From years of Construction my hearing isn’t the greatest ( hard to wear protection and communicate with employees ) Now a days I wear ear and eye protection when ever I see fit. Shooting was always a must, but I’m amazed how many people run weed eaters and back pack blowers no protection Ears / Eyes
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Yes that was sarcasm.
Almost a free state you get everything but machine guns and short barrel shotguns. Oh I see what you mean, two years ago big restrictions on magazines and semi-auto’s
one of the few criticisms I have about the series.
I am about 50/50 when I offer. Yes I also double up. I also find myself using the muffs when mowing the lawn too. The ringing will never go away because I was young and dumb too. Most of the younger generations are most of the time smart enough to learn from us old GenXers.
That’s a sharp looking Mark 4 
My kids have learned from me about protecting their hearing. They always double up when shooting, and cover their ears when there are approaching sirens from police cars, fire engines, etc.
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Back to OP.
It’s really hard I think for folks who do not have Tinnitus to have an idea of what it sounds like or is to live with.
Those who do have it know exactly what it is.
Now throw in some high blood pressure and the volume just goes UP.
Finally got BP under control few years ago and it is much better, but never goes away.
Construction work, Concerts, Headphones and Dirt bikes was the real damage for me.
Some gunfire too but not regular activity.
Peace out.
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For those who double plug, I was looking at the Surefire and wondering how they are or if they take Etymotic tips.
Any comments about the surefire or something other than the squishy ones? I’ve been rocking Etymotic headphones for a long time and have the “concert” ones. They actually backed their stuff with testing, which most of the other triple flange type don’t see to include.
Hi everyone, please avoid expressing facts and/or opinions about the controversial aspects of this topic.
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Exactly
This I did not know so now I will have to look into it. Thanks for the info.
Surefire is a name brand that has a lot of people that recognize it. I am not so sure they are the best. Personally unless I see a lot more people using them and they start testing a lot better than they do. I will keep them in the category of nice but over priced. Like many of the lights they produce.
As I tell people, get the best you can afford.
Or if you can not afford anything better, something along the lines of the one I linked above and a set of foamies under it. Most foamies are in the 26-29DB reduction and adding a buffering of lowering it a bit from the outer muffs a bit more just helps.
I am not sure if they ever did a study of what the effects are of stacking ear pro or not.
Edit
Fun fact I find myself wearing my electronic ears when mowing the lawn and firing up the weed whacker too. Ridding my Motorcycle I just wear some foamies to reduce wind noise.
Perhaps you’re referring to something different as ear muffs than I am used to, but what hearing protector manufacturers refer to as ear muffs are effective sound protection. Usually the rated sound reduction level is not quite as high as ear plugs, but ear muffs are far closer in performance to ear plugs than to no protection (eg - ~25 dB for muffs vs ~30 dB for plugs).
On the other hand, plugs do rely on being properly inserted to achieve the rated performance based on laboratory tests, and I suspect the average real world performance of plugs is similar to or perhaps slightly worse than muffs.
Of course, muffs plus plugs gives the maximum level of protection.
I’ve seen some discussion in research papers of very high intensity, impulse noises attenuating differently than the much lower intensity, continuous noise used to determine hearing protection ratings. I’m curious if that also affects overall protection level, although I haven’t seen any tests on this.
I will admit, sometimes one has to be attentive to recognize loud noise situations pre-emptively. A a couple months ago at work, we had a small compressed air line come loose. I didn’t think much about it because it was small, although I’m aware that compressed air can be loud enough to be a hearing risk. It was only after I finished that I reflected on just how loud it was, and realized I should have taken the time to go grab a pair of plugs.
I didn’t notice any ringing at the time, but I did when I went to bed and it was quiet, and it continued for another day or two. I definitely kicked myself over that.
OK, went down a slight rabbit hole here.
Plenty of calculators out there - here’s one. Suggests that 32dB + 23dB = 33.4dB. Given the nonlinear nature of the scale this makes a certain intuitive sense - every 3dB represents a doubling of sound energy. But I’ve no explicit grasp of the math and the reality may differ from simple addition.
Another source suggests stacking two different methods is more effective : 29 + 27 = 34 … while the calculator suggests 31.1. But they do point to OSHA for a +5 to the higher NRR.
So looking into the OSHA Technical Manual Section III, Appendix F:
So a basic rule of thumb looks to be to add 5 dB to the higher NRR for stacked hearing protection. Given that plugs + muffs work on different perimeters whose combined approach nears practical limits for sound reduction by isolating the outer ear, this intuits reasonably well as there are other avenues for sound to reach the eardrum such as bone conduction.
Yeah, an objectively-rated dB reduction is a reduction no matter how you slice it.
Audio equipment is one of my other hobbies and I try to take care of my ears after a lot of loud shows in the old days. I double up but the Etymotic ones occasionally come off in my ear and are kind of a pain so I was looking at other styles of triple flange types. I will into some more some other options to wear under some Howard Leight muffs.
I believe it follows exponential decay, same as the inverse square law of light.
Not to be That Guy™, but all you need for the link is
ht tps://www.amazon.com/dp/B01AAH8CRU/
for the earmuffs. 
(yeah, deliberately split the ht+tps)
Just for s&g, ages ago I got myself a set of OSHA-rated earmuffs for some reason, forgot. Maybe construction racket going on outside, something like that.
They fit nicely, didn’t pinch my ears or make them sweat too much, etc. I think I know more or less where they are, but…
I haven’t been to a range in a looong time. Was fun plinking with the .22, but even with foamies, a hot .30-06 blasting away right next to me was just too much.
Noise-cancelling earmuffs only really work passably with repetitive noise, and irregular/sudden noise literally just “surprises” the circuitry, and most passes right through.
That said, the range could, if they wanted to, mandate bare minimum ear-protection, and claim liability issues. “Hey, if you go deaf because of your own stoopitity, we don’t want to get sued.” Signed waivers would be a good idea, too, as there’s nothing stopping fools from pulling out the mandated-minimum foamies once they get dug in.
I got hearing like a bat… and want to keep it that way.
Now picture that scene in T2 where they’re blasting away a 12ga inside an enclosed elevator when The Terminator starts stabbing down through the ceiling.
How they weren’t permanently deafened with the first blast is beyond me.
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And a glauncher thunk isn’t exactly quiet either…