I wear hearing protection when shooting at a rifle range or even sighting in at a make-shift farm range. I don't wear hearing protection when hunting. My hunting rifles are not that loud when compared to others.
Surroundings........If you shoot across the bed of a pickup, you really need earplugs due to the sound bouncing off of the rear window.
Won't hunt without them. Tinnitus never stops.
By the numbers, 7 doesn't sound like much. But based on experience and a bit of dabbling in sound testing at work, you have to understand that the NRR values are weighted, and based on a broad spectrum sound measurement. These play fair with everyone else by providing a NRR rating. From 20Hz to 20,000Hz, the overall reduction may only be 7, but in the range that matters as pertains to a muzzle blast, they work pretty darn good! I'm not playing favoritism... just think you might be surprised. I was.
FrankenMauser: Speaking of which...
Where can I find the standards and procedures for establishing the NPR rating?
I was trying to find some information last week, but couldn't find anything online.
RangerHAAF said:No, I don't wear them when hunting; one or two shots don't bother me plus there's a bill currently in the GA legislature to allow people to use suppressors/silencers due to hearing loss considerations. The bill passed out of the house committee on Friday and passage in the senate looks good.