[Official discussion] Best ear and eye protection for shooters

John AdamaStaff - September 17, 2020

3  

“Electronic noise-canceling (“active”) over-ear muffs.”  I’m a 40 year health and safety professional, life long shooter, and a moderator on one of the large firearms forums and I see this silly mistake over and over again.  Electronic shooting muffs are NOT noise-cancelling.  They have a clipping circuit that shuts off the mic or the speaker in the muffs when a sharp rising loud noise (gunshot) is detected (buy good electronic shooting muffs from a hearing protection manufacturer if you want dependible quality).  Noise-canceling muffs have a counter wave form produced to cancel the machine noise like on aircraft or in factories where a loud continuous noise is in the wearer’s environment.  So, no, your Bose noise canceling ear muffs won’t shut out gunshots on the range and your Howard Leight Sports won’t mute the airline noise (unless either is off acting as passive hearing protectors).  Other favorite hearing protection advice, wear plugs under your muffs for the best protection, understand that muffs don’t work well if there’s a big gap in the pad from eye protection, long guns may displace your muffs so get muffs that are designed for long guns, ear “buds” are not ear PLUGS. 

 

Thank you for the insight Mike!

 

Other things to note about the electronic ear muffs are that they are usually heavier and bulkier with the added electronics, and battery. You can adjust levels and sensitivity on them as well to block out more or less noises. Also, they can amplify frequencies below a certain range like voices so you can hear the range instructor better than if you had normal ear plugs in.