I’ve never wondered about this but I have some ear muffs that filter out loud noise and i can shoot all day, go to a auto race, and talk with people around me with ease.
Let us all remember that the dB scale is logarithmic:
Every 3 dB results in a DOUBLING in volume.
A dishwasher with a 54 dB rating is twice a loud as a dishwasher with a 51 dB rating.
Sometimes I wear ear plugs AND ear muffs. It sounds silly to some people but I like being able to hear.
That’s a lot of math. Just go with adjustable noise cancellers AND a pair of foamies.
You can converse perfectly and/or use comms but all loudness is gone.
I wear ear plugs with a 30+ db reduction, and ear muffs, with another 23 db of reduction.
Hearing is too precious a thing to lose.
Is it time to learn sign language?
Had custom molded plugs made. Block everything. Some of the best money I’ve spent on the shooting sports, and I’ve spent plenty.
Unfortunately the only shooting I’ve done in recent years has been in indoor ranges where I have to wear foam plugs and ear muffs..it’s still uncomfortably loud tho.
I believe that a significant risk to hearing comes through the skeletal structure if one shoulders a gun. Ear protection does not help with this.
When I was on the 155s in the army I used the filters from my Marlboros for earplugs, it seemed to help.
How does NRR change decibels of exposure?
When hearing protection is worn, your level of exposure to noise is based on the NRR rating of the protection device being used. Keep in mind, however, that while the NRR is measured in decibels, the hearing protector being used does not reduce the surrounding decibel level by the exact number of decibels associated with that protector’s NRR. For example, if you are at a rock concert where the level of noise exposure is 100 dB and you are wearing earplugs with an NRR 33dB, your level of exposure would not be reduced to 67 dB. Instead, to determine the actual amount of decibel deduction applied (when decibels are measured dBA which is the most common), you take the NRR number (in dB), subtract seven, and then divide by two.
Given the previous example, your noise reduction equation would look like the following: (33-7)/2 = 13. This means that if you are at a rock concert with a level of noise exposure at 100 dB and you are wearing a hearing protector with an NRR 33 dB, your new level of noise exposure is 87 dB. If you are wearing a product with an NRR of 27 it would deduct 10 decibels (27-7/2=10).
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, Earplugs at NRR 29 with Earmuffs at NRR 27 would provide a Noise Reduction Rating of approximately 34 decibels.
Look up “ANSI standards for hearing protection”. You can find how devices are rated and what is required.
Also, 3M lost a recent lawsuit on their hearing protection used by members of the US military, and the documents you can find that were used in that suit can be found pretty easily, and are interesting. I did this a while back and the whole field struck me as unscientific. A lot of the regs were developed for chronic noise such as factory work, and are not well adapted for protecting from gunfire noise.
I’m still in favor of Silencers, and I have all kinds of noise cancelling headphones.
I was the Health & Safety Director at a university for 25 years. This appendix document has some good info, as well as some references you might find useful:
https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.95AppB
It’s a pointless question unless you have the instrumentation with which to measure the SPL at the shooter’s ears with each specific firearm using each specific load you might be firing and at the full ranges of temperatures at which you might be firing them.
Because unless you know the SPL that’s reaching the shooter’s ears UNDER THOSE SPECIFIC PARAMETERS you can’t begin to know how much reduction you need to be hearing safe.
If you’re losing sleep over it, buy closed cell urethane earplugs, always wear cups over them, and only ever shoot suppressed.
What??
I am not on the range.
But here are the ultimate ear plugs. Use with effective ear muffs.
https://www.amazon.com/Macks-Pillow-Soft-Silicone-Earplugs/dp/B07G1MWHNR
AND these that can also be found cheaper on eBay where I buy them