Thread: Hearing protection?

Originally Posted by XR500

In the early 80's I worked in the Aussie mines on compressed air driven rock drills on tracks. 1050 cfm air compressors drove them. The whole box and dice was horrifically noisy. Those of us that valued our hearing wore ear plugs inside our ear muffs. But you had to pull the earmuffs away from your ears every 10 minutes or so to let the sweat drain out. Half the year was 40 ish degrees C, and at Xmas time it was 55 c at the bottom of the pit. Very hot and sweaty and noisy.

Then there were the old timers that didn't wear ear protection. Deaf as posts

In my apprenticeship I worked in a fert works. There a crushing hall with 2 ball mills crushing phosphate rock. The noise levels were extremely high. The company introduced and supplied the operators ear muffs. This was long ago in the days when ear muffs were just being introduced. The mill operators (old timers) refused to wear them and threw them away. They were all already deaf at any rate and said nah, the noise doesn't worry us. I scored a pair and immediately used them for fullbore shooting.

One of our ranges, 600yds, the mound was up against a steep hill. Before ear muffs, after each shoot I went home with a raging headache. I asked the old shooters if they got the same and they said, nah, never noticed it. Mind you they all stopped at the local pub on the way home and medicated.