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| More About: Shooting/Hunting Hearing Protection | |
All of the products discussed on this page--and many
others--are available in our
Shooting/Hunting Department.
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In Construction? Our Shooting/Hunting products are
perfect for industrial and construction applications! |
How Dangerous is Shooting for My Hearing? [back to shooting/hunting]
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Fact: Being exposed to the noise generated by the discharge of handguns and rifles
without adequate protection will result in permanent damage to your hearing.
Target shooters and hunters are exposed to some of the loudest, most
dangerous noises anywhere in the environment.
A single gunshot can cause permanent hearing damage. Even small caliber
weapons such as a .22 create dangerous noise levels. Once your hearing is
damaged, it can never be repaired--it can only get worse. |
What's the Minimum
Protection I Can Safely Use? [back to shooting/hunting]
The minimum
in protection for shooters and hunters is provided by the "fingers in
the ears" method. Of course, it's hard to keep your fingers in your ears if
you're the one shooting. But this method can actually help protect your hearing from damage!
This is because gunshots produce a physical shockwave that does most of the damage to your hearing, and because the loud noise of a weapon discharge is very short-lived. As
a matter of fact, any device that blocks or absorbs the physical shockwave can
help protect the ear, so muffs as low as 19 NRR are adequate for most casual shooting.
What About Frequent Shooting? What are my Shooting Protection Options? [back to shooting/hunting]
| For frequent shooting or even occasional high velocity rifle work,
we suggest more protection. Your safest choice is a combination of plugs plus a muff worn over them. In combination, a good estimate of the maximum protection provided can be computed by adding 6 to the plug's rating:
for example, an Ultimate 10 muff at 30 NRR, plus a MAX foam plug, will give you
at least 36 NRR. Additionally, using this
muffs-and-plugs system, you will have about as much protection as it is possible to get in a portable hearing protection device--at any price.
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If you want the gear the pros use, check out our tactical electronic ear muffs which offer the very best option for shooters, hunters and many construction workers. For
low noises such as the voice commands from a range officer or the footsteps of a deer in the forest, tactical circuitry amplifies the sound--so you can
actually hear better with these muffs on than you can without them! But
when a loud noise (such as that generated by a muzzle blast or the firing of a nail gun) arrives at the muff, the electronic circuit shuts off, giving you the full protection of the muff
versus the dangerous noise. As soon as the noise falls to a safe level, the amplification circuit again opens so you can hear. In addition to the sound amplification benefit, the electronic circuitry responds faster than does a mechanical valve
(like that found in the
Sonic Valve shooter's plugs).
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If the tactical headsets are a little out of your price
range, try
Indoor/Outdoor range plugs, Hock's Noise Brakers,
BlastBuster, or
Sonic Valve II.
These plugs have various kinds of internal mechanisms that let you hear clearly under low noise conditions, but that protect your hearing when hit by a high volume pressure wave such as that created by a gunshot or nail gun, giving you the full protection of the plug just when you need it. |
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Back to Shooting/Hunting
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