This summer I switched to Honeywell’s Howard Leight electronic earmuffs and absolutely love them. The reason is simple, my hearing is horrible – I sure wish I knew to protect my hearing when I was younger and am paying for it now. When I wear traditional earmuffs, I can’t hear anyone talk. With these, you can turn them on, set whatever amplification you want and they automatically turn off when you shoot.
These things are slick. On one had they have a noise reduction rating of 22 whether turned on or off. Additionally, there are directional microphones on each side of the earmuffs and you have a volume control to turn the amplification/gain up or down. You can get up to an 82db gain in sound and the two AAA batteries can last 350 hours with a 4 hour automatic shut off.
This means I can hear folks talk around me without needing to pull off the earmuffs. I have used these extensively this summer with 12 gauges, 9mm, .40, 10mm, .45, 5.56, 7.62×39, .308 and .338 Lapua Magnum and use them exclusively now. To be perfectly clear, I have no problems with shooting my Lapua with this Honeywell hearing protection and that rifle is a cannon.
Let me caution you on one thing – there are counterfeit copies out there. Be sure to buy from a reputable dealer. In my case, I bought from Amazon directly and not just a third party selling on Amazon. Look under “Sold By” in the listing to see who it is. If it isn’t Amazon, change the seller to either someone you know or to Amazon as the seller.
I bought a carry case to hold them and my shooting glasses that has worked out really well.
Note, because I wear prescription glasses, I wear No Cry brand “Over spec” safety glasses that fit over my glasses. They fit well and I store them in the above case also.
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