Shooting a .22 without ear protection will likely damage your hearing, even though a .22 is one of the quietest firearms you can fire. A .22 long rifle produces peak sound pressure levels in the neighborhood of 134 to 140 dB, which is lower than most centerfire rounds but still at or above the threshold where a single impulse can cause permanent harm to the delicate structures of the inner ear. The fact that a .22 sounds “quiet” compared to a .308 or a 12-gauge gives many shooters a false sense of security, and that false sense is one reason the .22 is responsible for a disproportionate share of unprotected shooting exposures.
How Loud a .22 Actually Is
Firearms as a category generate some of the most intense impulse noise a person is likely to encounter. Peak sound pressure levels across recreational firearms range from roughly 140 to 175 dB, with the majority of centerfire rifles, shotguns, and handguns landing between 150 and 165 dB.1PubMed Central. Prevention of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss from Recreational Firearms The .22 long rifle sits below that main cluster. Fired from a standard rifle-length barrel (around 508 mm from cartridge base to muzzle), a .22 LR produces peak levels that are meaningfully lower than a .30-06 or a .357 Magnum.2Noise and Health. Estimates of auditory risk from outdoor impulse noise II: Civilian firearms That longer barrel allows the expanding gases to cool and slow before they exit the muzzle, which reduces the peak blast. Firearms with smaller cartridges and longer barrels allow more unprotected exposures before hitting damage-risk thresholds than short-barreled, large-caliber guns.3PubMed. Auditory risk to unprotected bystanders exposed to firearm noise
But “more unprotected exposures permitted” is not the same as “safe without protection.” A .22 rifle’s peak sound level still lands right around 140 dB, which is the point at which hearing scientists begin flagging immediate risk for impulse noise. To put that in perspective, a typical conversation sits around 60 dB, a lawnmower around 90, and a rock concert around 110. The decibel scale is logarithmic, so 140 dB is not a little louder than a rock concert; it is orders of magnitude more sound energy. Even a single shot at that level can stress the hair cells of the cochlea beyond recovery.
Why “Just a .22” Still Hurts
The reason any gunshot is so dangerous comes down to how quickly the energy arrives. Sustained noise, like factory machinery, damages hearing through prolonged exposure over hours. Impulse noise from a firearm delivers a massive pressure wave in a fraction of a millisecond. Your middle-ear muscles do have a protective reflex that stiffens the eardrum in response to loud sound, but that reflex takes roughly 25 to 150 milliseconds to kick in. A gunshot’s pressure spike is already through the ear canal and pounding the cochlea before the reflex can do anything useful.
High-intensity impulse sounds permanently damage the delicate structures of the cochlea, and people who shoot firearms face a higher risk of bilateral, high-frequency hearing loss than people who do not.1PubMed Central. Prevention of Noise-Induced Hearing Loss from Recreational Firearms The damage tends to show up first at frequencies around 3,000 to 6,000 Hz, which are critical for understanding speech, especially in noisy environments. You might pass a basic hearing test and still struggle to follow a conversation at a restaurant. That pattern is the hallmark of noise-induced hearing loss from shooting.
The Tinnitus Risk Is Worse Than the Hearing Loss
Many people think of hearing loss as the main hazard, but the symptom that tends to cause the most daily misery is tinnitus, the perception of ringing, buzzing, or hissing in the ears when no external sound is present. In a study of people who experienced acoustic trauma from gunshot noise without ear protection, tinnitus was the most common and most irritating reported symptom, affecting over 94% of the patient group. Tinnitus severity scores in that group were dramatically higher than in controls who had not been exposed.4PubMed. Clinical characteristics of acoustic trauma caused by gunshot noise in mass rifle drills without ear protection And acoustic trauma from gunshot noise can cause permanent tinnitus and hearing loss, not just a temporary ring that fades after a few hours.
There is no reliable treatment for chronic tinnitus. Once you have it, management strategies can help you cope, but you cannot undo the neural damage that causes the phantom sound. This is the part of the risk that .22 shooters often underestimate. A single afternoon of plinking tin cans without ear protection can leave you with a sound in your ears that never goes away.
Indoor Ranges Make Everything Worse
If you are shooting a .22 at an indoor range, the noise exposure is higher than the same gun outdoors. Acoustic reflections in enclosed spaces add complexity and intensity to the sound field. Walls, ceiling, and floor all bounce the pressure wave back toward the shooter and anyone nearby.5The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. Assessing shooting range noise exposure using acoustic modeling software In an outdoor, open-air environment, much of the sound energy dissipates into the surrounding space. Indoors, it has nowhere to go.
This matters because a .22 that might produce 138 dB in an open field can register several decibels higher at the shooter’s ear in a reverberant indoor lane. Add in the sound from other shooters on adjacent lanes firing louder calibers, and the cumulative noise environment at an indoor range is far more hazardous than a quiet afternoon shooting a .22 in a backyard (where legal). Many indoor ranges mandate double hearing protection for exactly this reason.
What Hearing Protection Actually Does
Hearing protection works by attenuating the peak sound pressure that reaches the eardrum. The amount of protection varies significantly by type and fit. In rifle shooting, basic foam earplugs provide roughly 16 dB of attenuation, and thin (small-volume) earmuffs provide about 17 dB. Research has found that neither of those alone is sufficient for rifle shooting, and their use as sole protectors cannot be recommended. Large-volume earmuffs perform better, and for the noisiest firearms, the combined use of earmuffs over earplugs is the standard recommendation.6PubMed. Physical characteristics of gunfire impulse noise and its attenuation by hearing protectors
For a .22 rifle specifically, the math is more forgiving than for a centerfire rifle. If the peak level is around 140 dB and you get 16 dB of attenuation from well-fitted foam earplugs, that brings the exposure down to roughly 124 dB, which is still loud but far less likely to cause immediate permanent damage. Good over-ear muffs can bring it lower still. The key word in all of this is “well-fitted.” Foam earplugs that are not inserted deeply enough, or earmuffs that do not seal properly around the ear, can lose half or more of their rated attenuation. Most people who think their ear protection did not work were actually wearing it incorrectly.
A study of young firearm users found that those who reported wearing hearing protection “all the time” or “almost all the time” (91% of the group studied) showed no statistically significant differences in auditory function compared to non-shooters across a battery of tests including standard audiometry, extended high-frequency audiometry, speech-in-noise performance, and auditory brainstem response.7PubMed Central. Evaluation of hidden hearing loss in normal-hearing firearm users Consistent use of hearing protection during firearm use can effectively protect both cochlear and neural measures of auditory function. The flip side of that finding is clear: inconsistent use leaves gaps, and it only takes one unprotected exposure to do lasting harm.
Suppressors and Subsonic Ammunition
Suppressors (often called silencers, though they do not make a gun silent) are the other major tool for reducing impulse noise. A suppressor works by giving the expanding gases from a fired cartridge a series of baffles to expand into before exiting the muzzle, spreading the pressure release over a longer time and reducing the peak. Testing across multiple firearms and ammunition types has shown that suppressors reduce peak sound pressure at the shooter’s ear by 17 to 24 dB, depending on the firearm and ammunition.8PubMed Central. The reduction of gunshot noise and auditory risk through the use of firearm suppressors and low-velocity ammunition
That 17 to 24 dB reduction is roughly equivalent to what good earmuffs provide, and the effect stacks with traditional ear protection. A .22 rifle fired with a suppressor and subsonic ammunition can get down to levels where the peak is well below the damage threshold, and adding ear protection on top of that provides an extra margin. Low-velocity (subsonic) ammunition further reduces noise because it eliminates the supersonic crack, a sharp N-wave produced when a bullet travels faster than the speed of sound. Standard .22 LR is already near the transonic range, and many loads are subsonic from the factory, which is part of why a suppressed .22 is often described as surprisingly quiet.
Even with a suppressor, hearing protection remains advisable. A suppressed .22 rifle can produce peak levels around 115 to 120 dB depending on the specific setup, which is roughly the volume of a very loud rock concert. That is enough to cause damage over repeated exposure, even if no single shot feels punishing.
Children and Young Shooters Are at Greater Risk
The .22 is the classic starter gun for young shooters, which makes the hearing-protection question particularly important for this group. Research on youth target shooting has found that every firearm tested, including .22 rifles, exceeded the 120 dB peak limit suggested by the World Health Organization for children. Shooting from a seated position over a tabletop, which is a common setup in youth instruction, actually increases the peak levels compared to standing, because the hard surface reflects the blast wave back toward the shooter’s head. Pistols pose the greatest auditory risk when fired over a tabletop.9PubMed Central. Auditory risk estimates for youth target shooting
Young recreational firearm users put themselves at risk beginning at an early age for noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus, largely because of inconsistent use of hearing protection during both target practice and hunting.10PubMed. Shooting habits of youth recreational firearm users Part of the problem is cultural. Many young shooters learn from family members who did not grow up wearing ear protection themselves, and who view the relatively modest crack of a .22 as “not loud enough to worry about.” The hearing damage that accumulates through childhood and adolescence from unprotected shooting will compound with the normal age-related hearing decline that everyone experiences later in life, potentially leading to significant hearing difficulties decades sooner than would otherwise occur.
The “I’ve Done It Before and I’m Fine” Problem
The most common justification for shooting a .22 without ear protection is personal experience. “I’ve shot thousands of rounds without plugs and my hearing is fine.” There are a few reasons this argument falls apart on closer inspection.
First, noise-induced hearing loss is cumulative and often subtle in its early stages. You do not wake up one morning with dramatically bad hearing. Instead, you gradually lose the ability to pick up certain high-frequency sounds, and because the loss happens slowly, your brain compensates. You turn the TV up a notch. You start asking people to repeat themselves at dinner. You blame the acoustics of the restaurant. By the time the loss is obvious enough that you seek help, significant irreversible damage has already occurred.
Second, standard hearing tests (audiograms) may not catch the earliest damage. The concept of “hidden hearing loss” refers to damage to the synaptic connections between hair cells and auditory nerve fibers that does not show up on a conventional audiogram but can impair your ability to understand speech in noisy environments. This kind of damage is harder to detect and may be more widespread among recreational shooters than audiograms alone suggest. The study of young firearm users who consistently wore protection showed no differences from non-shooters across a broad battery of tests, including measures designed to detect hidden hearing loss.7PubMed Central. Evaluation of hidden hearing loss in normal-hearing firearm users That is encouraging for people who protect their ears. For those who do not, the absence of detectable hidden hearing loss in protected shooters is not evidence that unprotected shooters are equally fine.
Third, individual susceptibility varies. Some people’s ears are more resilient than others. Reactive oxygen species play a significant role in noise-induced hearing loss at the cellular level, and the body’s ability to neutralize those free radicals varies from person to person.11PubMed. Prevention of impulse noise-induced hearing loss with antioxidants You cannot know in advance whether your cochlea is tough or fragile. Gambling on being one of the lucky ones is the hearing equivalent of not wearing a seatbelt because you have never been in a crash.
The Bystander Issue
One angle that gets overlooked is the risk to people standing near the shooter rather than behind the trigger. Research on bystander noise exposure has found that the number of permitted unprotected exposures varies by position relative to the firearm, and that smaller cartridges with longer barrels allow more bystander exposures than large-bore, short-barrel guns.3PubMed. Auditory risk to unprotected bystanders exposed to firearm noise A .22 rifle is on the more permissive end of that spectrum, but “more permissive” still does not mean “zero risk for the person standing behind the shooter without ear plugs.” Instructors, parents supervising young shooters, and spectators at shooting events all accumulate exposure that adds up over time. A study measuring noise at the instructor’s position about a meter behind the shooter found reductions of 20 to 28 dB in peak level when a suppressor was used, which hints at how significant the unsuppressed blast is at that distance.8PubMed Central. The reduction of gunshot noise and auditory risk through the use of firearm suppressors and low-velocity ammunition
Why Standards and Measurement Are Still Messy
Part of the difficulty in giving a clean, universal answer about .22 noise levels is that the science of measuring impulse noise is still catching up to the problem. Experts have identified several unresolved needs in the field, including the lack of international consensus on how to describe and measure impulsive sounds, how to evaluate the effectiveness of hearing protection against impulse noise specifically, and what the proper damage-risk criterion should be for impulse sounds as opposed to continuous noise.12Noise Control Engineering Journal. NIOSH/NHCA best-practices workshops on impulsive noise The thresholds and exposure limits you see cited in various guidelines (140 dB peak, 85 dB for eight hours, and so on) are based on models that were designed for continuous industrial noise and adapted, imperfectly, to impulsive noise. There is genuine scientific disagreement about exactly how many unprotected .22 rounds constitute a safe exposure, if any number does.
What is not in dispute is the direction of the evidence. Every serious review of firearm noise and hearing health arrives at the same recommendation: wear hearing protection every time, for every caliber, in every setting. The .22 is quieter, not quiet. The margin of error is thinner than most shooters realize, and the consequences of being wrong are permanent. Foam earplugs cost a few cents each, and a decent pair of over-ear muffs costs less than a brick of .22 LR ammunition. There is no rational cost-benefit argument for leaving your ears unprotected.