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Hearing protection poll
- Thread starter Bobalos
- Start date
Brake: Active muffs with passive plugs
Suppressor at the range: Passive plugs
Hunting: Suppressed with no pro
Pretty darn hard to find a single layer of ear pro that is adequate for braked centerfire.
Suppressor at the range: Passive plugs
Hunting: Suppressed with no pro
Pretty darn hard to find a single layer of ear pro that is adequate for braked centerfire.
Active plugs for the most part but I also carry a pair of active muffs in my bag.
This year I switched from Sound Gear to Axil Xcors. The Sound Gears were custom molded to my ears and I wore them for years in USPSA / 3-gun etc. But something changed in the last year and they no longer create a good seal in my left ear. Rather than going thru the effort to get another mold made for my ear I decided to give the Axil Xcors a try. Coincidently, my Jabra ear buds for my phone died around the same time so the Axils could do double duty as ear pro as well as ear buds.
I’ve been using the Axils since Sept. I did upgrade the foam plugs to another brand you can get on Amazon (Comply?) for better NRR. I like them. Rechargeable battery holds a good enough charge for all day on the range, good carrying case which doubles as a charger during lunch, good fit in my ear, and bluetooth capable to take phone calls or listen to music. The sound enhancement also works pretty good for normal conversations at the range. NRR is decent, maybe 29-ish with the Comply foamies. Pro tip: the Axils come with two sets of ear inserts, foam and rubber. The instructions say to use the foam ones for NRR, and they are OK, I just found the Comply brand of inserts to be better.
That said, if/when shooting with a bunch of people on the line under cover (like during zero-ing first thing in the AM at a match), especially if they are running brakes, I’ll throw on a pair of Peltors over the Axils. But if out in the open and only one or two people are shooting at the time, the Axils by themselves are just fine.
This year I switched from Sound Gear to Axil Xcors. The Sound Gears were custom molded to my ears and I wore them for years in USPSA / 3-gun etc. But something changed in the last year and they no longer create a good seal in my left ear. Rather than going thru the effort to get another mold made for my ear I decided to give the Axil Xcors a try. Coincidently, my Jabra ear buds for my phone died around the same time so the Axils could do double duty as ear pro as well as ear buds.
I’ve been using the Axils since Sept. I did upgrade the foam plugs to another brand you can get on Amazon (Comply?) for better NRR. I like them. Rechargeable battery holds a good enough charge for all day on the range, good carrying case which doubles as a charger during lunch, good fit in my ear, and bluetooth capable to take phone calls or listen to music. The sound enhancement also works pretty good for normal conversations at the range. NRR is decent, maybe 29-ish with the Comply foamies. Pro tip: the Axils come with two sets of ear inserts, foam and rubber. The instructions say to use the foam ones for NRR, and they are OK, I just found the Comply brand of inserts to be better.
That said, if/when shooting with a bunch of people on the line under cover (like during zero-ing first thing in the AM at a match), especially if they are running brakes, I’ll throw on a pair of Peltors over the Axils. But if out in the open and only one or two people are shooting at the time, the Axils by themselves are just fine.
Depends where I am, but active plugs with a good NRR rating are superb once your ears get used to them, and are particularly nice for long-duration where I've found that over-ears cause tension headaches eventually (even with gel cups). For short duration stuff I typically use over-ears (Sordins), and if I need extra protection, I'll put foam plugs in as well.
One manufacturer that I've spoken to in the past had alluded to some interesting studies done on blast wave propogation and how the in-ear plugs perform a bit better than over-ear muffs... this being said, it was related to breaching and much larger yield explosions than small-arms fire.
Anectdotally though, I find that I don't feel as concussed when using in-ear hearing protection and shooting in and around enclosed environments.
One manufacturer that I've spoken to in the past had alluded to some interesting studies done on blast wave propogation and how the in-ear plugs perform a bit better than over-ear muffs... this being said, it was related to breaching and much larger yield explosions than small-arms fire.
Anectdotally though, I find that I don't feel as concussed when using in-ear hearing protection and shooting in and around enclosed environments.
The flanged ear plugs that you can reuse and an obnoxious brake
If shooting the shorty Barrett 50 then it's in ear with passive muffs, with pillows taped to the sides of my head, and using a string from 50 feet away, and I still get a TBI.
Good foam plugs under highest level muffs. If there was a third thing I could wear I would.
Pussy. I was laying right next to a guy at JTAC and that thing wasn’t bad at all. It had a hell of a shock wave but the noise wasn’t bad at all. I grabbed a pair of muffs to double up when I saw what I was going to be beside but didn’t even end up putting them on and just rocked the Surefire plugs. I’ll take being beside that Barrett over being next to someone with an APA brake any day.
Suppressors... No muffs or plugs, unless some Fudd is shooting beside me at the range that doesn't have a can. 
I selected active /active because I only shoot suppressed, with active headsets. On the extremely rare occasion I’m not shooting with a can, I’ll double up on ear pro; typically just foamies under my active headset.
Wish I’d have taken this as seriously when I was younger/Active Duty…paying the price now. Literally…cans and Sordin/Peltor/3M/Ops Core, etc. active noise cancellation and ambient amplification headsets are expensive! LoL
edit: I’ve come to love my Sordins with the gel cups and behind the neck bracing (just a soft strap over the top); I actually forget I’m wearing them sometimes, and only realize I still have them on after I’ve driven halfway home with them on. I also prefer them when hunting too; the amplification for ambient noise, while clipping anything >90db is a game changer for me.
Wish I’d have taken this as seriously when I was younger/Active Duty…paying the price now. Literally…cans and Sordin/Peltor/3M/Ops Core, etc. active noise cancellation and ambient amplification headsets are expensive! LoL
edit: I’ve come to love my Sordins with the gel cups and behind the neck bracing (just a soft strap over the top); I actually forget I’m wearing them sometimes, and only realize I still have them on after I’ve driven halfway home with them on. I also prefer them when hunting too; the amplification for ambient noise, while clipping anything >90db is a game changer for me.
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Pretty much always double protection.
Active muffs + plugs. I also pretty much only shoot suppressed these days.
Active muffs + plugs. I also pretty much only shoot suppressed these days.
I’ve tried a bunch of different hearing protection. My favorite is quality active plugs for general shooting, add passive muffs when extra protection is needed.
One thing to keep in mind:
You break the seal on your muff ear pro and you’ve degraded, perhaps seriously, the NRR/SNR protection.
Common ways to break the seal on muffs: Hat. Eyeglasses/eye pro.
Link to eye pro that doesn’t break the seal (#4). I use these SoundVision eye pro as I have one ear with problems.
https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/question-on-hearing-protection.7041206/post-9026162
Link to a couple of my posts on a CDC study on cops training with safety glasses and the resulting severe degradation of hearing protection. Maybe they were using the old massive safety glasses, but think about it…any break = unmuffled sound gets in.
https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/question-on-hearing-protection.7041206/post-9027158
https://www.snipershide.com/shootin...-and-hearing-protection.7202641/post-11343080
Also, a list of goofy eye pro that won’t break the seal. Personally, just buy the SoundVision.
https://www.snipershide.com/shootin...-and-hearing-protection.7202641/post-11348790
You break the seal on your muff ear pro and you’ve degraded, perhaps seriously, the NRR/SNR protection.
Common ways to break the seal on muffs: Hat. Eyeglasses/eye pro.
Link to eye pro that doesn’t break the seal (#4). I use these SoundVision eye pro as I have one ear with problems.
https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/question-on-hearing-protection.7041206/post-9026162
Link to a couple of my posts on a CDC study on cops training with safety glasses and the resulting severe degradation of hearing protection. Maybe they were using the old massive safety glasses, but think about it…any break = unmuffled sound gets in.
https://www.snipershide.com/shooting/threads/question-on-hearing-protection.7041206/post-9027158
https://www.snipershide.com/shootin...-and-hearing-protection.7202641/post-11343080
Also, a list of goofy eye pro that won’t break the seal. Personally, just buy the SoundVision.
https://www.snipershide.com/shootin...-and-hearing-protection.7202641/post-11348790
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When I worked in an armory and did function testing in a conex box range I always wore custom molded passives with my active Sordins. Firing upwards of 2k rounds of 5.56, 7.62x51, and some 6ARC, and 6.5CM in a small box over the course of a few hours multiple times a week got really tiring unless I was doubled up. Even then I probably scrambled a few of my remaining brain cells.
I will usually do the same at a public indoor range with dingbats shooting all around. If at an outdoor range I will usually wear active in ears or my molded passive in ears. Only exception seems to be if multiple people are on the line close by shooting with brakes I may double up to the ol' conex ways.
I will usually do the same at a public indoor range with dingbats shooting all around. If at an outdoor range I will usually wear active in ears or my molded passive in ears. Only exception seems to be if multiple people are on the line close by shooting with brakes I may double up to the ol' conex ways.
Muffs + suppressor if shooting outside and not under cover. I'll add passive plugs to the above if shooting under cover.
Basically that's what this discussion turns into if you spend time on hunting forums.
There's a Canadian firearm forum that I'm a member of (was banned recently for not thinking WW3 is worth starting over Ukraine
) and a recent thread in the hunting section went more or less like that.They think that as long as they don't use a muzzle brake, that their hearing will be just fine. Lots of fuddery.
One of the reasons, including biology, why men die before women.
Chemical exposure, airborne contaminants, and loud noises are a trifecta of concerns that some large proportion of men just weirdly flat-out ignore.
So they get lead poisoning, mesothelioma, and go deaf lol
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- Nov 3, 2010
- 9,657
- 20,117
My rifle always chimes in with “ahhhh baby, don’t you trust me. You don’t need protection”. 
I fall into the passive plugs + category. By that, I mean that my min protection is passive plugs. If it just me on the range, that is likely passive plugs + suppressor. If others are on the range, then it will likely be passive plugs + suppressor + muffs.
Passive and a can works great if alone but get to a match and the brakes will still be loud and why I double up with everything but Rimfire. My Marine Corps tinnitus is the constant reminder.
We had to remove a student from range this week end because his hearing was so bad even with aids he could not hear commands and it became a safety hazard. He was not much older than me. Fng shame
I bet he wishes he used hearing protection
When shooting rifle I use plugs and muffs. I have enough tinnitus already
I bet he wishes he used hearing protection
When shooting rifle I use plugs and muffs. I have enough tinnitus already
