Electronic muffs not cutting out fast enough?

[Norther]

I was wondering if anyone else has run into this. I did a quick search and didn't find anything.

We have an increasing number of Open shooters and we're shooting indoors right now. I bought a set of the Howard Leight electronic muffs, turn the volume all the way up and wear them over my plugs. Now I can hear conversation but the shooting is quiet and comfortable. No problems except...

The ringing in my ears seems to be getting louder. Could it be possible the first millisecond of blast is amplified before it cuts out, and I don't notice while it's happening?

I don't really want to spend lots of money on better electronics but my ears are worth it. Plugs alone aren't good enough and plugs and conventional muffs make hearing range commands impossible.

Thoughts?

[rishii]

I've got a pair of those and they well suck, with the volume turned up, they are just too damned loud, and don't appear reduce the noise much. I've used pro ears, dillon & peltor electric muff and none of them had this problem

Ether spend the money to get a good pair of electric muffs, I used the pector tac pros and love them, or get a good regular muffs,

Just be sure the NRR rating is at least 25 or higher

One warning on the pro ears, if you can try on a pair before you buy one, myself and a few other shooters I know had problems with them not sealing behind the ear, where the skull meets the jaw bone.

Your right your ears are worth it, right now may ears are ringing due to tinnitus, caused by using inadequate hearing protection.

[gng4life]

Please either double plug or get better hearing protection. After running a good quality set for a while (shooting Open), I started noticing my ears ringing. Thought it was a cold, waited a while and never went away. Went to an ENT and that's when they told me I had some slight hearing loss and Tinnitus. THEN I looked into my current hearing protection and found out the NRR was only 21. Crap, just because you pay a lot of money doesn't mean they will be high noise reduction. And I'm not saying this is this only reason that it happened but seemed like a real strange coincidence that this started after shooting Open for a year and I started noticing the ringing after every match and just ignored it.

Now, I have the Pro-Ears with the NRR of 33 and I can really tell a difference with the noise suppression and how I feel after matches and practice sessions. Like it was mentioned above, make sure they fit you well.

Tinnitus is cumulative and will never get better so prevention is the key. There is very lengthy discussion on BENOS about Tinnitus so it may be well worth the read...

[Ssanders224]

There are VERY few models of ear muffs that I would consider wearing alone (without plugs) while participating in our sport.

They just do not offer enough protection for the type of noise we experience during a match.

I wear a pair of molded plugs, and a pair of pro ears golds on top. With the pro ears turned all the way up, I can communicate normaly, but I'm also getting tons of protection.

You dont get a second chance with your hearing....

Edited March 11, 2013 by Ssanders224

[Norther]

Guys, if you read the OP carefully you will see that I DO wear plugs under the muffs.

Thanks for the input, I think I will likely end up buyng better electronics.

[ChuckS]

The cheaper hearing protection will either reduce the gain or shut off in response to a noise impulse. Better devices have limiters where the sound is limited to a maximum sound pressure level so the noise impulse does not get through. Get good muffs and keep double plugging.