I think i messed up my ear.

I learned to wear sound protection long time ago but should be ok in a few days.

sorry to rag on you bud,BUT what did you expect? did you never shoot a 44mag pistol before, a very loud bang. try it sometime inside without muffs, not fun, just dumb ( been there and done that ) lesson learned. probably how I got my hearing loss, luckily it's only total loss in one ear of a very narrow frequeny and I don't have the tinnittis ( constant ringing ) that HB talks about. those cheap foam plugs will do the trick and I keep a set everywhere, car/clothes/shooting bag/each gun case. just don't be afraid to use them if they got someone elses earwax on them. if you have ringing you sustained ear damage, how severe? most men over 30-40 have some hearing loss mostly from power tools/motors/guns/rock-n-roll. tell hogman I said hi and hope to run in to him at sassa soon.

thanks all.. ima gonna get some of those deer ear muffs that go quiet when a shot it fired but you can still hear with them like hellbilly has.. sucks. hope ear still gets better... one shot thats all it took.. darnit.

if you like loud noise use anything ported, short barells, the 300 win mag and 444 lever carbines to name a few. too bad I don't practice what I preach and only use hearing protection 100% while target shooting. one easy option is to just use 1-plug in the left ear, if right handed, so you can still hear fairly well and it doesn't take up much room or wt ( as the left ear seems to get most of the damage if rt handed) or if you hum as you pull the trigger it will reduce the damage/noise level. realisticly theres almost always time to pop 2 plugs in if worn on a string around the neck. I like the ones that are pre-shaped. don't think I'd want to hunt with a pair of bulky muffs. those hearing aide like things seem like a good idea/option but $$$