I hunted
My son hunted with those compacts. I wore a bigger set with more NRR that I use for handgun (too wide to mount a rifle). Beware that the slim and compact ear muffs are suitable for hunting without ear plugs, but not the range unless you also wear earplugs underneath. What we do on the range is wear earplugs and then the muffs with the volume cranked up. The plugs provide most of the protection, but the muffs amplify speech enough to communicate better. We use a range to ourselves, but at a busy range or any indoor range, doubling-up would be absolutely essential.
If you're out hunting and shoot once or twice, the muffs alone are likely to be sufficient. A muzzle brake can definitely direct more sound toward the shooter's ears and so can the terrain by reflecting sound back at the shooter. Othertimes, the terrain and even wind can take most of the sound away.
Hearing loss is cumulative. Analogy: In the cochlea are little hairs that wave in a fluid like seaweed or reeds in the water. When a sound wave comes along (transmitted by the bones coupled to the eardrum), the hairs get pushed by the wave and if the wave is not too big, they settle back. If the wave is too forceful, the reed-like hairs get smashed down and they stay down. Additional sound waves of sufficient magnitude will smash down more and more. In many cases, the hearing loss will be temporary and the hairs will return to a functional position after some time. Repeatedly smashing them down is going to make the damage worse and worse and less likely to be recovered from. If the damage to the hairs in the organ of Corti is severe enough they can fail to regain function. These hair cells are where the actual auditory receptors are - where acoustic/mechanical motion is transduced into an electrical signal in the nervous system. They normally work to synapse with bipolar spiral ganglion neurons so that afferent nerve impulses are sent back to the brain via the cochlear nerve. It is typical that severe noise induces damage in areas sensitive to certain frequencies before others. 4000 Hertz is typically the first to incur damage. Cochlear damage is not the only noise-induced injuries that occur. There are also perforations of the tympanic membrane (the ear drum). Those will definitely cause temporary hearing loss.
So hunting with electronic muffs -- most of them only have a single mic and even ones with multiple or stereophonic microphones don't necessarily give us a good sense of directional sound. Hunt without the headset on your head until a shot becomes imminent, but give yourself plenty of time to focus on the rifle and safety in use of the firearm without having to mess with the headset under pressure. Of course it's also fine to carry the headset on your head if you're just walking back and forth from the truck and directional sound isn't important at that moment. Also be aware of where your mic is and where your hunting partner's mic is. You can stay quieter if you talk into one another's mic's instead of on the wrong side of their head. You can also flip the mic to the opposite ear by turning the headset around if there is any difficulty is moving to the other side.
If I am hunting alone, there is a good chance I will just use ear plugs. A good case for muffs though is they keep your ears warm much better than plugs. Without a doubt, hearing provides useful information in a hunt, but it can be done without the kind of sensitivity than unprotected ears provide. I'm not going to cease to function in a hunt because I'm wearing plugs, but a major life function will cease if I lose my hearing. For me, the electronic muffs primarily facilitate communication with a kid or someone inexperienced. If you have a lot of experience between your partner and you, you probably don't need to talk much.
I have been faked out with electronic muffs. One time I was staked-out with the boy in some bushes overlooking a canyon where I knew deer would pass over the ridge just after sunrise because they were doing it every day at the same time for many days. I heard a fawn bleat, but obviously couldn't tell where it had come from so I looked all around. I didn't see any deer. I settled down and continued to scan but began to check my 6 o'clock/180 less frequently. That's where they passed, at least a half dozen according to the guy that stayed in the truck and had a view. At least we didn't miss a buck. We do have 2m radios, but don't use them for hunting per se (to gain advantage on the game) so we don't have earphones. I suppose I could just plug them into the electronic muffs that have a jack, but I haven't done that.