When was the last time you shot a gun without hearing protection?

I was doing some plinking with my 22 in my parents yard last autumn. 22lr out of a rifle outdoors isn't too bad on the naked ears and I honestly didn't feel like grabbing my range bag with the earmuffs. That was the kind of Saturday where the weather was right and I had just finished drinking a can of Cheerwine so I grabbed the ol' model 60, a fistful of ammo, and another Cheerwine and went outside for 15 minutes of fun.

When I was in the Militia. A Colt C7A2.

Last week, but it was a 22 so its not that loud. Your still supposed to wear ear protection even with a 22, but it isnt that bad. I wont shoot anything else without ear protection. I started wearing ear protection after i got my remington 870 with 18 inch barrel. Way louder than my other shotgun with a 25 inch barrel.

Last time was in april... i was turkey hunting and saw/heard no turkey so i decided to shoot a squirrel with my 20ga..... before that was december 20th when i killed a cow elk with the 270 weatherby magnum. (I fired 2 shots that day)

Last Thursday .300 Winmag

Yesterday.

Two days ago. Walking my property in east Texas, heavily wooded, I always carry my stainless 6" S&W .44 mag for hogs. As I walked by the north pond a cottonmouth was about 20 feet out on a log. Took steady aim and removed its head.

yesterday

Last November during deer season. Just one shot from my Krag.

Vietnam. (Even though the Army issued ear plugs to protect our hearing, only a fool goes into combat with part of their personal senses not working at their fullest.)

November 2016 .

Tried out a 64 gr 223 load on a couple of deer , not much noise & pretty effective on heart/lung shot but entirely unsatisfactory for a shoulder shot even on a small whitetail .

60 years of shooting has left me mostly deaf & with about 70db of constant high pitched whining noise in my ears.

If you do much shooting without hearing protection you can expect the same thing to show up at about age 35 or 40.

And just in case you were wondering , viceroy cigarette filters or luckystrike cigarettes in your ears may look stylish but they dont count as effective hearing protection when firing hundreds of rounds of surplus 8MM Mauser,30-06 & 303 British ammo .