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Your preferred hearing protection?

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At a range usually the headset, but will use both.

I used to use the cigarette butts as little kid when my father would bring me to the rifle range, other times it was balled cotton, it is better than nothing and my ear canals were probably smaller back then.

I am slightly deaf in one ear, but it got that way about 18 years ago from some jerk of a coronet player in some pub who thought it would be funny to blast his horn in my ear.

I think I probably now favor foam plugs because they are not a hassle to pack and they don't impede peripheral eyesight.

It would be good to know if someone nearby on the sides is doing something stupid, so I could act accordingly for safety.
 
I use silicone foarm ear plugs most of the time. I keep a pair in my pants pocket at all times. Occasionally I will wear muffs when putting on and remvoving often. Sometimes at the range I will use the flanged soft plastic ones attached together with a string. Handy to remove between relays. The strings also keep them from falling inside.
BTW, use only silicone foam. Regular latex foam does not seal was well.
 
I have a pair of custom molded plugs I got at a gun show years ago. They work better than the foam plugs I've tried and aren't as cumbersome as ear muffs. Basically you just sit in a chair with your head tilted and they pour the mixture in after putting some non-stick substance into your ear canal and it hardens in a minute or two.
 
Stumpkiller said:
I got myself a pair of the Allen Sound Sensor protectors (about $18) and they are the cat's arse. Light and comfortable. 26dB noise reduction - check that against whatever you are considering.

allen-sound-sensor-hearing-protection-lg.jpg

Going to have to try those, Stumpy. Apparently, Home Depot carries 'em.
 
trent/OH said:
I use foam earplugs when I shoot, but earmuffs when I mow(kind of a loud mower). Foam plugs fit in my shooting box better, of course, but I'm thinking the muffs are more comfortable, and much easier to put on.

Do you have a preference for one or the other, and why?

If you prefer muffs, what factors do you consider in your choice of muffs?


Way too late for me, but Lee Sonics AND muffs - Peltor TAC6, to be precise.

I lost most of my hearing in one fell swoop as the result of a VERY tactical landing in a C-130. So did the pilot and the loadie.

tac
 
Severe hearing loss is something I have to deal with, also. It's in a certain range with the rest only moderately compromised. I also have tinnitus and it drives me crazy but I can tune it out when there's other sound. At restaurants I can't hear the conversation at the table; background noise and/or music makes it impossible. The primary culprit is gunfire from from many years back.
 
I use a pair of slim ear muffs, those foam ear plugs don't stay in for me. If I have Mr. Magnum guy set up next to me I just pack up and leave( the same goes for the for the couple of Full Auto guys that show up now an then :youcrazy: :slap: ). The range is less than 10 miles away so its no problem to come back later.
 
hanshi said:
Severe hearing loss is something I have to deal with, also. It's in a certain range with the rest only moderately compromised. I also have tinnitus and it drives me crazy but I can tune it out when there's other sound. At restaurants I can't hear the conversation at the table; background noise and/or music makes it impossible. The primary culprit is gunfire from from many years back.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Same story here.
 
Often I'll just wear the foam orange plugs with the blue line so they can hang around your neck. If I'm shooting the .44s or there are other people around shooting smokelss, I'll break out the David Clark 9AN/2 mickey mouse ears. Same ones I wore with the Navy on the flight line or in the engine rooms.
 
My preference is the foam plugs when I am shooting muzzleloading rifles, shotguns or handguns. For modern smokeless powder guns, I prefer to use both foam plugs and ear muffs because of the sharper crack of smokeless cartredges.

One thing to keep in mind when selecting hearing protection is that as a rule of thumb, you should cut the advertised db reduction in half. For instance, if a hearing protection ear plug is advertised as having a NRR of 30 db, the actual real world NRR is 15 db. The advertised NRR is based on laboratory testing using a single frequency. It is not intended to be misleading, it is just a standardized way of comparing the effectiveness of each product in providing protection to your hearing.
 
I use either custom made plugs that I got 30 years ago when shooting IPSC, or foam ear plugs, but just at the range or at shooting matches. I used to wear them when mowing the lawn too, but now I have an electric mower...

When hunting I don't wear plugs.

I get my hearing tested every year, as in my job we're exposed to a lot of loud noise, and years ago the freakin' sirens were mounted in the roof of the cruisers, plus a lot of guys drove around with the window open in summer, and the wind fluttering in the left ear apparently did damage...anyway my hearing is much sharper than what is considered "normal".

Now my kids apparently have degraded their hearing a bit using those "ear buds" with their music. Who knew? Works OK for me as I can hear them when they are up to something long before they realize they are making noise....

LD
 
I'm not so sure it's the music with ear buds.

When I ask my kids to do any work at all they don't hear a thing. :rotf:
 
Col. Batguano said:
I'm not so sure it's the music with ear buds.

When I ask my kids to do any work at all they don't hear a thing. :rotf:

this is a completely normal psycho- social adaptation of northern American males ... it starts with taking out the trash and develops into a phenomenon known as selective cut out, often triggered by the phrase, "Honey, would you mind ..."

:rotf: :redface: :rotf:
 
The Howard Leight electronic hearing protectors, are very popular, at my shooting range. Especially amongst the most avid shooters. I like them, because they are light weight, thin, and I can carry on a conversation, without taking them off. Because they are thin, you can lay your face on the proper stock position, without them being in your way. Cost is around $50. but the best I've found, for the money
 
I worked at a police precinct that had an indoor range. Range officer would use live .38 Sp rounds as ear plugs. I thought this improvident and even downright dumb.

He eventually was arrested by the feds for selling stolen guns. He even threw in 2 live hand grenades into the controlled buy that sent him to prison.

My original guess that he was dumb was thus confirmed.
 
I do most of my shooting using electric surpression muffs that allow normal conversation but block out anything over 80 decibles. For my primitive shoots I found some tan foam ear protectors in a safety equipment catalog and bought the 100 pack. That was back in the 1990's but they should still be around. They're about 1/2" diamiter and 3/4" long. If you heat to orange, the end of an unwrapped paper clip and poking, touch it around one half part of the earplug , and end, in a few places. The small burned holes make the earplug appear as a cork :applause:, an item that's PC and you'll get no greif for the ear plugs. Although earplugs should be overlooked as PC due to the safety issues. My info + $.02
 
2571 said:
I worked at a police precinct that had an indoor range. Range officer would use live .38 Sp rounds as ear plugs. I thought this improvident and even downright dumb.

He eventually was arrested by the feds for selling stolen guns. He even threw in 2 live hand grenades into the controlled buy that sent him to prison.

My original guess that he was dumb was thus confirmed.
Wouldn't happen to be this guy, would it?
27y6cld.jpg
 
I bought some EarPro by Surefire EP3 Sonic Defenders Hearing Protection Earpieces off of ebay. I've yet to try them out but they get really good reviews.

I had a set of ear plugs that had a sound channel in them and baffles that kept sounds down to a safe level. They would allow normal conversation but block anything above 80 db. I lost them recently and would love to find some exactly like them. The closest I could find are the ones I bought off of ebay. Other than that the foam disposables work pretty well too.
 
27y6cld.jpg

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I like that the ATF is getting the proper training now. :)


William Alexander
 

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