Fall Is the Loudest Season Around Here: A Hearing Protection Guide for Harvest, Hunting, and Friday Nights

Fall is the time of year when people in northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio are most likely to damage their hearing without noticing. Between late September and early December, many of us spend hours around combines and grain dryers, fire rifles and shotguns, sit in packed bleachers, and run leaf blowers and chainsaws. Each of these noises can be loud enough to cause permanent hearing damage. The good news is that noise-induced hearing loss is one of the few kinds of hearing loss you can almost entirely prevent.

This guide walks through the fall season the way it actually happens around New Haven, Bryan, and the Fort Wayne area, with practical protection advice for each part of it.

How Loud Is “Too Loud”?

Hearing damage depends on two things: how loud a sound is and how long you’re exposed to it. A widely used safety guideline is that 85 decibels (dB) is safe for about 8 hours. Every 3 dB increase cuts that safe time in half. At 94 dB, the safe limit is about one hour. At 100 dB, it’s about 15 minutes.

For reference, a normal conversation is around 60 dB. Here’s how common fall sounds compare:

Noise damage is also cumulative. A long harvest day on Monday, a football game on Friday, and cleanup on Saturday add up. The tiny hair cells in your inner ear that are destroyed by noise don’t grow back.

Harvest Season: Long Days, Steady Noise

Soybean and corn harvest across Allen, Adams, and DeKalb counties in Indiana and Williams, Defiance, and Fulton counties in Ohio means long days in and around loud machinery. Harvest noise is less dramatic than a gunshot, but it’s steady, and it lasts for hours, day after day, for weeks. That’s why farmers have some of the highest rates of hearing loss of any occupation.

Newer combine and tractor cabs are much quieter than older open-station equipment, but the noise comes back when you step out to unload, clear a jam, or work near the grain dryer or auger. Keep a pair of foam earplugs or earmuffs where you’ll actually use them: in the cab, on a hook by the dryer, or in your coat pocket. Protection that stays in the truck doesn’t help.

Hunting Season: One Shot Can Be Enough

Archery is quiet, but gun seasons, waterfowl, and time at the range to sight in rifles are where hunters’ hearing takes the biggest hit. A single gunshot is loud enough to cause permanent damage instantly, and it usually affects one ear more than the other. For a right-handed shooter, the left ear is closer to the muzzle and often shows more loss. Many hunters skip protection because they want to hear deer moving. Electronic hearing protection solves that problem: it amplifies quiet sounds like footsteps and rustling leaves, then shuts off instantly when a shot fires. At the range, where you’ll fire many rounds, doubling up with foam earplugs and earmuffs is the safest choice.

Friday Night Lights and Weekend Games

Crowd noise at high school football games, college games, and packed gyms can easily reach 100 dB or more, especially near the band, the student section, or in a covered stadium. If you leave a game with muffled hearing or a ringing in your ears, that’s your ears telling you they’ve been overexposed. The dullness usually fades within a day, but repeated episodes add up to permanent damage.

A pair of reusable, low-profile earplugs fits in a pocket or purse and lowers the volume without making the game sound muffled. This matters for kids too. Children’s ears are just as vulnerable, and earmuffs sized for kids are an easy fix for young fans.

Fall Yard Cleanup

Leaf blowers, mowers doing the last cut of the year, chainsaws for storm cleanup, and wood splitters all show up in October and November. Because they’re familiar household tools, people rarely think of them as hearing hazards, but a chainsaw is louder than most concerts. A simple rule is that if you have to raise your voice to talk to someone an arm’s length away, you need hearing protection.

If You Already Wear Hearing Aids

Hearing aids are not hearing protection. Your ears still need protecting, and protecting them helps your hearing aids keep working well for you over the long run. Around gunfire, chainsaws, and other very loud equipment, take your hearing aids out and use proper protection instead. If you’re not sure which settings or programs work best in noisy places like a stadium or a busy restaurant, bring that question to your next appointment!

Your After-Season Check

If you notice ringing, buzzing, or muffled hearing that doesn’t clear up after a day or two, or if you spent the fall around loud noise without protection, it’s a good idea to have your hearing checked. A hearing evaluation creates a baseline you can compare against in future years, so small changes get caught early. If ringing is your main concern, our post on tinnitus care near Fort Wayne explains what to expect.

Local Help Protecting Your Hearing

For more than 50 years, Hear Ear Hearing Aids has helped people across northeast Indiana and northwest Ohio protect their hearing and hear better. Along with hearing screenings, evaluations, and hearing aid care, we offer preventive care advice to help you reduce your risk of hearing damage for years to come.

Patients visit our New Haven, IN office from Fort Wayne, Woodburn, Harlan, and Monroeville, and our Bryan, OH office from Montpelier, Edgerton, Hicksville, and Defiance. If getting to an office is hard, we also offer house calls.

Schedule your free hearing test or call us: New Haven, IN (260) 363-3609 · Bryan, OH (419) 754-6467.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is hearing loss from loud noise permanent?
Yes. Noise-induced hearing loss happens when loud sound damages the tiny hair cells in the inner ear, and those cells don’t grow back. Temporary muffled hearing after a loud event is a warning sign that repeated exposure can lead to permanent loss.

Can one gunshot damage your hearing?
Yes. Gunshots typically reach 140 decibels or louder, which is loud enough to cause permanent hearing damage from a single exposure. Hunters and shooters should wear hearing protection every time they fire.

How can hunters protect their hearing and still hear game?
Electronic hearing protection amplifies quiet sounds like footsteps and rustling leaves, then automatically blocks loud sounds like a gunshot the instant they happen.

Are hearing aids the same as hearing protection?
No. Hearing aids are designed to amplify sound, not block it. Around gunfire, chainsaws, or other very loud equipment, remove your hearing aids and wear proper hearing protection.

When should I get my hearing checked after loud noise exposure?
If ringing, buzzing, or muffled hearing lasts more than a day or two after loud noise, schedule a hearing evaluation. Hear Ear Hearing Aids offers hearing tests at its New Haven, IN and Bryan, OH offices.

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