What are some good hearing protection solutions?
I never really put much thought into it until my grandpa gave me some electronic earmuffs as a gift and I realized they're actually pretty great, kind of bulky though being full sized earmuffs, are there any good earplug sized solutions that can be had for an affordable price?
Anything that maintains the sense of directional hearing so you can tell where something is around you instead of just roughly to the left or right? Minimal interference with hearing normally when no loud noises are going on, or even enhancing your ability to hear quiet thing would be neat.
I saw a Nacre QuietPro while doing a bit of research but having trouble finding anywhere that sells them other than ebay, are they good pieces of equipment?
Bump p
Electronic ear protection is the way to go. Your grandpa knows his shit.
>>30196956
>my grandpa gave me some electronic earmuffs
What a coincidence, your grandmother gave me some muff too
>>30196956
>Step 1: Get Electronic Hearing Protection
>Step 2: Get some flanges/washable multi-use earplugs like the bottom right in image (I've had a Winchester-branded pair since I started shooting)
>Step 3: Wear both at the same time and crank the volume knob on the electronic earpro
>Step 4: That's it, you're done, hearing is preserved.
I grab plugs from my work because I hate my fucking job and I'll be damned if I ever buy my own ear plugs.
>protip: I'm gettin paid to shitpost right now
I bought a crate of 'broken' (ie looted) slim profile Peltors from an ex Sgt for £5
managed to put together about 10 sets, sold them for £5 each and kept 2 for myself
this is a few weeks after buying a brand new set of exactly the same model for myself...
this is a few years after shooting with crappy foam plus and having EEEEEEEEEE for the rest of my life
better late than never I suppose
>>30198057
I know they are hiding behind a tank and all, but that grouping...
I would double up. I've used only foam earplugs at an outdoor range, and I was okay, but I would double up for safety. In an indoor range, EARPLUGS AND EARMUFFS ARE A MUST!!!! The way the sound bounces around is a lot less forgiving in an indoor range, and can really mess your hearing up. Better to be safe than wearing hearing aids at 40.
Howard Leight electronics are low profile and affordable.
Surefire EP7 are lower profile and even more affordable but semi-disposable.
There are a couple of companies that do electronic in ear hearing protection, they are very small and very expensive.
I wear a good set of silicone plugs. They aren't expensive and have very good reduction. Doubling up with muffs has never been necessary and would only reduce ~5 db more. If i were firing magnums inside I'd definitely take the muffs too.
>>30197984
YOOOOOOO
I like foam plugs for outdoor shootan, and plugs + muffs for indoors.
Bought some howard leight impact sports muffs and it doesn't seal well on my head. I'm trying to break it in.
Why don't indoor ranges put sound absorbing foam on the walls and ceiling?
>>30199745
Because some chucklefuck will shoot it and tear it up.
>>30199796
Even foam behind the shooter would help.
>>30199745
Porous materials absorb unburnt powder and other stuff, and become an intense fire hazard.
Put a little water on the rubber flange plug kind and they work amazingly well...
>>30196956
I actually just saw this pic in my OSHA 10 hour course
It's worse than defensive driving
>>30196956
Most comfiy and best performing ear pro i have ever used are 3m EAR Screws.
You twist them in. They fit great and work even better.
>>30198118
You tooo
I always shoot with silencers.
Still wear foam plugs.
And indoors always double up ( also with 338 and 50bmg)
>>30199857
>3M™ Skull Screws™
I wonder if I could get work to buy a bunch of these...
>>30199839
I never understood the deal with fires and indoor ranges, wouldn't a sprinkler system solve the problem?
>>30198057
I've heard that doubling up has shockingly little benefit
Nothing but foam earplugs works. Flanged and silicon and those others that are like putty do not expand into the whole canal. This outward pressure on the canal seals it and flanged/silicone stuff doesnt expand and seal right.
I also like non-electronic earmuffs.
Electronic earmuffs are great if you need that perfect cheekweld for rifles, need to communicate using regular talking voice/whispers/ or youre hunting stuff and need your hearing at its peak but THEY DO NOT provide nearly as much ear pro as the bulky non-electrics do.
>>30199894
>station_nightclub.jpg
>>30199906
Some sort of heat activated foaming agent embedded in the foam?
OP brought it up but nobody else has, how are the Nacre Quietpro things?
They look really neat, and work well enough for the military it seems. Are they worth getting? I'm finding them for around $150-$200 on ebay.
Can you use them without a radio and just have the electronic ear protection, or do you need to have a radio for them?
>>30199940
Look it up on YouTube, friend
>>30196956
Just use your fingers.
>>30199971
Looks interesting. Bumping for first hand experience of the Nacre Quietpro. This would seem a good choice for my first e-earpro but I am confused about what it actually does and if it can do all those things well
i remember reading here about some plugs that seal off sound when it gets above a certain decibel. anyone know what brand this is?
>>30199906
I hear great white had a killer concert
>>30200212
Surefire makes some. A lot of companies do. They are ify.
>>30199892
They cost double the standard 3M EAR branded plugs. But they work so much better. And are much more confortable.
Some of our guys like the piston style or the hard mushrooms but the screws are the best in my opinion.
In order of pref.
3M Skull screws
HL max
HL Laser
3M push in. ( great if you just need to have a plug in your ear while walking through a work area but not great for long term wear)
>>30199895
It has benefit. But not double the benefit.
The is an OSHA formula for calulating the exact benifit.
But the rule of thumb is 5-7db. In addition to the highest NRR number of the used equipment.
Which on a logrithimic scale is still significant.
With some cheap foams and e muffs it isnt an expensive or bad practice.
>like you have time to put earplugs in when dindus and redguard try to invade your domicile.
But seriously, I really like the dual layer silicone earplugs. I think they are winchester. They feel like headphones and work very well. Pretty comfortable for a day of shooting I played with my buddys sawjob and im not deaf. I was looking into smaller ear pro thats electronic. But id rather spend that $150 on ammo.
>>30200338
Not walking around with earpro in 24/7 painted to look like iphone ear buds in hopes a roodypoo starts some shit.
Will good ear protection prevent the reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee or are you just kind of fucked even if you double up?
What is the standard ear protection for military?
>>30199043
I double up with those too. i know it doesn't help all that much but it gives me piece of mind if for some reason on of my muffs didn't seal all the way.
>>30201053
yes it will
I used to walk around everywhere with foam earplugs I got on the job working at the airport. Would walk to the gym, lift, ride bike etc. It cut the noise pollution down (I live in the big city) and made me way less stressed. When I would take them off (at home)it would feel great hearing all the minutiae again. I think they made my ears more sensitive to sounds by giving them a break
>>30199894
What the other guy said plus if you used the red glass stoppers that pop when they heat up I'm sure they would brake from shooting around them
>>30196956
I hate having shit on my head, overhead earmuffs drive me nuts (as well as hard hats, head phones, hats etc) so I go with ear plugs. My favorite ones at the moment are the Hearos Screwhead. I actually got them to tone down road noise on my Harley, but they keep the noise tolerable even at my local indoor rifle range.
>>30199850
Fuck man, I had to do OSHA 30 one week, then MSHA 40 the next.
>such is life as a contractor
I go with foam earplugs.
>>30198057
>mfw I was a tanker
Fuck you, Infantry
>>30199971
>>30200197
I have them. They fit well, are very low profile, and have excellent 3D sound positioning, better than the Comtac IIIs -apparently- (I haven't owned a pair so I wouldn't know), and are all rolled into one. You don't need to buy another PTT, nor do you need a radio to use them as earpro. The bone conducting mic is fantastic as I hate boom mics in front of my face (I keep licking the wind protector for some reason), throat mics because they're uncomfy as fuck, and shoulder mounted speaker/mics because they pic up everything you don't want to be transmitted and yet nothing that you do.
HOWEVER
They have a lot of negatives.
>foam tips need to be replaces often. These are no longer sold commercially. They are like pixie dust and is a little bit of an issue if you value getting a good seal/your hearing in general.
>really quite a lot of sound through the wires, despite claiming to not happen
>limited in radio choice by both connectors and I believe (this is also from hazy memory) the radio's firmware
Last one might actually be a pro because instead of being tempted to buy something cheap and rather shit(baofeng), you'd have to go for something a bit more gucci like the Motorola XTS 3000
The main issue provided you can get your hand on an XTS 3000(difficult in the UK) is the foam tips. They're notoriously hard to get your hand on unless you're willing to spend 100quid at a time on a massive box of them, and that doesn't help when you need to find out your tip size.
IMO, buy a pair of COMTAC III's (Sordins a shit) will gel pads and be done with it.
Oh, if you buy off ebay chances are it won't come with the hand book, uploading to dropbox now
>>30207399
Dropbox was a bust, had to MEGA it
https://mega.nz/#!hAh3kZqa
>>30207399
>>30207482
UGH
https://mega.nz/#!hAh3kZqa!T85VmlYXC7-QUYND896lfO9voWUQP2crOHyCzH2tRcs
>>30207399
Alright thanks man. One thing I like the idea of using QuietPros over Comtacs is that they're super low profile earbuds looking things instead of a headset, making them easier to be inconspicuous.
>>30207848
No problem!
Yeah they'd work really well for a low profile setup, if you're doing high risk CP or in SHTF for example. the main box gets a little bulky esp with the g-code adapter, but I'm sure you can find a work around.
OH, they also have an insane NRR of 29! Mostly why I bought them
>>30207399
Thanks for the write up. About the foam tips and finding your right size.... I saw a Youtuber who said he got 3 different foam tips in varying sizes when he got his. Did you as well?
And how do these foam tips attach? Could I just skewer a aftermarket foam earplug somehow?
>>30207399
When I say skewer I mean mod it with regular foam earplugs.
>>30208482
>>30208478
No, I bought from eBay and it came with a pair of used size large's. Too big so I guessed at mediums and bought 5 pairs from a single eBay listing.
For the past 2 months I've been irregularly checking eBay for some more and have yet to find another listing so I only have the 5 pairs. Seeing as I'm going away for 6 months shooting innadesert, this could be an issue lol.
As for the modding, I'm afraid that's not possible either. They're specially designed to transmit sound both ways through tubey things. See pic and handbook
>>30198118
Here's to shitposting at work.
