Wearing ear protection while hunting is imperative to hearing loss prevention. Whether its earplugs or noise cancelling headphones, these help protect against loud noises like gunshots and help you focus. But they can also disadvantage a hunter in more ways than one.
One of the keys to hunting is being aware of your surroundings. Using sight and smell, you can be more aware of your animal behavior and presence. But what about your hearing ability? Animals make noise just by walking through foliage or when they try to hide from you by quickly running away.
Being able to hear the slightest rustling of leaves or the snap of a branch can grab your attention and give you enough time to prepare the perfect shot. These quiet sounds go unheard when using ear protection, which means missed opportunities to get that duck, deer or bear.
Losing your hearing to traditional hearing protection can be detrimental to your hunting. If you go through the greatest of lengths for a good hunt, don’t let missing out on animals noises get in the way, or more importantly, even put your safety at risk.
Each hunting season, hundreds of hunters will get accidently shot because other hunters don’t hear them. For your own personal safety, especially when hunting large, dangerous animals, it’s imperative to be able to hear where the animals are or if another hunter sees them and tries to let you know.
Fortunately there are advanced, electronic sound-deadening ear protections from firearms which simultaneously amplify noise beyond a certain distance. These options allow you to protect your hearing while actually hearing distant noises- say from that of a deer or fellow hunter- better. Being able to hear clearly can keep yourself and other hunters safe while keeping you more aware of your surroundings.