wind gypsy
"DADDY"
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2014
- Messages
- 11,404
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I’m trying to recall from a podcast with steve rinella and some hearing doctor lady professor. She said at a certain level over a certain decibel , the impact in effectiveness is compounded for every decible. Something like tbatI read the blog. I'm not a mathematician but what he's saying seems to contradict itself..
no muzzle device is 150.6db with the apa fat bastard its jumps 164.5db.... then he goes on to say the lowest brake which is the ops scored at 155.5db is 41% increase in perceived loudness and says the fat bastard is 162% increase in perceived loudness..... when the difference is 15db..
I’ve just made wearing double hearing protection my regular routine, regardless of what I or anyone else is shooting.I don’t know about much better but it feels much less intense on my ears.
From an article linked previously in this thread:
View attachment 894285
This makes my ears ring louder just imagining that lol. That's like a literal sound vortex.Hahaha never had a muzzle break on a rifle before. The 300wm was my first. I set up targets to dope in my rifle. To get a little elevation in prone position I laid in my truck bed with the gate down. The bed sides did a very good job of capturing all that muzzle stuff exiting haha
I was shooting just off to the side of my truck laid prone to keep glare of the sun off me.Hahaha never had a muzzle break on a rifle before. The 300wm was my first. I set up targets to dope in my rifle. To get a little elevation in prone position I laid in my truck bed with the gate down. The bed sides did a very good job of capturing all that muzzle stuff exiting haha
I’m trying to recall from a podcast with steve rinella and some hearing doctor lady professor. She said at a certain level over a certain decibel , the impact in effectiveness is compounded for every decible. Something like tbat
The decibel scale is a logarithmic scale.
If you want to learn more about it, here is some light reading. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decibel
As for those who always wear hearing protection, the decibel level of a 20” 308 with an APA Fat Bastard is 164 dB. If you are using foamies, which have a NRR of 26-29 (provided you are using them 100% effectively) that means you are getting 135-138 into the ear. 140 is the max threshold for “hearing safe”. Which means if you aren’t putting those foamies in exactly as you are supposed to, which is pretty hard to do even when not in a hunting situation, you are causing damage to your ear.
A larger cartridge makes it even worse.
That doesn’t even address the things we are now learning about the damage that the muzzle blast does to the head/brain.
You could try a 90 degree brake. I don’t feel a thing with mine . I ‘ve made it routine now to wear double hearing protection regardless of what I or anyone else might be shooting.I installed a muzzle brake that did 45 degree venting back towards the shooter on a 338LM. I did one ELR match with it where we shot a lot of rounds out to 2K. I had a headache for about two days after. My conclusion is likely minor concussion from it. I will never shoot any rifle with a muzzle brake again. And I get nowhere near anyone using one on their rifle.
You can't stack hearing protection enough to prevent damage and I definitely feel the blast wave has other effects as you state.
I know guys like to joke about it, but if you are using a brake you should know about the real risks and not discount them. Get a suppressor and save your hearing.