I have shotgun hear, and as a piano player the notes above middle C are not in tune. I have both phonak and widex hearing aids and their Bluetooth “music” settings don’t fix the problem. I describe it best as a clanging sound.
I would think that somebody in the audio field would have perfected the answer to this problem. Any comments from anyone?
Hi, Google is surprising useless when I searched for the deafness type of “shotgun ear”.
Would you be able to explain what it is?
Thanks
You need to ask Tony Soprano.
Not Tony Soprano here - call me 1Bluejay Soprano (true on both counts). Here’s what I read about “shotgun ear” - deafinitely related to shooting firearms.
I found it interesting to read that the ear closest to the shotgun is actually protected a bit, so it’s typically the OTHER ear that’s affected. That said, I gave up shotgun shooting after a few years cuz even with fitted earplugs AND a headset over that, I was afraid of losing even MORE hearing from the little margin I have left. Indoor shooting range for pistols was even SCARIER. I don’t think my shooting left me with shotgun ear, cuz both ears are abysmally bad and ring with tinnitus 24x7 ever since my teen years.
If hearing aids were to help, it seems that one would need the affected ear programmed with different settings that would be copied over into the Music, Speech in Loud Noise, Comfort, or any other program. I wonder if that can be done?
Over the past 50 years I’ve had at least 6 AuD’s tell me I have the CLASSIC right handed shooters hearing loss due to the greater loss in my left ear.
All those AuD’s probably are not wrong, because I’m right handed and shot hundreds of .308, .556, and 50 Cal PLUS the occasional 12 gauge while in the ARMY. I also served around 105mm howitzers which probably didn’t help either.
Like you I loved to shoot, and still do on occasion…and like you I take considerable caution protecting what hearing I have left. I’m fortunate that I still have good low frequency hearing so wearing protection appears to limit further loss.
Shotgun loss would probably be similar to my loss - mostly high frequency…just my prospective.
I am sure that my right ear is due to the fact I am left handed shooter. And flying the world over in a cargo bay of a jet cargo plane destroyed the rest of my hearing.
Does “shotgun ear” cause hearing loss across all the frequencies (low, mid, high) or does it cause a loss in just a specific band of frequencies?
As I understand it - hearing loss from small arms (and “I” consider a shotgun to be small arms) is normally in the mid to mostly higher frequencies.
This statement is based on how my AuD’s reacted to my hearing loss which is mostly higher frequency and totally small arms fire related.
I’m not an expert – hopefully our resident professionals will enlighten us…