When the Sounds Don't Stop: Tinnitus Guide for Hunters and Shooters

Grace Sturdivant, Au.D, CCC-A

Have you ever experienced a moment of silence after a shot that wasn't quite right? Often it passes. Then at some point, it lingers — a ringing, a hiss, or a tone that was not there before. Sometimes it fades. Sometimes it becomes something you carry long after leaving the field.

Tinnitus is one of the most common concerns I hear about, and one of the most misunderstood. Roughly 50 million Americans experience it. For an estimated 20 million, it becomes persistent enough to cause real frustration. Among hunters and shooters, that number almost certainly skews higher.

What is actually happening

Many people assume the ringing is coming from the ear itself. In reality, it is generated in the brain as it responds to changes in auditory input.

Once hair cells corresponding to certain pitches are permanently damaged, the region of the brain expecting that input begins searching for stimulation that is no longer there. In response, you perceive a phantom sound in that region. It is not your ear malfunctioning. It is your brain compensating for a change it was not prepared for.

Once you understand that, the conversation starts to shift.

Why it often shows up before anything else does

A single gunshot can reach levels that rival hours of continuous noise exposure. This is also why many hunters assume a suppressor is sufficient protection — it isn’t, and the reason why is straightforward once you understand what suppressors actually do to peak sound levels. That damage does not always show up immediately as measurable hearing loss on an audiogram. It often shows up first as tinnitus.

I talked through this in depth on the Duck Season Somewhere podcast with Ramsey Russell. By the time tinnitus becomes noticeable, the underlying change has already occurred. That is why prevention matters so much — and why it is worth taking seriously before something becomes permanent.

What to do when the ringing does not stop

The answer is two-fold.

First, continue to protect your hearing carefully so the damage does not progress. Second, begin working through management strategies that are grounded in evidence.

There is no shortage of information available on tinnitus, but not all of it is useful or rooted in science. It takes some sorting to find what is worth your attention. What follows are resources I have personally vetted and feel confident recommending.

A framework worth understanding

One of the clearest perspectives I have encountered came from Dr. Jennifer Gans, a clinical psychologist who focuses on tinnitus. In a recent episode of This Week in Hearing, she makes the case for shifting the goal away from eliminating the sound and toward changing the brain's response to it.

Her framework is straightforward: reduce anxiety, provide accurate education, support the nervous system. That aligns closely with what I see in practice. Tinnitus is not just about what you hear. It is about how your brain reacts to it — and that reaction can change.

A management approach worth exploring

Over the past several months I have spent time talking with groups doing serious work in this space. I recently had the opportunity to speak at length with the cofounders behind Neuromonics to better understand how their program works and what outcomes they are seeing.

Programs like this serve as a structured way to help retrain how the brain responds to tinnitus. It is not a quick fix. But it is one of several approaches that are moving this conversation forward in a meaningful direction, and it is worth understanding as part of a broader management strategy.

Where to start

The foundation is education. Understand what tinnitus is, how the brain's natural gating process works, and why the goal is not elimination but response. From there, take a consistent approach with a management tool that makes sense for your situation and your life.

The resources below are a reasonable place to begin. If you have questions about what options might fit your situation, or if you have come across something worth adding to this list, reach out. That conversation is always worth having. If you’re ready to explore protection options suited to hunting and shooting environments, the full catalog is here.

Resources

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