Hearing protection

[jimcon]

I am looking for the best method for hearing protection when firing a shotgun. I always wear in-canal hearing aids and electronic ear muffs. When mounting the shotgun I almost always bump the ear muffs and sometimes manage to dislodge them. I know that there are electronic hearing aids and that there are in-canal electronic hearing protection. My question is whether any has combined the two features. That is a electronic hearing aid with the noise cut off feature the is in an electronic ear muff.
Thanks or any ideas.

 

[riverdog]

Try http://www.etymotic.com/ $12 for the ERR-20.

 

[Dave McCracken]

I use standard plugs n muffs myself, but my hearing is close to a lost cause anyhow.

The Peltors get high marks from the cognescienti hereabouts.

At major clay shoots there's oft vendors who do custom hearing protection stuff. You may find one who'll make you a valved plug to wear with the powered Peltors.

HTH...

 

[TechBrute]

www.earinc.com has electronic earplugs.

 

[Bruce626]

jimcon,

My daily wear is a pair of Widex digital electronic hearing aids which do have some loudness damping capabilities... they are designed to suppress the sudden roar of a nearby construction vehicle, but NOT the nearby impulse noise discharge of a 12 ga.

When shooting, I use Tac 6's which DO dampen the sudden impulse noise of a shotgun discharge. They also amplify speech so I can hear range commands.

The Tac 6's do not have fully enough noise suppression to be sufficient on their own for normal people. But the combo of the noise suppression capabilities of my hearing aids plus the Tac 6 seems to be enough at outdoor ranges... and maybe enough at indoor ranges unless some yoyo is shooting a Desert Eagle in the next lane.

I personally like the ability to leave my hearing aids in place and just add the Tac 6 muffs... sort of looks normal.

Hunting and such is not what I do, so maybe you need something like the Walker Game Ear to hear bambi walking on moss... different uses mean different solutions.

Hope this helps a bit.