Hi All,
I apologize in advance for going into a bit of a rant, but I must vent my anger over what happened to me today at the shooting range.
I started looking some time ago for an alternative to simple earplugs. I mostly shoot rifles and normal earmuffs are too bulky so I have been using earplugs, but those are a pain to remove and place back in when having a conversation, etc. So I found the SureFire earpro which is a line of ergonomic earplugs that offer a very high NRR and they have a little stopper at the end that you can open when talking with someone and close when you are shooting without removing the earplugs. I started using a set of earpro ep7-s which uses a memory foam insert for the part that's going into your ear canal. Well, today at the range when I wanted to remove the right earplug, the foam insert separated from the stem and became lodged in my ear. Also, because it has a hole in the middle to allow communication devices to be attached to the earplug, the insert lodged in my ear focused every sound and directed it right into my ear. Even pistol shots taken 50 yards away from me were painful. I promptly packed up and left, and removed the insert at home with a set of needle nose tweezers.
Now I have permanent hearing loss in my right ear, accompanied with heavy tinnitus that is most likely going to stay with me for the rest of my life, all because of SureFire not making a reliable product. I can't even begin to describe how I feel about loosing some of my hearing. If I was located in the US I would probably bring a lawsuit against SureFire because of the hearing damage I suffered but since I'm in Europe, I'll just have to learn to live with it I guess. One lesson I learned though; I will never-ever purchase anything from this company again and I will tell everyone I know to stay clear.
Thanks for reading this and I apologize for the length. If you happen to use SureFire earplugs, please take this as a heads up to be extra careful.
Regards,
Tom
I apologize in advance for going into a bit of a rant, but I must vent my anger over what happened to me today at the shooting range.
I started looking some time ago for an alternative to simple earplugs. I mostly shoot rifles and normal earmuffs are too bulky so I have been using earplugs, but those are a pain to remove and place back in when having a conversation, etc. So I found the SureFire earpro which is a line of ergonomic earplugs that offer a very high NRR and they have a little stopper at the end that you can open when talking with someone and close when you are shooting without removing the earplugs. I started using a set of earpro ep7-s which uses a memory foam insert for the part that's going into your ear canal. Well, today at the range when I wanted to remove the right earplug, the foam insert separated from the stem and became lodged in my ear. Also, because it has a hole in the middle to allow communication devices to be attached to the earplug, the insert lodged in my ear focused every sound and directed it right into my ear. Even pistol shots taken 50 yards away from me were painful. I promptly packed up and left, and removed the insert at home with a set of needle nose tweezers.
Now I have permanent hearing loss in my right ear, accompanied with heavy tinnitus that is most likely going to stay with me for the rest of my life, all because of SureFire not making a reliable product. I can't even begin to describe how I feel about loosing some of my hearing. If I was located in the US I would probably bring a lawsuit against SureFire because of the hearing damage I suffered but since I'm in Europe, I'll just have to learn to live with it I guess. One lesson I learned though; I will never-ever purchase anything from this company again and I will tell everyone I know to stay clear.
Thanks for reading this and I apologize for the length. If you happen to use SureFire earplugs, please take this as a heads up to be extra careful.
Regards,
Tom