So yesterday I took my buddy and his extended family from out of state shooting. A few of them had never even picked up a firearm before, so I thought that it would be a good opportunity for them to learn about firearms and firearm safety. Well, I ended up looking like an idiot because I forgot about ear protection. I had purchased a box of plugs, but forgot them at home. So when I got to the woods, I only had two pairs of ear muffs. I gave them to two little girls that went with us so that they wouldn't get too scared of the noise. I tried to plug my ears, but I did shoot roughly 40 rounds out of my AR, and a mag through my G17. After we shot, I noticed that I had lost a good bit of my hearing in my left ear. Any sound that I hear through my left ear sounds like a muffled or broken speaker, and of course the continuous buzzing noise is there too. I am sure that this has happened to somebody here before. What were your experiences, and did you recover your hearing? I think the buzzing will go away, but I am not sure about my hearing. I'd say my left ear is at about 50% right now, but a little better than last night.