What Is The Best Ear Protection For The Shooting Range In 2024?

Looking For What Is The Best Hearing Protection To Use At The Range?

Shooting takes all sorts of different forms. Wherever your journey takes you, it’s important to be properly equipped.

Having the right hearing protection is vital to keep your ears safe. Even a short exposure to gunshots without hearing protection can leave your hearing permanently damaged.

Here are a few of my favorite products when it comes to keeping my ears safe at the range:

 

Walkers Razor Ear Protection Slim Electronic Muffs

Walkers is certainly making a name for themselves because from our tests we have found their muffs very reliable for the most part and feature rich. These thin muffs are no exception especially if you want the lowest possible profile without compromising hearing protection and amplification.

The Walkers Razor Slim Earmuffs deliver an impressive noise reduction rating (NRR) of 23dB which is pretty competitive to the noise reduction rating that the competition offers for their ear muffs.

The headband on these are extremely comfortable and from our tests we were able to wear them for about two and a half hours straight with no soreness on and around the head. We experienced this same comfort with the ear cups as well. Even though the cups are flatter than most ear muffs the Walkers Razor muffs come with thicker pads that seem to seal around the ear very well to protect from loud gunfire that otherwise could be damaging to your ear.

As far as amplification we found these to be just as good if not better than the Howard Leight Impact Sports but of course this is subjective. We definitely noticed that these produced less chirping, static, and interference sounds than most of the electronic ear muffs we have tested.

According to Walkers they provide a long battery life, but all we can say in this regard is that the 4 times we have wore them so far for an average of 2 hours each time we are still using the same batteries that we started with.

Although, we would like to see more dB protection these Walker Razor’s do an excellent job and a much more stylish option than the competition especially if you want flatter ear cups.

Decibel Defense Professional Safety Ear Muffs

These bad boys block 34 dB of sound. This is a really, really big number. Decibels are a logarithmic scale, which means that for every 3 decibels you go up, the power of the sound doubles.

Since the energy that sound carries is what damages your ears, this is a pretty important metric. These ear muffs block 13 dB more than a set of 22 dB ear muffs, which means they let about a twentieth as much of the sound energy through to your eardrums.

Despite this incredible amount of noise reduction, the Decibel Defense ear muffs are pretty inexpensive. They’re durable, too, and they fold up to be small enough to store easily in your shooting bag. Best of all, they’re reasonably comfortable.

While most hearing protection is awkward or painful to wear for long periods of time, these ear muffs are well padded. You’ll be able to make it through long sessions without any problems.

For indoor shooting, these are one of the best sets of ear muffs on the market. With the way sound bounces around an indoor range, you really need the extra hearing protection.

For outdoor shooting, they’re still excellent, but you might want to choose a more lightweight pair or one with electronic features to let quiet sounds through.

 

Howard Leight Impact Sport Electric Earmuff

With 22 dB of noise reduction, the Howard Leight Impact Sport Earmuffs are perfect for shooting lower caliber weapons outdoors. They’re lightweight, with low profile cups that are designed to allow you to use a stock without any interference.

Best of all, they come with an electronic system that allows you to hold conversations or listen to outside noise without compromising your hearing protection.

Howard Leight has done a great job making these ear muffs easy to use. They fold up very small for transport, so you’ll have no problem bringing them with you.

The 2 AAA batteries last for about 350 hours, so you’ll hardly ever have to change them. Both cups disassemble easily should you need to replace a part, although you’ll probably never have to with these durable ear muffs.

Finally, you can plug in an aux cable to listen to external audio from your phone or mp3 player. This allows you to listen to podcasts while mowing the lawn or doing other loud chores.

The electronic noise amplification system is pretty good. It allows you to hold a conversation with ease. It’s not perfect — if you’re hunting, you might miss a few small noises — but it’s a marked improvement over any non-electronic hearing protection.

This is one of the most popular sets of ear protection on the market. It’s one of the best choices you can make for your ear protection at the shooting range.

If you do intend to use these at an indoor range, I recommend that you pair them with a set of ear plugs for a little bit of additional protection. Click here to read our detailed review on the Howard Leight Impact Sport headsets.

 

Winchester Corded Ear Plugs

The Winchester corded ear plugs claim to block out 26 dB of noise without any of the bulk of ear muffs. We haven’t ran tests on this product just yet to confirm this, since it’s so new on the market.

One thing for sure is that you won’t have to worry about head sweat or bumping into an ear cup with your stock. You can use them under a pair of ear muffs for an added layer of protection for your eardrums.

They’re extremely inexpensive, too, so even if you plan to use a set of ear muffs as your primary hearing protection, you can pick up a pair or two of these for your shooting bag without breaking the bank!

An included carrying case and cord makes these little ear plugs easy to handle and store. They’re reusable and washable, so you can use a single pair all year.

The 26 dB rating means that these are even better at protecting your ears than the Howard Leight Sports above. You’ll do noticeably better at an indoor range or while shooting a bigger gun outside, although I’d still recommend pairing these with a set of ear muffs if possible.

Having a spare pair of these in your shooting bag is perfect — it means you’re not screwed if your primary ear muffs break, and if someone at the range doesn’t have hearing protection you can lend them these without worry. They’re perfect for wearing under ear muffs for some extra protection if you’ve got sensitive ears or you shoot big guns indoors.

Overall

I think all three of the products mentioned above these are just a few of the best products available out there for protecting your hearing at the shooting range. However, I personally prefer wearing passive type ear muffs for indoor shooting protection such as the Decibel Defense ear muffs mentioned above.

The main reason why, is because they give the best hearing protection especially in closed in indoor ranges. The active hearing protection headsets are good, but they will work best if your shooting outdoors.

You get the most bang for your buck (no pun intended), going with a passive ear muff especially if you mostly shoot indoors. Of course, you can up the hearing protection by wearing earplugs under your earmuffs, but we do not recommend just wearing earplugs alone especially when shooting indoors.

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