have “re inflated” for a few moments. If you notice a change in sound, they need to be re inserted and repeat the cupping with your hands.

When the ear plugs are inserted properly, you won’t notice a change in sound when you cup your hands over your ears. This is for the soft foam ear plugs. Very important to reach around your head and open the ear canal as illustrated. It will take a small bit of practice but once you master it, it’s really easy to do.
thanks for the article!

 

[robby denning]

Welcome! I’m the dork who wears ear muffs when I mow my lawn...... and it’s largely because I LOVE hearing bugles.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[westonadkins]

True stuff at this time in life loosing my hearing is my biggest regret in life. I'm about 30% and rite in the bugle range.
Its terrible I hate myself for it at 39 its already making life pretty difficult.

Hearing loss can certainly cause a lot of trouble, and I'm sorry you're having to work with it. That link in the custom hearing protection section will help you find a good local audiologist if that's helpful.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[westonadkins]

So a buddy of mine has constant ringing in his ears that stemmed from a gunshot. Based on what he has said, this is not enjoyable and he calls it “tenitis”. Not sure I got the spelling right there but I have experienced ringing after attending concerts earlier in life but it typically subsided after a day or 2.

in addition to the “proper” insertion of the ear plugs as illustrated, we were trained in an OSHA class on how to do this, and test to make sure they are inserted properly. Simply cup your hands over your ears after the plugs have “re inflated” for a few moments. If you notice a change in sound, they need to be re inserted and repeat the cupping with your hands.

When the ear plugs are inserted properly, you won’t notice a change in sound when you cup your hands over your ears. This is for the soft foam ear plugs. Very important to reach around your head and open the ear canal as illustrated. It will take a small bit of practice but once you master it, it’s really easy to do.
thanks for the article!

I really like that ear cup check. That's a nice tip.

Ringing / buzzing in the ears is called tinnitus (ti-NIGHT-us or TINN-a-tus). I thought about touching on it in the article, but it's really a standalone topic. www.ata.org has a lot of good information on it.

Thanks for the positive feedback!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk