Indoor Shooting Range Ear Protection

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  • N4sir

    Well-Known Member
    Premium Member
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    26   0   0
    Aug 13, 2010
    2,507
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    Metairie, LA
    I specifically titled this "Indoor Shooting Range Ear Protection" because common sense tells me that the noise from indoor shooting would be louder and more damaging than outdoor gun blasts. But, you can still comment on what you use/prefer for either.

    What's your preferred method of ear protection? There are the basic padded ear muffs, noise canceling electronic shooting ear muffs and then the simple ear plugs. Has anyone ever tried all and settled on what works best for them or did you just buy one kind and stick with that?

    What have you found works best and what do you recommend?

    If you can post a picture of what you prefer please.
     

    Request Dust Off

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    26   0   0
    Feb 11, 2007
    2,329
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    Westbank N.O.
    Here is the thing - 3 things actually:
    1 - decibels are exponential
    2 - the bone behind your ear picks up sound
    3 - Earmuff type leak

    I prefer ear plugs with padded ear muffs over. That way if the muffs come off I still have some protection and the muffs keep the bone pickup down. Howard Leight made some with a pretty high rating. #1 means a few decibel more of NR is a big deal. Rifle shooting is harder to deal with indoors and someone else might be shooting a rifle. Longuns can have the interference with the muffs so the earplug in tandem helps. I have never needed the electronic and TBH I find them weird, at least the ones with the sound that cut on/off. Plus 'eff' batteries man.

    https://www.protectear.com/nrr-rating/

    Pretty sure this is what I have
    https://www.jjkeller.com/shop/Produ...wQV3zQbk_N85UeZvisIcAEoJ6KgYqKyAaAv4fEALw_wcB
     
    Last edited:

    xxBERGxx

    Well-Known Member
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    14   0   0
    Sep 30, 2010
    120
    16
    Baton Rouge, LA
    I use Howard Leight Impact Sport Electronic Earmuffs with ear plugs. They amplify low sound and block out louder sounds. Been using this setup for quite a while.
     

    dougstump

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    Nov 22, 2010
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    I'm just going to throw this out there, be very wary of military surplus ear muffs or plugs. Many of them are designed to block high frequency sound (jet engines) but don't do so well on low frequency. Many years ago at an air base hospital I was assigned (incarcerated) to, I overheard a discussion about the small arms instructors were experiencing hearing loss & being accused of not wearing their ear protection. After I did some research and proved they were wearing the wrong type, they they purchased a quantity of "shooting" ear muffs. End of problem.
     

    themcfarland

    tactical hangover
    Rating - 100%
    58   0   0
    Dec 6, 2008
    4,653
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    Destrehan
    Here is the thing - 3 things actually:
    1 - decibels are exponential
    2 - the bone behind your ear picks up sound
    3 - Earmuff type leak

    I prefer ear plugs with padded ear muffs over. That way if the muffs come off I still have some protection and the muffs keep the bone pickup down. Howard Leight made some with a pretty high rating. #1 means a few decibel more of NR is a big deal. Rifle shooting is harder to deal with indoors and someone else might be shooting a rifle. Longuns can have the interference with the muffs so the earplug in tandem helps. I have never needed the electronic and TBH I find them weird, at least the ones with the sound that cut on/off. Plus 'eff' batteries man.

    https://www.protectear.com/nrr-rating/

    Pretty sure this is what I have
    https://www.jjkeller.com/shop/Produ...wQV3zQbk_N85UeZvisIcAEoJ6KgYqKyAaAv4fEALw_wcB
    exactly what I was going to write.. I always double up inside.. I do use howard leights over the traditional foams ..
     

    machinedrummer

    Well-Known Member
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    2   0   0
    Apr 5, 2010
    3,685
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    Kingwood, Tx
    Ear protection?....we don’t need no stinking ear protection! Custom plugs with muffs over for me. Really helps inside when the bozo next to me has a 7.5 AR with a cookie cutter brake on it. Oh wait that’s me.
     

    xobelkcat

    tacklebox
    Rating - 100%
    69   0   0
    Jul 6, 2007
    1,225
    38
    Slidell, Louisiana
    I use electronic muffs and plugs indoors.

    Outdoors I use foam plugs and only double up if I’m shooting, or next to something extra loud.
     

    shrxfn

    Well-Known Member
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    1   0   0
    Oct 25, 2015
    855
    28
    SWLA
    I use some electronic muffs I picked up from Walmart. I use them specifically when I shoot USPSA at the indoor range and have had no issues with ear ringing afterwards. I keep the voice amplification as low as possible so that I can talk to the other shooters while we are waiting.
     

    Slalom.45

    Well-Known Member
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    0   0   0
    Jan 10, 2013
    334
    18
    Lafayette, LA
    Howard Leight electronic with plugs underneath.

    As an aside, I just replaced the ear pads on the Howard Leights with "Noisefighter" gel pads off Amazon. An amazing difference in comfort and sound control. They are gel soft and have a recess where your eye pro arms go so that everything seals well. Makes a cheap pair of ear pro feel like high end ones....
     

    kingfhb

    NRA & USCCA INST. w/ LSP#
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    26   0   0
    Mar 28, 2014
    3,060
    38
    New Orleans, LA
    Foamies.

    Electronics are nice to have but check the dB levels on whatever you buy. The simple fact is that foamies reduce the most dB levels of any hearing protection out there. In the military we doubled up foamies and muffs (Which still didn't help against those damn EA-6B's at full power on the CAT... literally vibrate your teeth out of your mouth!)... so that always works as well.

    Outside of that... shoot suppressed! and go when no one else is there! :)
     
    Last edited:

    davidd

    Expert in the field of wife avoidance
    Rating - 100%
    13   0   0
    May 9, 2011
    558
    28
    Baton Rouge, LA
    My wife is an Audiologist, so I have some very nice non-electronic filtered ear-plugs I wear underneath my electronic over the ear muffs. That combination works great, indoors and out. I can hear people talking, but the double coverage knocks out the open shooters at matches and the .44/.357 guns indoors.

    Her business cost for in ear electronic plugs is still more than I care to spend right now.
     

    noob

    enthusiast
    Silver Member
    Rating - 100%
    41   0   0
    Mar 18, 2008
    4,284
    48
    New Orleans
    Peltor electronic muffs with the highest NRR ear plugs I could find (purple ones at Walmart). I turn the volume all the way up, and I’ll be able to hear what’s going on at the range, yet still be comfortable while firing
     

    Metryshooter

    Well-Known Member
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    3   0   0
    Jul 11, 2010
    796
    16
    I'm just going to throw this out there, be very wary of military surplus ear muffs or plugs. Many of them are designed to block high frequency sound (jet engines) but don't do so well on low frequency. Many years ago at an air base hospital I was assigned (incarcerated) to, I overheard a discussion about the small arms instructors were experiencing hearing loss & being accused of not wearing their ear protection. After I did some research and proved they were wearing the wrong type, they they purchased a quantity of "shooting" ear muffs. End of problem.

    Impulse noise is a difficult one to negate.
     

    RedStickChick

    -Global Mod-
    Premium Member
    Rating - 0%
    0   0   0
    May 6, 2012
    3,014
    38
    Baton Rouge
    I use the in-ear plastic ear plugs with noise cancelling ear muffs on top.

    I'm slowly losing my hearing due to daily noise exposure so I generally wear in-ear ear pro almost everywhere these days.
     
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