A. The Peltor Sporttac has a foldable headband which reduces the size of the headset dramatically making it very portable.

Even though the sound of gunshot will still be loud when wearing ear defenders, it will be reduced to a level that won’t risk rupturing the eardrum. What sort of hearing protection do I need for clay pigeon shooting? Whilst both products are comfortably on the high end of the market, the price difference may be significant to you. Matt Manning says: “These distinctive ear defenders have earned themselves a loyal following and there are very few game shoots and clay grounds where they won’t be seen. They are popular for good reason; chiefly because they are reasonably priced, medium-weight ear defenders that function reliably with minimal maintenance.” BUY NOW Best of the rest 1. Bisley Compact Ear Protectors Let’s start with the ear defenders that, in our opinion, you’re likely to see many shooters wearing. They’re not the cheapest in our list of best ear defenders for shooting, but there is a reason for their popularity and it’s because they are very good at what they are designed to do. 3M Peltor SportTac Headset – Level Dependent Active Hearing Protection for Shooters, with Impulse Noise Control, 26 dB, Orange/Green Mark Heath, Instruction Manager at West London Shooting School agreed: “When teaching I prefer electronic ear defenders normally Peltor Sportac, these give excellent protection and enable conversation to continue with clients. When game shooting I will often wear the Sportacs. Given that I am around shooting most day of the week I consider it important to protect and to wear appropriate protection to try and preserve my hearing. Some of our older clients who didn’t wear protection in their early shooting years are invariably suffering from some hearing loss.”

SNR (Single Number Rating) and NRR (Noise Reduction Rating) are the two main standards for rating the level of hearing protection offered by ear defenders and ear plugs. When there’s a very loud noise such as a gun firing, this is dampened down to a safe level to avoid damage to the user’s hearing. This is what makes them so useful for shooters.

The 3M Peltor SportTac Electronic Ear Defenders are designed for shooting and hunting where you need to be able to hear quiet noises while protecting your hearing from the loud sound of gunshot. The electronic components of the defenders don’t offer your ears any additional protection, but they make the shooting or hunting experience much better as you can hear what’s going on around you.

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Damaging this bony structure can cause hearing loss, which is why many people opt for ear defenders over ear plugs. You can combine both ear plugs and ear defenders to get the maximum possible protection. However, this might make you feel too isolated.

Being a rifle shooter meant I could be a little more generous with the actual size of the defenders, and given my positive experiences of the use of Peltor units, I naturally looked there first... and last. Peltor’s SportTacs are a great unit that I still wear for hunting, but I wanted to go above 30dB of SNR. Health and safety guidelines state that from 100-105dB, 30+ is recommended, and you can see where this is going; we are noisy buggers, us shooters. Thankfully, out in the open, we don’t get too much reflection of sound, and it is mainly produced in intermittent bangs, rather than continuous noise, but given that I was getting a slight ringing noise in my ears every now and again, and a very slight continuous hiss, it was clear that damage was being done.

What about electronic ear defenders?

In this article, we’ll be weighing up the differences between them so that you can choose the pair that’s right for you.

With over 25 years’ experience in industrial, aviation and personal headset and eardefender repairs Earshot Communications is a true specialist with a wealth of knowledge that makes it one of the leading repair centres in the UK. state that they were designed specifically with hunters and marksmen in mind. The unique sound circuitry that stops the abrupt noise cut-off is certainly a nice feature.

Conclusion

The speakers inside and the microphones outside allow the wearer to hear ambient noise and conversations better than they would be able to without the hearing protection.