Spike from Firing Airgun Indoors — Tinnitus Previously Worsened by COVID-19 Infection

Greetings everyone in the Tinnitus Talk family,

As you may imagine, I am new to this forum. After a short and painless bout with the COVID-19 virus back in March, I was left with a very permanent, clear tinnitus in my left ear. The classic ringing sound with a bit of distortion. I've had a very tiny amount of it for many years, something only noticeable when it's very quiet. Nothing that ever bothered me. After COVID-19, it became alarming. I was frankly quite depressed for several weeks when I realized that it was not going away any time soon. Fast forward a few months, I adjusted very well and also felt like the frequency was slowly going down to a very manageable point.

I then went to the shotgun range with my father, and to my great horror, I kept knocking the right side of my earmuffs off everytime I shouldered the gun, and thus my right ear was exposed to several gunshots. I had a bit of ringing in the immediate aftermath, but it cooled down during the day. The next few days, it became increasingly alarming. Not to mention the fact that, before, it was only my left ear. Now, it was in my right ear as well. To be honest, like many of you here have probably experienced, I felt close to suicidal. Not just because I could not imagine having to live with this for the rest of my life, but also because I was too much "in the moment" to instantly address the problem of knocking off my right earmuff. In short, I obviously did that to myself, and again for several weeks, I hated myself for it.

Fast forward another few months, I once again adjusted quite well and felt like the ringing frequency had gone down once again. At times, I actually went for days without even paying attention to it, to my great relief.

And then, last Sunday, I did something I've done several times before with absolutely no issue. I've fired airguns and airsoft guns several times in my living room with no repercussions. This time, I went to the kitchen which is about half the size of my living room, and fired my very old and weak spring airgun rifle at an empty aluminum juice water bottle at point blank range, with the airgun down at my hips. Instantly my ears started ringing, just like after a real gunshot. Obviously, this is far from the first time I've had instant ringing in my ears over the years. I measured it with a decibel app and it did not even exceed 80 dB on that app. On another app, it exceeded 110 dB, but it almost did the exact same thing when I fumbled and dropped the phone onto the kitchen table from a height of like 10-15 cm, so I figured that the second app was not exactly to be trusted.

If you've been patient enough to read this far... this last week has not really had that much of a mental impact on me as the time when my tinnitus first spiked, and the second time when my right ear was exposed to several gunshots, obviously because I've grown more resilient and I know that I will eventually adjust and hopefully the frequency will, once again, reduce over time.

In any case, I have a hard time understanding how a shot from a weak spring airgun, with a projectile that doesn't even exceed 500 fps, fired at an empty aluminum container, could have that much of an impact. As mentioned, a week has passed and it's still nearly just as bad as it was in the immediate aftermath. Obviously it was done inside in a small room, but I am rather certain that thousands, if not millions of people have been exposed to way higher decibels than that, without any lasting issues.

If anybody else has done something similar and experienced the same issue as myself, you are very welcome to share your experience. Or, if anyone with a bit of know-how has something "scientific" to add, be my most welcome guest. Naturally, you should all feel free to comment whatever you like, even if it's just condemning me for my quite obvious shortcoming in not wearing ear protection. Trust me, I know how stupid it was. In retrospect, having done it several times in my living room, I did not figure that doing it in my smaller kitchen would have this sort of repercussion. Still, if all you feel like doing is telling me "I told you so", you are still most welcome. I salute you all and thank you for having the patience to read this far. Even though I tried to keep it short and concise, it turned into something of a novel.

 

But why did you do that? You already had tinnitus, you knew it could get worse, so shooting an airgun projectile into an aluminum bottle indoors without hearing protection seems a very bad idea.

Well we humans are stupid (I have done stupid things too) and this is a lesson learned for you. Please don't forget again that your ears are already weakened and further auditory assaults can wreak more havoc and cause permanent worsenings.

People have reported spikes from lesser things, like from normal but sudden kitchen noises. It's very individual and sometimes very surprising things can make you spike.

A week is a short time. You can still recover and go back to your normal baseline.

 

Well, as mentioned, I've done the exact same thing several times, in my living room, with zero effect on my ears. This time, I did it in my kitchen, which is smaller. Still, I had open doors to other rooms. Either way, yes, a week is a short time. It's just baffling how little it requires sometimes.

 

Sometimes it doesn't take too much, once your ears have become compromised, for tinnitus to become worse. Just keep away from loud noises and let your ears take a break. As you say it's only been a week so give it a few more months and wait it out. It may be a spike that will lessen over time. Lesson learned hopefully

 

Tinnitus is really weird and even things we think of as benign noise can set it off but really there is no way of telling sometimes.

 

I don't have the stamina to read the whole post with my tinnitus, but I've fired airsoft guns, and they are pretty loud. The impulse sound was in the 80-90 decibel range. I wouldn't do it without foam earplugs, especially when the trigger mechanism is right by your ear when aiming.