Electronic Ear Protection

[Grundy1133]

Hey guys, I'm looking at purchasing electronic ear protection for when I'm at the range because i'm tired of having to yell at people and have them yell back when trying to talk. right now im looking at https://www.freedommunitions.com/gear/h ... ction.html i know next to nothing about good brands and decibel levels and what not... any suggestions are appreciated.

[The Annoyed Man]

I have two sets of Peltors, one regular, and one low-profile. The low-pro set works a lot better with rifle stocks, but the larger regular set provides slightly better hearing protection and comfort. Both are about the same for being able to hear others speak.

[carlson1]

Howard Leight by Honeywell Impact Sport Sound Amplification Electronic Shooting Earmuff are great.

Probably cheaper with Amazon or others.
https://www.cabelas.com/product/IMPACT- ... lsrc=aw.ds

[Middle Age Russ]

One of the most popular of the electronic muffs is the Howard Leight Impact Sport. NRR of 22, I believe which is not anything spectacular, but they are relatively low profile, provide relatively quick clamping on the amplification, have and auto-off feature to save your batteries and also have a headphone port. When teaching a class, I keep the mics forward, and when taking a class i orient the mics to the rear to better pick up the instructor's commands. On indoor ranges I double up with these over plugs, and crank the volume all the way.

[Grundy1133]

Howard Leight by Honeywell Impact Sport Sound Amplification Electronic Shooting Earmuff are great.

Probably cheaper with Amazon or others.
https://www.cabelas.com/product/IMPACT- ... lsrc=aw.ds

would you recommend the ones you linked or these? these are the "pro" version of the sport ones. https://www.amazon.com/Howard-Leight-Am ... g+earmuffs they have a higher NRR(30) the sport ones you linked NRR is 22. is the extra 8 NRR points worth the extra money?

[Grundy1133]

One of the most popular of the electronic muffs is the Howard Leight Impact Sport. NRR of 22, I believe which is not anything spectacular, but they are relatively low profile, provide relatively quick clamping on the amplification, have and auto-off feature to save your batteries and also have a headphone port. When teaching a class, I keep the mics forward, and when taking a class i orient the mics to the rear to better pick up the instructor's commands. On indoor ranges I double up with these over plugs, and crank the volume all the way.

same question for you. pro or sport? 30NRR vs 22 NRR

[carlson1]

I have only used the pair I linked to. I have had several knock offs until I found the Impact Sport and the low profile. I have doubled up with plugs in an indoor range where folks were shooting rifles.

[Grundy1133]

"By law, all hearing protection products have to have a NRR rating. The highest NRR rating you can get is 33 NRR. Products with a 28 to 31 NRR are recommended for indoor shooting. There are two different kinds of hearing protection, earplugs and ear muffs."

since i go to an indoor range, I think ill be going with the Howard Leight by Honeywell Impact Pro instead of the Howard Leight by Honeywell Impact Sport. thanks for the input everyone :)

[rotor]

"By law, all hearing protection products have to have a NRR rating. The highest NRR rating you can get is 33 NRR. Products with a 28 to 31 NRR are recommended for indoor shooting. There are two different kinds of hearing protection, earplugs and ear muffs."

since i go to an indoor range, I think ill be going with the Howard Leight by Honeywell Impact Pro instead of the Howard Leight by Honeywell Impact Sport. thanks for the input everyone :)

Make sure that you can try them on first to make sure they form a good seal. Without that seal you have no protection. I had Howard Leight and they did not fit me and did not work. I bought mine on Amazon but didn't use them in time to return. I now use molded ear protection and with heavy stuff inexpensive Winchester muffs.

[Pawpaw]

Walker's has some electronic ear plugs with a NRR of 31. I really like mine and they don't interfere with long gun shooting.

https://www.texaschlforum.com/viewtopic ... 23&t=84672

[bblhd672]

I also recommend you double up with plugs indoors. Especially the first time you use the muffs so you are protected even if your seal isn’t right the first time. I usually always double up both indoor and out, I don’t want any further hearing loss or tinnitus.

[flechero]

I went with the Howard Leight Impact Sport model for my son and I.

Here is the thing- only a few muffs are truly good enough for indoor ranges or outdoor on a crowded shooting line and then it's a maybe. When shooting indoors or in a class, I double up with a soft plug under the earmuffs. You can still turn up the electronic volume for hearing range commands and discussion as normal (through the soft plugs). Also, not many of the muffs work with rifles- the thin profile of the sports allow me to shoot comfortably.

When shooting alone outdoors (which is 90% of my shooting) I just wear the muffs with electronics off.

If I were going to be an indoor shooter or didn't have a home range, I would buy one of the various "pro" models with replaceable gel cups.

The double up method works better than most of the expensive muff options, but it's a trade off. If I had the budget, I would have probably followed a different path initially.

[TexasJohnBoy]

Soft plugs + Howard Leight Impact muffs here, turn the volume up to hear voices through the ear plugs. I did this last weekend at a carbine match and had no problems

[strogg]

I went the opposite route. I have a pair of nice earphones for my phone. They come with foamy inserts that you have to compress/roll up before inserting into your ear. Although they are not NRR rated, I'd venture to say that they provide about 20 db of protection. It doesn't matter too much anyway, since I always double up for safety, as I very much appreciate my hearing.

Now I found this microphone monitoring app for my phone. It has very low latency, so the audio delay is no problem whatsoever. It will take the audio input from the mic of my earphones, then relay it back to my ear at whatever volume I want. The built-in microphone compressor on the phone does a great job at attenuating very loud sounds. So if someone is talking at normal volume, I'd be able to hear it very well. But when there's a loud noise, it will drown it out like no one's business, just like the microphones used in those YouTube videos. The only downside of the app is that it requires the screen to be on the whole time. That's a limitation of the phone, though.

So I guess the point of the story is that I didn't spend a dime on electronic earphones. I just used what I had laying around.