Hearing Protection

I think I finally splurged about $5, a notable sum at the time, and bought these fancy earplugs advertised in G&A that had this little metal valving built into them. You were supposed to be able to hear range commands but have your hearing protected. It was better than the piercing ringing from a magnum handgun blast. Only the first few hurt. I've had ringing since I was about 6-7 yrs. old. Guns and motorcycles. Only sissy's used hearing protection. And Air-Force crewmen. I finally got some of those and the trend shifted to make them part of a shooting kit. You looked pro.

It's hard to believe we just banged away with magnums. Today I would be totally stunned for a considerable time with one shot. Much less a .454 Casull or something of the sort. The .22 WMR handgun and cap & ball revolver seemed to be the loudest to me, or my buddy's 4" Colt Trooper MKIII blasting a full case of Blue Dot. I think Bob Milek was one of the first I saw in publications using Air-force muffs, that made it cool.