this really should not be a spoiler so dont worry

I know this is stupid and nitpicky but in the first scene in the vault where (spoiler?) your wife gets shot. shaun is about 2 feet away from that .44 magnum in a very enclosed space and he is at an extremely young and sensitive age. that kids ear drums would have exploded. again its a small plot hole but i found it funny. you guys found any funny small plot holes?

In the decades between the 1940s and the apocalypse, humans have lived alongside modern and future warfare for so long that their bodies have adapted to cope with it. Bone density and repair capabilities increased significantly, and ears evolved to better survive the gunfire, sirens, military and disaster drills...

That, or the Institute can handle a niggardly little detail like ear structure restoration.

Even if he were, if the Institute can make organic human from scratch, then I'm sure they could have done something to fix that.

No he should be blind like Hon Solo when he got unfrozen from carbonate.
Although that was mainly just to answer why he didn't just shoot his way out of Jaba's palace.

Dats waycist!!!

Sorry...couldn't resist.

You're not gonna get permanently deaf from just one or two shots. Trust me, I've experienced the same and my ears are just fine. You just hear a loud ringing sound (like a steady "beeeeep") in your ears for a few second up to a minute or two and you get a bit of a headache. You may also turn deaf for a short period of time - similar to how you may turn completely blind from extreme lightheadedness combined with extreme pain. (Complete blindness and deafness is characterized by the fact that you don't even hear silence or see blackness - you lose the sense entirely, which is a bit hard to explain and imagine unless you've experienced it.)

just saying that ugly ass baby didnt seem to mind at all

Considering the technology the Institute has, I think Shaun's OK. Worst case scenario, they would just give his ears internal synthetic implants so he could hear.

Guns aren't all that damaging to hearing in a one-off situation like that. Plus, a baby is still growing, and so any damage has a better chance of being repaired. The ear bones are solidified yet, either.

When I was in the Marines, I forgot to put in my ear-plugs before clearing a house. I ended up opening fire in a concrete foyer room that was only about 5 by 6 feet. It hurt a lot, and my ears rang for a day or so, but my hearing was fine afterward.

A super mutant doctor healed him with one of those generic injections that heal radiation sickness, gunshots, etc...and then they both sat down and ate some 200+ year old cereal and snack cakes.

baby shaun was further from the gun then Kellogg... if anything firing a gun in such closed quarters should have given everyone ringing ears for a short time.

Gun sound logic in a game is not like real life however. Having gone to the gun range personally on many occasions I find it hard to believe our own character isn't deaf from not having ear protection.