Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Which electronic ear muffs for hunting ?

Well, all this butt-hurtin' and name-callin' among the members is entertaining and all....

Blueboy...


High-volume low-frequency noise can cause damage to the inner ear if the bones around the ear are not insulated. This is the primary reason muffs are used rather than plugs in places like aircraft carrier decks and indoor gun ranges.




Bottom line: if you want to amplify high-frequency sounds only, the Walker device will do it. If you want a more realistic sound spectrum, you need either high-dollar hearing aids, or you need to invest in ANS sound-amplifying muffs.

Here is another reason the Game Ear rules. There is not reason to take it/them off until you are loading your truck at the end of the day. No sweat to wipe away, when some one rips off a burst just when you thought the line was cold

Apparently you not only failed to read the articles cited, you failed to read your own post. Nice work.
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[quote=Blueboy]

Blueboy...

First thing, I'm not interested in responding to a juvenile challenge such as you seem to be making, but because there are a couple folks who are genuinely interested in a real answer I'll give one. If you choose to learn something from it, that's great. If not, it's no skin off my nose. Carry on as you are.

Getting to the nut of the question, there are two attributes of ear-pro that we are interested in: 1) gunshot noise reduction, and 2) ambient sound amplification.

So let's look at the first feature: noise reduction.

This first article is a nice readable article that condenses a number of scientific studies into this: Sordin muffs reduce sound in the gunshot frequency range by an average of 30 dB across the range and by 38.7 dB in the most damaging frequency range.

https://trevoronthetrigger.wordpres...rformance-the-misleading-nrr18db-rating/

By comparison, the best (and most expensive) Walker's insertible gives a NRR of 29 dB. I can't find any specific data on the frequency ranges it protects, but foam plugs typically block high frequencies better than low.

Second point: you get much better noise reduction with active hearing protection, which uses digital signal processing to produce a sound that actively cancels the frequency of the noise you're trying to get rid of. Here's an easy-to-read summary of how ANS works. If you want more serious references, the bibliography gives a good selection.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_noise_control

http://wasatchcommunications.com/uncategorized/why-opt-for-msa-sordin-headset/

As above, most insertible ear-pro in the price range of the Walker's device can't afford to use ANS, although some do, such as Earasers (18 dB NRR).

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...eonthetri-20&linkId=6SQZPDJHX67DQGYV

These ANS plugs are great. I bought a pair last fall for use when I go to live music events, or when I play electronically-amplified guitars. They also really enhance both the noise protection and the sound enhancement of good ANS muffs. Most muffs that say Bose, Sordin, etc on the side will give you better noise reduction in the active range than insertibles, but as I say, the Earasers work pretty well.

Third point, which relates back to my previous post: bone conduction of sound/noise is not blocked by insertibles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bone_conduction

High-volume low-frequency noise can cause damage to the inner ear if the bones around the ear are not insulated. This is the primary reason muffs are used rather than plugs in places like aircraft carrier decks and indoor gun ranges. Hearing loss from noise thru this mechanism is more likely to be low-frequency hearing loss, which reduces your ability to hear things like a deer's footsteps on a dirt path and the resonant tones in human voices, music, etc.

Now, for the second part of the question: what gives us better hearing enhancement?

This one is pretty much a no-brainer. While insertible aids can magnify sounds quite a bit (the Walker's device claims a 50 dB amplification), they do it mostly in the higher frequencies. Ask anyone who used the hearing aids commonly available until the past 20 years or so how that worked, and they'll tell you it sucks. It's only in the last couple decades that hearing aid technology has given us full-frequency sound amplification in packages small enough to fit in the ear. And no, you can't buy that technology for $150... you're looking at $5000 per pair for those sets. Muffs, on the other hand, don't need to use super expensive microtechnology for sound amplification. So you can get really, really good sound across the whole auditory spectrum.

There's some interesting info on this buried in this article:

http://www.cochlear.com/wps/wcm/connect/us/home/baha5/index.html?utm_campaign=Baha_-_Brand&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_term=%2Bbone%20anchored%20hearing%20aid%20baha&utm_content=baha_cochlear&gclid=CjwKEAiAmNW2BRDL4KqS3vmqgUESJABiiwDT16wMef637NlSkTuEvt2dqjbnYZ4yxRdMt5p9r8YAghoCroDw_wcB

Bottom line: if you want to amplify high-frequency sounds only, the Walker device will do it. If you want a more realistic sound spectrum, you need either high-dollar hearing aids, or you need to invest in ANS sound-amplifying muffs.

I use the one made by Silencerco...

I will be damned if I am going to wear hearing protection in the woods.

I will be damned if I am going to wear hearing protection in the woods.

[quote=DocRocket]Blueboy...


I will only tell you this... You can develop SEVERELY INVASIVE TINNITUS, to the point you WILL NEVER A QUIET MOMENT AGAIN, from noise transferred through a rifle stock, a 40XB McMillan KS in my case, to the jaw bone and directly to the inner ear. Happened EVEN WHEN I DRY FIRED which should have been a clue. That said I do my best to help others IF they will listen.

If you insist on wearing a game ear you need to put a stock pad on many rifles. Wood does not typically transfer the damaging vibrations but dampens them. Ultralight, kevlar and carbon fiber, with Edge Technology does like a tuning fork... A $25 Eagle Stock Pack would have saved $50K in out of pocket medical treatment and 19 years of misery. Take that for what you paid for it...

After bluemonday finishes teaching Doc Rocket about audiology he will inform him all about cardiology and trauma care. Did we not at one time have a similar savant named Tak?

mike r

Yeah, I'd really like to see those relevant posts from that TAK phooker where he "informed" a board-certified ER doc on trauma medicine. Should be quite entertaining.

I stumbled across an interesting article yesterday that showed that something in the inner ear actually makes a real sound in this condition, so it's not just a brain/neurological phenomenon. Maybe this finding will help them find a true cure.

I've had tinnitus since I was a kid, so I've learned to ignore it, most of the time. I can't imagine how tormenting severe late-onset tinnitus must be.

I used to say the same thing, until one cold morning when had forgotten my hat and my ears were cold. By chance I had some active-hearing muffs in my backpack, so I put 'em on to keep my ears from freezing... and a new world of acute hearing was open to me.

As Bluemonday points out, enhanced hearing is a great advantage in the woods. You can hear Everything... squirrels chattering, birds hopping along in the leaves, and even deer breathing. As it happens, the muffs I used that morning were my cheap Dillon/Peltor muffs, which aren't ANS muffs, so high-end sounds were over-magnified and low-frequency sounds not so much... so I didn't hear deer walking nearly as far away as I do with my Sordins.

Matt, I'm sorry to hear about your tinnitus. I stumbled across an interesting article yesterday that showed that something in the inner ear actually makes a real sound in this condition, so it's not just a brain/neurological phenomenon. Maybe this finding will help them find a true cure.

I've had tinnitus since I was a kid, so I've learned to ignore it, most of the time. I can't imagine how tormenting severe late-onset tinnitus must be.

When I was shooting on paper, I used custom-fitted earplugs under the non-active muffs my PH had. When we were driving and stalking, I used nothing, with the intent of putting my earplugs in when/if a shot was required. I put my plugs in for only two of the 3 animals I shot.

If I'd had these plugs:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...eonthetri-20&linkId=6SQZPDJHX67DQGYV


... which I just recently purchased this winter and really like, I'd have kept them in whenever we were out in the bush. Wouldn't have helped with my kudu, though, as there was no time to put anything in or on my ears. It was jump out of the truck, jack a round in the chamber, and fire, then off into the bush for the follow-up stalk.