Shooting, Hunting, and Electronic Earmuffs

Massad Ayoob, in an article ("Finding Out What Your Customers Want") for Shooting Industry Magazine, shared feedback from a gun store operator that regularly recommends pistol caliber carbines (PCCs) to his customers for home self-defense. At the end of the letter, the store owner added: "And, while we’re on the topic, we like to recommend a set of electronic muffs to keep near the home-defense carbine."

    This prompted Ayoob to relate some experiences and advice concerning the advantages of using electronic hearing protection for gun instructors, hunters, and for self-defense. What it comes down to is not only can electronic earmuffs allow you to hear comments or sounds while wearing them that you would otherwise miss wearing standard earmuffs, but many will amplify sound so that you can actually hear better with the earmuff than if you had no hearing protection and were just using your ears.

    For instance, as to firearm instructors, Ayoob writes:

A lot of firearms mishaps are preceded by the person messing with a stuck slide or muttering “damn gun” or words to that effect. If the instructor can hear it in time — even if the shooter’s body position blocks the range safety officer’s view of his hands — being able to pick up those small sounds can make for a warning heeded in time to prevent tragedy.

And for the hunters, he also relates an African safari he was on where, with the electronic earmuffs, he was able to pick up sounds of animal movement before even his bushman trackers/guides.

    But most of his comments have to do with their "tactical" use including home defense. He writes:

    Remind your tactically oriented customers that gunfire reverberating indoors will temporarily reduce hearing at the moment when they need all their senses to be at their most sensitive and acute. Active muffs will also allow them to hear danger coming sooner than the naked ear might allow. Let them put on a pair, turn them on and turn their foot on the floor. They’ll be able to hear sole on floor or carpet.

    Suppose the customer says, “My home-defense gun has a suppressor, so I don’t have to worry about that.” The suppressor solves only part of the problem. It doesn’t let them hear an intruder’s movements any better; good active muffs will. A suppressor doesn’t mute the alarming and potentially deafening gunfire of the opponent; active muffs do. And they don’t require a long wait and license fee paid to ATF.

Read the whole thing.