ears ringing, need something better Surefire EP's ?

[HDoc]

HDoc gave me a pair of "Skull Screws" that are better than anything else I've tried. You do actually screw them into your ears and you can hear ambient sound die away as you do. A pair of muffs over that and you won't be affected by the noise.

Skull screws are very good, any soft foam earplugs under regular earmuffs (at least 28 NRR rated) will give you maximal protection. Forget hearing what's going on around you, that quest will lead to your eventual hearing loss.
Gun ranges, and especially indoor reverberant rooms, are cochlear hair cell death traps. You can choose either protection or hearing loss. Eventually
shooting and hunting will catch up with you.
You don't need fancy electronic stuff at the range (hunting is different) wear for comfort. That ringing in your ears is your body telling you that injury has occurred and as noted by a previous poster, its slowly cumulative.

[OldLincoln]

I sure wish the USAF had better muffs 50 years ago, and yes I always wore mine. I'll never regret serving but I do miss hearing without the constant roaring in my ears. If you don't have the ringing yet protect your ears and you just may still be able to hear years from now. If you do have the ringing, protect what you have left. Some here can't talk on the phone and read subtitles when watching TV. Don't join that club.

[Planedude]

I'll second on the price in life for living around jets (say what??). I was lucky enough to usally wear my heraring protection when I was a young mechanic.
I called them BS filters back then...
I guess I should find those old bosses and thank them for being such arsewholes?
The molded plugs you will find being made at most gunshows work the best. Add a set of muffs and you will know what it sounds like in outer space. I almost always shoot on a outdoor range or at my Trap and Skeet club. I find the electronics work best for me outside. Skeet is such a social sport and the jaw jacking is half the fun...

Peace out and take care for your hearing.

[jocko]

I can assure u guysmy age back 50+ years agowould not be caught dead with hearing protectors, when I swent through basic we trianed with M1 and there was no hearing protectors or nuttin. It was a macho thing--so wethouhgt but today my hearing is allbut shot in the ass. not only because of guns but I worked around loud products for 40 years, Wejust didn't know better back thenb and hearing protectors like we have today were few and far between.It should be a must for every shooter and I don't mean those rubber ass plugs either. Nobody today is gonna laugh at u. Course the one thing that onemisses is the report of a 9mm, or 40 or any caliber to. There is as u know a hell of a difference. Ican't imagine a 40 cal going off in the home. Just sayin

Ur right o the skeet shooting thing though. Thatis why I love to shoot skeept. The comradrie is super andI usually crack one ear side to verbalize and I as most do are back 15 feetatleast from the shooter, so it ain't bad.

[Barth]

Course the one thing that onemisses is the report of a 9mm, or 40 or any caliber to. There is as u know a hell of a difference. Ican't imagine a 40 cal going off in the home. Just sayin

I've shot a 155 gr 1150 fps 40 in a home with no hearing protection.
It sounded suppressed under the influence of adrenalin.

At the range protect your hearing at all times.
Once gone it really can't easily be replaced.

For SD? Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

[HDoc]

I have these and the quality is surprisingly good. They are comfortable too, and they were only $45 at Amazon.com
http://www.howardleight.com/ear-muffs/impact-sport

Bad passive noise reduction on these (NRR 22). Howard Leight is an excellent company, but these are crappy for a range.

I have never bought from this company before, but they have a ton of choices and information...
http://www.earplugstore.com/hunting-...ear-plugs.html

Sometimes the foam ones you need to roll up can be hard to fit... they do have them in smaller sizes for smaller ears, so get ones that fit well and they will work better. I prefer reusable ones made from silicone (instead of foam), the ones that look like little trees. .

Silicone is fine, I prefer them too, but research has shown that people use undersized silicone plugs for comfort which limits their effectiveness. If you were fit in the military you probably remember the color sizes: green-small;orange-medium; large- blue. There is no such thing as a good universal fit silicone plug. If you like the feel of them ask your wife/friend to look at them in your ear. If they aren't inserted so that the last flange is resting at the end of the ear canal, they are mis-fit and are not providing the rated protection.
My personal choice for a range is any expanding foam plug under a simple passive muff.

[HDoc]

The thing to remember about sound reduction is that -29dB and -29dB for muff and plugs can only give you at best -32dB total protection in a perfect situation. each 3 dB=2x... protection =2 raised to the power of dB/3. So -30dB should be 2 raised to the 30/3, or 10th power of 2 which is 1,024. Or a reduction to 1/1000 of the sound... supposedly... in a perfect simulation.
Wynn

Correct physics, but the dB on hearing protection is NRR, noise reduction rating and is derived from a non-logarithmic formula. They are not "pure" decibels.
Depending on which version of the NRR used on the product 29 plus 29 dB NRR can equal considerably more than 32 dB. On the other hand most folks in the know derate the published NRR by about half for real world results.
And of course on the other hand impulse noise from gun fire does not act on the ear the way that steady state noise does and my belief is that if you damp the shock impulse, you've provided some effective protection.
So a good seal on your ears will mitigate most gunfire.
I lived this stuff for thirty plus years, so pardon my nit-pickyness.

[wyntrout]

No problem! I used to do a lot of ham radio "stuff' and we used dB ratings for radio signal strength, as in antenna gain in calculating Effective Radiated Power against an imaginary perfect quarter-wave or half-wave antenna standard.

The type of sound impulse is a big factor, too. Shotgun vs. pistol vs. rifle fire and then there are aircraft noises. We had lots of noisy stuff to worry about... and apparently I didn't do enough to protect my ears. When I first went through Basic Training for the USAF back in the Summer of 1964, we had NO ear protection for the firing range! THAT was quite a shock!

I was mainly trying to point out that -29dB + -29dB didn't equal -58dB in NRR.

Wynn

[jocko]

heh u guys let me know when u come down to earth with this technical stuff, Then I will start reading again. Just sayin and ur gonna have to speak LOUDER to..

[Tinman507]

the bangs the gun thingie make are injuring his hearing.

[jocko]

thanksu tinman for interceding for me...Just sayin

[Tinman507]

[HDoc]

No problem! When I first went through Basic Training for the USAF back in the Summer of 1964, we had NO ear protection for the firing range!
Wynn

WHAT?!? The Air Force had guns????

[wyntrout]

Sure! For many Basic Training is the only time they see and handle any kind of firearms. I had to qualify with the M1 carbine when I enlisted. I carried a S&W .38 on courier runs on Okinawa. Our crewmembers SSGT and above were issued .38's for flights, and after I made SSGT, I was issued one(S&W M18, I believe, with adjustable sights) before I went to Danang just the day before the first Tet Offensive. Most USAF personnel had no weapons there. I wound up with an M16(and 7 20-round mags) as well, that my Project Officer signed out and brought me that Tet evening. We lived in "MASH" type tent city on the S.E. edge of the base with two chainlink fences between us and whatever. I saw plenty of whatever early the next morning and day!

When I went back into the USAF after college I had to qualify with the various S&W revolvers we carried when flying and later in the command post in Europe. We had .38's when I got there and then had to qualify with the 870 Remington as well for the command posts.

I remember talking to some of the enlisted controllers... female... and at least one thought she was ready for combat after shooting at a paper target a few times!

I read recently that the Air Force was talking about more intensive weapon training for recruits. It's nuts that some whacko can get on base and nobody is armed... like the incident at Fort Hood, let alone in hostile countries, on in a combat zone!

Wynn

[joshh]

hey guys, thanks for the input but muffs are becoming useless because for whatever reason they dont seal well when i am shooting rifles. i have tried a couple types amd am sick of wasting the $ to be disappointed. the foamies dont provide enough protection under the low roof of the range i have been shooting at. i understand that my hearing should be (and is) my priority, but i am hoping that something like these shurefire's would do the trick while still allowing me some type of awareness to whats going on around the range when its crowded. that said, i am open to suggestions on that type of product if anyone is having luck with it...