What's Better than Double Ear Protection

D

Dave1911

New member
I shoot by hand guns at a 25 yard indoor range a few times a month. I always were double ear protection inside which consists of foam plugs under the traditional ear muffs. Even with the double protection AR15s and AK47s shooting near by sound very loud. All of a sudden I have had tinnitus get pretty severe. I am trying to figure out if it is shooting related or something else. Am I kidding myself by thinking that double ear protection is fine for an indoor range?
 
Not all ear protection is created equal, look at the DB rating for the ear protection you have. Molded ear plugs will protect your ears better than foam, and the pricier muffs will protect better than the cheap $10-$15 ones.

I also have tinnitus which I got from noise exposure, and I double up whether I am shooting indoors or outdoors. Noise isn't the only thing that can make your tinnitus temporarily worse. Some things that can temporarily increase the intensity of your tinnitus are stress, fatigue, and a high fat or sodium diet. If you find your tinnitus really bothering you try playing some white noise to help block it out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCnCMHNyny8

This literally masks my tinnitus completely, you can also try gray, pink, blue or brown noise to find which frequency helps mask the tinnitus. Pre-recorded rain or crickets chirping work great too. I have a free app on my iphone called White Noise which has them all and works great.
 
Open spaces are better than walled in shooting lanes.

Distance from louder firearms would also help if you can find a more isolated lane.

A set of mold in the ear plugs may do better than the disposable plugs. A pair of high quality muffs over that might do it. Dragline is right, its all in the dB ratings.
 
I would recommend trying a few different sets of the earplugs. Different manufacturers expand and feel/fit very different from each other in my experience. It may affect how you wear them and in turn how effective they are. For example I like the orange Max1 plugs. The yellow cylindrical foam ones hurt me like crazy.
 
When you combine DB ratings, its not as simple as adding them. 32+22 (plugs and muffs) is like 38 or 40 or something like that. That's about as good as it gets. Yours skull transmits noise. So does your mouth. Even if you theoretically prevented all noise from entering your ear canal, you would still hear noise because it would go through your bones and skin.

Common problem with plugs is not properly inserting them. About 80% of the plug should go in your ear. some people just put the tips in and that's not good enough. Common problems with muffs is wearing things like eye pro that lets noise in. Try to get eye pro with slender ear pieces to prevent the muffs from separating from your face. ESS makes frames specifically for this purpose.

With that said, muffs and earplugs is about as good as it gets. The best you can have is custom plugs and high quality muffs. However, cheap 32 DB plugs and 22 DB muffs are sufficient for hearing protection.



Considering that some people don't wear any at all, you are ahead of the game and if you wear double protection, you have a slim chance of causing permanent damage.
 
Also be sure you're inserting foam plugs correctly. Roll them in your fingers until they're skinny, insert them into your ear as far as you can, and hold them until they expand again. You can't just jam the things in there and expect them to work.

As an aside - you can't trust kids to do this properly either. If you're taking a young person shooting with you, put their ear plugs in for them to make sure they're in there correctly.
 
Have used "duoble-up" ear protection since the 80's..

It has helped me delay and minimize my tinnitus.

Did start working as a millwright/machinist and that didnot help as sometimes I had to work with the iron workers.

Still have a pair of "Willson Sound Barriers" behind the head that I use around the house.

And have a set of Dave Clark 310's the "Cherry bombs that I need to redo with new innards and seals, as that what I use when shooting and the foam plugs.

The best protection does not attain the 100% effectiveness due to wearing glasses but I'm satisfied with results.
 
From my research, the maximum protection you can get for your hearing in terms of NRR is calculated as follows. If you use ear plugs and headphones as I do, take the highest NRR rating of either (in my case 37 for the headphones), then, no matter what your other hearing protection (foam expanding plugs in my case), add 5 to the overall NRR rating. That is assuming the weaker of the two used is at least 5 NRR. So, my total rating is 37 for the headphones, the foam expanding plugs are 32 but I only add 5 for a total of 42 NRR. I use shooting glasses which are goggles with an elastic strap which goes around the headphones and therefore doesn't break the seal around your ear. I tried my regular shooting glasses and it does make a difference.

If your ears are ringing after shooting, assuming you have good protection that isnt good. As a hearing aid wearer of 15 years (started at age 33) it's something I researched a good bit before shooting much. Since you're having ringing in your ears i'd get them checked and review what you're using for protection.
 
Thanks for replies. My ears do not ring when done. I have a cheap set of 26 dB muffs and go double. But I am really sensitive to the center fire rifles near by. I see a set of Caldwell range muffs rated at 33 dB. I may give those a shot. I am trying to convince myself that the tinnitus is not shooting induced.
 
I recently experienced temporary hearing loss in my left ear and a noticeable hiss, kind of like when you listen to a sea shell. Turned out to be sinus related and cleared up after taking decongestants for a couple of days. See your md or an ENT. Hope yours is nothing serious.
 
Really good hearing protection is not inexpensive. Foam plugs are okay, but they're not even close to a set of custom molded earplugs.

I use a pair of EarInc acoustic filtered earplugs and earmuffs at indoor ranges.

The earplugs are much better than the foam plugs because they are molded to fit the outer ear canal area as well as the inner ear canal, and block sounds from being conducted through the outer ear canal area to the inner ear.

Once you use custom molded earplugs, you will wonder why you ever used foam plugs - the custom earplugs are much more effective in noise attenuation.
 
you can not add noise reduction value numbers because it is a geometric scale. 31 twice as much reduction as 30. 32 is twice as much reduction as 31.
I have tinnitus in my left ear so I understand. Mine was caused by too many miles driving with the window down and the noise damaged my ear. As I have gotten older, the ear just did not recover any more.
that said. The fairly low cost solution that really works is fitted ear plugs. They do work WAY better than foamies .
The top of the line really excellent solution, even if you do not have hearing loss, are these from SportEar.

http://sportear.com/
There are several videos on the web page that will give you a lot of great information.
I have the top of the line pair, custom fitted, 4 mode. The 4 modes give me regular every day listening, to enhance hearing for hunting (mode 3) to really excellent noise reduction (mode 4) The noise reduction mode allows for good hearing for conversation, like quality electronic muffs, and cuts off all noise above a comfortable level. and it does it very well.
they do have single mode versions for far less than my 4 mode that are mainly for noise reduction and shooting. Still expensive compared to just molded plugs but they let you hear conversation between loud bangs and they do a VERY good job of noise reduction, even indoor riffle bang. You will feel the thud more than you hear it.
I use them for shooting and also around work when running noisy machinery (chipper machine, back hoe, and the like)
It took a fair bit of arguing with myself to bite the bullet and spend the $ but I am VERY glad I did. Final logic, I spend good money on a quality gun (H&K), I spend over $100 for a flashlight (Streamlight) that I carry on duty because it is worth every penny. Saving my hearing is every bit as worth it as those two things so, take a look at the web sight, check it out. I can not recommend them highly enough.
 
Mitchum, what muffs do you have that are rated at 37? The best I have found are Pro Ear muffs at 33NRR that I have had for several years.
 
Well I went ahead an bought myself two new pair of ear muffs. I did not get to go this weekend but will compare the performance of the following "budget" ear muffs next time I get to the range.

1) Caldwell Range Muff (Passives) rated at 33 NRR

2) Caldwell EMax Electronic Muff rated at 25 NRR

3) My old Radians Competitor Earmuff rated at 26 NRR

As I was looking at the detailed specs on the two new Caldwell muffs, I see that they break it down further by frequency. The NRR is a composite rating. And while the EMax NRR is less than the Range Muff, the lower frequency blocking on the EMax is better. So at the risk of sounding repetitive, I hope of these new muffs will help block that huge boom that comes from the AR15 and AK47s shooting indoors.
 
How does wearing dual hearing protectors change NRR?

When hearing protectors are worn in combination (i.e. earplugs AND earmuffs), rather than adding the two NRR numbers together, you simply add five more decibels of protection to the device with the higher NRR. For example, using 3M™ E-A-R™ Classic Earplugs (NRR 29) with 3M™ Peltor™ H7 Deluxe Earmuffs (NRR 27) would provide a Noise Reduction Rating of approximately 34 decibels.
Click to expand...

http://www.coopersafety.com/noisereduction.aspx
 
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