Bent Arrow wrote:Hi,
Im looking for a set of class 5 electronic earmuffs. I had some hearing loss as a young child and then some more in the auto trade. I really need to protect what I have left. I also need to wear glasses so that can impact the effectiveness of the seal. I have got some good standard earmuffs, but can't hear range commands with them. I shot at a range today with a cheapish pair of electronic ear muffs, and they were fine for the 22lr, but an adjacent 22wmr was enough to convince me I need something much better
I'm look for a good piece of kit, not a compromise.
Any recommendations?
I have really good hearing, always have - and I like having really good hearing.. and I also found that I was developing a flinch that was more related to the noise than the recoil. So rather than use plugs I got my self some good standard muffs, same as you, couldn't hear voices, drove me nuts. Then I got some Howard Leight Impact Pros, better, but the seal wasn't great with my shooting glasses on and you really could feel the extra sound coming through vs the heavy duty, non-electronic muffs.
So after trying a bunch owned by mates etc I got these:
https://www.gunworld.com.au/msa-sordin-supreme-proI can't recommend them highly enough. The one problem is, jesus christ but are they exxy.... but they are more comfortable, the seal does a much better job of moulding itself around the glasses arms. The sound quality is excellent and the filtering of firing noise is really good. You will find brands with higher quoted noise reduction. For what its worth, I'm fairly sure that some of my other pairs have higher quoted noise reduction levels. I am 100% sure that these work better though. From what I've read it's in part because in the US these tests are not particularly standardised. I've also read that an element of it is the frequency of the noise they are trying to exclude, i.e. these things are targeted specifically at peak frequencies for gunshots. I'm not an audio engineer so I'll leave that to people who know what they are talking about. I've just found these are great. Also very tough, and on my head at least they sit fairly high on the ear so they don't interfere too much with cheek weld. On an indoor range when its busy I will still wear foam plugs as well, but I used to do that with standard muffs as well, and it doesn't interfere with hearing conversations when the mic's are switched on.