Screw the minimal hearing loss.
If someone’s broken into your house in the middle of the night then grab your gun and get to it. Put any thoughts of potential hearing loss out of your mind and focus on the real problem you’re about to encounter, and get yourself mentally ready to shoot someone.
My wife and I each have a set of Peltor electronic muffs at the bedside.
I figure it will be worth the extra second to put them on in order to: 1. be able to hear an intruder better than if we weren’t wearing the muffs, and 2. protect our hearing.
For those folks who are concerned that they will have zero time to react to the sound of someone attempting to break into their homes, I recommend spending a few hundred bucks to harden their exterior doors, locks, hinges, strikeplates, etc. to slow down anybody trying to enter forcibly.
Don’t forget the eye protection . . .
I wonder how well electronic muffs would work…whether or not they’d mitigate the “tunnel hearing” (auditory exclusion) that fight-or-flight response causes.
And shoes. And your body armor. And a pair of handcuffs. And to call 911…
The bad guys will wait…
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I was going to say slippers and a plate carrier.
This most certainly has been discussed, at length, before:
From a few months ago: https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=100631
Discussion from 09 about HD suppressed/unsuppressed weapons and hearing: https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=35368
Discussion about comps in HD and hearing:
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=95994
Another discussion about suppressors in HD:
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=34156
More stuff about comps inside:
https://www.m4carbine.net/archive/index.php/t-88454.html
More stuff about HD rifles and noise:
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=67860
About gear for HD:
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=85115
Stuff about pistol suppressors, which includes autitory exclusion mention:
https://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=100688
And then I stopped hitting more pages.
Where did I find all of this information that we apparently never discuss?
Why, that sneaky little yellow search button.
Believe me, if it existed before yesterday, there’s already a thread about it.
ETA: while not pleasant, a few shots indoors isn’t going to do much to you.
I went through 3 combat tours, with quite a few loud booms near me, by me, and from me, without hearing protection of any kind, and according to the hearing testing people I have only had minimal hearing change in 15 years.
This has been covered.
You don’t need ear protection when you’re in a fight for your life/your families life.
Just fight/live.
Those items all sound great but they’ve never stopped determined LE from getting their targets, right out of their beds and they’re yelling who they are as they knock, announce, and wait before taking the door off of its hinges, and these are tough targets, ones knowing that LE is gunning for them. Paranoia makes for light sleepers. Take it as you will. Making your house “hard” is more about making it an unattractive target, for which I’d recommend fences and walls, motion activated lights, and a linked alarm system with some nice signs. If you have lawn illumination, light up those signs.
Go for your ear pro. I have a wife and 3 kids to worry about. I don’t give a shit if my ears ring a little and I don’t think they will.
I concur! Statistically speaking, who is more likely to have to fire on an intruder; an individual home owner, that happens to have a bad day, or a police officer, that has to respond to every 911 intruder call, in the jurisdiction? Does the typical patrol officer wear hearing protection all the time? Even in high crime areas? If it were an issue, don’t you think they would ?
Will firing on an intruder, without ear protection cause hearing damage? Maybe. More like probably. Small price to pay, for protecting your family. I’d be more worried about the intruder, landing a shot on me, and the damage that would cause.
Chances are, you’ve already done a similar amount of damage to your hearing, by cranking your car stereo up, when your favorite song comes on the radio.
This video of a Trooper shooting his M4 through the windshield of his cruiser made me think of these “ear pro for HD” threads. He did at least one mag change while driving and firing. Outstanding!
That’s waaaaay louder than it will be in your house. There is no time for ear pro.
When I saw that video earlier today that was my first thought. That would have been deafening. A bit OT. When I stand in front of my Marshalls, 1959, 1987 small box and 72 major pushing them hard I can take the sound pressure for a short bit of time in the bunker. Yes, ears ring, but they always do…
But there is no way anyone else in that space could stand that level of pressure for any amount of time. But, if anyone else in that same space were to play through the same setup and levels, I could not stand to occupy the same space. Is there some physiological state that when you are in control in that moment where the level of sound pressure perceived is negated? Kind of like an adrenalin thing… I have no idea on such things, just noticed it in my experience.
https://65.media.tumblr.com/424d3b2ec264974e4062dce166815b3b/tumblr_nis9y2fzzb1rfnw5zo1_1280.jpg
Invest in a suppressor for your Hd rig.
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dont know much about it, do you? ONE shot can ruin your hearing, if it’s in a small room or a vehicle and it’s a 357 type blast. 223 is much worse, of course. 12 ga is really bad, too. Ear plugs can be in your ears a lot faster than most can speed load a revolver, much less stuff shells into a tubular fed shotgun and many “think” that there will be time to load a gun. Joe Yablonsky thought so, and was shot dead as he tried it, with his wife watching and screaming. if the plugs are in a squeeze-open case, rubber banded to the pistol, I can have them in place as fast or faster than you can go get a shotgun. What makes you so sure that you’ll be in bed when “it” happens, hmm? More likely, you’ll be in another room and need 10 seconds to run get the longarm and get back with it. If I have my pants on, that plug-case is in my pocket, lanyarded to my belt.
you “think” wrong. Try it sometime. open the side window of your car, out in the boondocks and fire a round with the gun inside of the car with no ear protection… I tried it one time with a 357 and was incapacitated for many seconds. Nearly dropped the gun, it was so stunningly oppressive.
I have some friends that are OHP, they said he busted his ear drums. Firing all those rounds from inside a vehicle, is not good for your ears.
the cop’s got armor and help is headed his way in seconds. Wont be the case for you. The cops miss the vitals with half of their shots, or worse. And you want your performance to be like theirs? 
Just cause you’re too lazy to carry a set of ear plugs? shows where your head’s at.
there’s also no time to run and get a longarm. Best have a pistol worn constantly. There’s no time for cycling the action of an empty chambered pump 12, either. You guys are full of it. just cause somebody’s firing doesn’t mean that he’s HITTING anything and it also doesn’t mean that his hearing is worth a hoot afterward.