Hunting Hearing Protection

[GJeffB]

I did a cursory search, but didn't really find a relevant answer.

I want to get the grandkids (12-16yo) into small game hunting to the extent they want to try. Squirrels predominantly so we're talking .22LR with a Ruger 10/22. Background, I'm a seasoned citizen with hearing well damaged from the old days of inadequate protection. I don't want that to be handed down Part of that damage is from hunting with large and small bores uh, without protection. After all, it's only a few shots, right?

Q: mostly small game, occasional varmint, unsupressed .22lr, afore mentioned 10/22, what would be a useful choice between full earmuffs (minimal game awareness even with electronics?) and nothing (full game location) or what in between?

-jb, tired of saying "huh?"

 

[troy fairweather]

With a 22 earplugs will do.

 

[westernrover]

Walker's Game Ear Razor Slim Compact for Youth and Women Electronic Hearing Protection Muff with Sound Amplification and Suppression.

Muffs are better than plugs for kids because plugs are difficult for kids to install correctly and it's difficult and time consuming to install them in someone else's ears. Kid's ear canals can be smaller and if you do use plugs, you'll want ones that fit. I like Mack's Slim ear plugs for (some) kids. They'll work great for a 12 yo. For a 16 yo, full size might fit fine. I like the soft full size ones for myself. Even so, plugs don't let kids hear conversation at a normal level. Electronic muffs do.

Electronic muffs protect hearing the same way that passive muffs do. The outer shell deflects sound waves around the ear and the internal foam absorbs some of the sound that penetrates. What the electronics do is they pickup sound like speech outside the muffs with a microphone (a small condenser mic on the ear shell), and the sound is reproduced on a small speaker (headphone) inside the ear muff. The audio circuit has a limiter so that very loud sounds are compressed or clipped and the headphone speaker doesn't reproduce the sound of the gun so loud that it would damage hearing. The result is the wearer can hear normal speech, but gun fire is attenuated. The electronic muffs do not do "noise canceling." That's where sound waves with an opposite phase to the noise are generated to cancel the sound wave. That tech can work to a certain degree, but has not in any practical form proven to be sufficient by itself to suppress gunfire to a safe level. It is commonly used in aviation helmets but not in shooting sports.

The "slim" muffs aren't too thick to mount a rifle or shotgun but they won't have a high enough Noise Reduction Rating (NRR) for an indoor range or a loud gun (magnum handguns and centerfire rifles etc). For indoor ranges and loud guns outdoors, you'll want to wear ear plugs under the muffs. The plugs will provide sufficient NRR while the electronic muffs will continue to amplify speech to be heard through the muffs. The "compact" muffs will fit youth like your 12-16 yo as well as adults, but probably won't fit somebody like a 7 year old.

Check out this post for more info about hunting with electronic muffs: https://www.thehighroad.org/index.p...-with-sound-enhancement.897576/#post-12114092

 

[JDeere]

Foam plugs on a rope I call them. I leave them around my neck and put them in when needed. You can buy a box of them and if you lose one no big deal...