Electronic Hearing Protection

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I use my pair of Peltor at the range. While shooting trap, I have a little trouble with interference with my cheek weld and I wear one foam plug in one ear. The Peltors can loose the seal from contact with my stock. When hunting, they are not as comfortable on hot pheasant days. They also get a little annoying after hours in the deer stand and I remove them. Overall they perform well and battery life is fantastic.

I would be interested in the “in ear” models if they worked well.

Swanee
 
I use Caldwells. Very good directional sound from behind, where some fail miserably at this. Plugs underneath. Keeps me from having to remove something when someone wants to talk. If alone at the range, it's Decibel Defense with plugs underneath, unless purely .22, then just the muffs. Decibel Defense is definitely the best I've found.
 
I use Howard Leight Impact Sports. I put them over plugs for indoor range work, but use just the muffs turned up for hunting. I call them my cheaters.
These are my choice for electronic hearing protection. The indoor range I frequent actually has a full time range safety officer, so being able to hear commands is a real plus!

How is the best protection anything but what you need when it comes to your hearing? ;)
Preach it, HSO! :thumbup:
 
I also looked for electronic ear protection for many years. I prefer to shoot rifles, but being a firearms instructor, I shoot a lot of different firearms and in a wide variety of environments. Shooting outdoors, indoors and all seasons. In Louisiana, we have 2 main seasons. Hot and wet! I mainly used -26db ear plugs attached to a cord. But when on the police range or training at other facilities, electronics are required by most. This is where I used the HL's. I have several pairs of HL sport impacts in a box with a few other types, retired them this past year.
So what I need are electronics that will allow a good cheek weld. I shoot from a small elevated shoot house with pistol up to and including magnum rifles. Muffs don't do it for me because of the cheek weld issues. Other days I'm on the pistol range all day so comfort is also important. Last year, our department had custom ear mold plugs made with a cord to connect them. One guy had very small ear canals and he normally had trouble with most kinds of ear plugs. He also had trouble with the muff when shooting rifles and shotguns. Now he's much happier with ear protection but still no electronics to help when needing to hear commands.
So my search began for in ear electronic protection, molded to my ear canals. Looks like this will cover all the bases. I took a class at Front Sight back in 2013 and was introduced to Sport Ear, parent company is Axil. After more research, I decided to give these a try as a Christmas present to myself..

https://www.sportear.com/collections/custom-fit/products/digital-ear-pro-trade-ii

I paid $719 after a discount of about 20%. If you check this sight out, a chat box will appear and you can get info, discounts, ect. Sport Ear setup my appointment to have the ear molds made. I also paid $25 to get a hearing test. I plan to do follow up tests every year are so to see if these really do work or how well they work. My ears were pretty good with a slight upper level hearing loss. Now, I know...

There are better options out there that are much more expensive. IF, these don't work out, My insurance will help pay for the real expensive ones.. But it maybe a one shot and your done approach for the insurance company. I have heard this from others.

Now for My review on these Digital ear pro II's
I like'm! No more cords to get in the way. I can take my hat and safety glasses off with no problems, Can't say that with muffs or over the ear types. A time or two, I had to turn the volume up to better here people talking, no problem. I also noticed, with the volume low, being able to tell which direction a noise came from was difficult. It took me a couple days to get used to the difference in sounds. For over ten years, I've had sound cut off or filtered way down with other products I used. These enhance sounds and only limit them to 85DBs. I had to adjust to this. I wore them while mowing the lawn and with the constant noise, I could better tell how they worked. Yes, I still here the boom when a magnum rifle goes off but I'm used to hearing it at 85DBs now vs barely hearing it before. Start out with the volume low and work your way up so to speak.
I researched batteries for these and Duracell has the longest lifespan. The larger count packs are the way to buy them the cheapest. You can get them at Walmart!. Also check the expiration date on the batteries before you buy them. The batteries last for several days of shooting and mowing, over a couple weeks time. I bought a 12 pack and they should last me over a year.
I have no problems wearing them all day. It gets kinda awkward though when you eat lunch cause your ears move a lot!
Overall, I'd score them a solid 8 out of 10, just because I know better options are out there at 2 to 4 times the cost.
 
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