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puma guy wrote: Foam plugs have high db reduction ratings, often higher than earmuffs. If a plug is rated at 32db reduction and you add earmuffs that are 25db you do not get a linear reduction of 25db. When I did a turn in safety at a refinery I had that info. The additional reduction is actually quite low. I wear plugs and earmuff anyway so I can hear. The best passive (non-electronic) earmuffs for the money I've found were at Harborfreight. The red ones.

I agree. if you wear plugs rated at 32db and muffs at 25db you do not end up with a reduction of 57db. The goal for me is to increase the noise reduction of the muffs, because 25db reduction is, for me, not enough. Permanent hearing damage can occur at 120db in a single "shot" (pun intended). Wearing muffs with a reduction rating of 25 means that most center fire rifles and many handguns will still produce enough dbs to cause permanent hearing damage. So by wearing the plugs and the muffs I achieve at least the db reduction of the plugs, plus some small additional amount - hopefully saving my hearing from permanent damage.

Thanks for the heads up about the pair at harbor freight. I haven't shopped there since we moved from New Mexico last year, I'll have to check them out.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:

mewalke wrote:For exceptionally loud environments - belted magnums, SBRs, or just about any indoor range I tend to use passive muffs AND foam plugs.

Do the electronic muffs default to "On" (sound muffled) or "Off" (All sound comes through) if the battery wears out? I would assume "On" since I am guessing they use a microphone to pick up the sounds - but I've never used a pair.

All that I have used default to muffled. You have passive noise reduction of some db level, then the microphone and audio amp in the muffs operates to let you hear what's going on. This audio amp is set to limit the audio to ? db, so the gunfire is muffled. Some units shunt the entire audio when a sound exceeds the db blocking threshold; i.e. it shuts the entire audio circuit off. Others allow the audio amp to continue to work, but limit the audio to a ?? db pass-through. These allow you to continue to hear conversations while rounds are going off.

Yeah I know, this is a lot more than you asked for.

Chas.

But very helpful! Thank you.

Looking at one of the Howard Leight's that was linked, the noise reduction was only 22db, which is considerably lower than most of the passive muffs I have used, so it sounds like I would still want to use foam plugs with the electronic muffs in many situations.

For exceptionally loud environments - belted magnums, SBRs, or just about any indoor range I tend to use passive muffs AND foam plugs.

Do the electronic muffs default to "On" (sound muffled) or "Off" (All sound comes through) if the battery wears out? I would assume "On" since I am guessing they use a microphone to pick up the sounds - but I've never used a pair.