Good ear muffs

[Stein]

I picked up a pair of these and wow, sure makes the range much more pleasant.  I was using a pair of noise cancelling over the top of foam plugs, but these have way better protection than the combo.  I should have been using these for the last 20 years, maybe my hearing wouldn't be what it is.  For the cost, they seem well built, hopefully they will last.

You look like Dumbo, but I can shoot perfectly fine, they don't interfere with my cheek rest or anything else and they do well even against the guy next to you shooting the field artillery piece with muzzle brake.

For $13.99 you can't beat it.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0784TDR8Q/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

[Bango skank]

Still a good idea to wear ear plugs underneath

[wadu1]

Any muff is better than nothing but you need to use them all the time. "Use it or Lose it" I use Howard Leight impact sports on the range and while hunting. Lost of 50% hearing due to an accident in the Army. I can take out my hearing aids and put these on and hunt and hear. 
https://www.amazon.com/Howard-Leight-Honeywell-Amplification-Electronic/dp/B001T7QJ9O

[7mmfan]

Still a good idea to wear ear plugs underneath

   I always double up. Heck I double up mowing the lawn 

[Bango skank]

Still a good idea to wear ear plugs underneath

   I always double up. Heck I double up mowing the lawn

Me too.  When im mowing etc, not shooting.  I would like to double up shooting, but cant get a proper rest on my stock with muffs, so plugs only for rifles but doubled up for handguns. And i wear plugs 24/7 at work, and add muffs when i go in the engine room.  Coworkers flip me *censored* for the constant earplugs, but theyre all either deaf or getting there in a hurry.  We get our hearing tested every year and im the only guy not going deaf

[7mmfan]

It makes a difference. I spent a lot of years not worrying to much about it, but want to try and keep what I have now at least. Saw some guys running a chipper down the road from my house yesterday with no hearing protection. I could hear that thing from 3 blocks away and they must have run it for 2 hours. I bet they were ringing a little.

[TheStovePipeKid]

I've been riding motorbikes for over a decade and have always worn plugs. I carry them at work for checking mechanical areas and always while using lawn and garden equipment. I have several muffs at home with 32+ db rating for around the house. I put some money down a few years back on electronic ear bud protection for hunting so I could hear but still get a good cheek weld. When it's gone it's gone. I too get a lot of crap for being "that guy", but I'll be that guy with good hearing.

[Bango skank]

I've been riding motorbikes for over a decade and have always worn plugs. I carry them at work for checking mechanical areas and always while using lawn and garden equipment. I have several muffs at home with 32+ db rating for around the house. I put some money down a few years back on electronic ear bud protection for hunting so I could hear but still get a good cheek weld. When it's gone it's gone. I too get a lot of crap for being "that guy", but I'll be that guy with good hearing.

Youll have the last laugh, and your buddies giving you flak wont even hear you laughing.  Atvs are another one!  My quad is damn loud!  Hearing protection mandatory.  Rode it a lot of years without, cant stand to now.

[Stein]

Saws, mowers, boats, guns, trimmers, lots of stuff makes noise.  I was surprised to find that I heard well and then didn't.  There was no gradual decline where I thought I would notice it.  I wasn't reckless, I wore protection almost all the time.  But, one shot at a deer here.  Once in the duck blind where I forgot them, a small amount here and there and all of a sudden it's very noticeable just all of a sudden.

One deer was perfect, sloping away and all soft dirt to infinity and virtually no loud report at all.  Next year, a few rocks and outcropping behind the deer and a mountain off in the distance and BANG.

I read in several places that a single shot does damage, it only takes one time.  It isn't necessarily additive, you take a big hit or two (or twenty) and it's not coming back.

[7mmfan]

You're right, one time. My time was a concert. It was WAY TO FRICKIN LOUD in there. All of a sudden, my right ear hurt. I plugged them the rest of the concert. I think I was 20 or 21 at the time. It rung and crackled for like a month. Now it's just dull and I hear about half of what I can out of my left ear. I've never worn protection bird hunting, I just feel like I can't operate as effectively with plugs in and I haven't reasoned spending hundreds on good amplified hearing protection. Deer and elk hunting I try to put my plugs in before I shoot, but I rarely have time or even remember to. I'll keep working on that. I'm just trying to not end up like my Dad who can't hear a deer bust out of the brush 50' from him.

[TheStovePipeKid]

I'm such a tightwad I sqeak when I walk and even my dad makes fun of my frugality. That being said I had to have plugs while hunting and have to be able to hear. I bought amplifying hearing protection ear buds and have never regretted it. There are way more options now with much better prices and I consider them a vital part of my equipment. Whether you like muffs or buds, electronic is the way to go for hunting.