Hearing Protection
As we all know, our hearing is a precious commodity and we need to do our best to preserve it. In our Shooting Sports this is very much the case. We have to be extra careful. There are many types of hearing protection; there are Foam Plugs which are cheap and come in all shapes, sizes, colors and most important to us, NRR ratings. Ear Muffs both standard and Electronic, these have a full range of colors and prices from inexpensive to expensive and they have Molded Ear Plugs.
Helping you to understand Hearing Protections NRR (Noise Reduction Rating). The higher the NRR Rating (NRR33 being the highest, that I have seen) the better protection there is. Most of the electronic muffs tend to be a lower NRR, which for most outdoors shooting I would go no lower than NRR21 or NRR22. For indoor shooting MAKE SURE YOU STAY HIGH, absolutely no lower than NRR28 and go as high as you can. I recommend using foam plugs under the electronic muffs. Always better to be safe than sorry.
If you want more info on Hearing Protection and the NRR, check this link out. https://www.sensear.com/blog/noise-reduction-rating-nrr-a-beginners-guide
or just use that fine universal tool called Google.
Huh? What did you say??? I can’t hear you. PROTECT YOUR HEARING
EVERYONE and I do mean everyone needs to wear eye protection. It is just as important as hearing protection. Hear is a quick true story.
I was at the club one night for a meeting, I had no intention of shooting at all. My buddy came to the meeting and had an old 22lr that he was having some problems with. He asked me to shoot it and let him know what I thought. I borrowed some “disgusting” ear muffs from the club but had no to eye protection to wear. I decided to go for it anyway. It was either the first or second shot and a piece of brass flew directly into my right eye. You would have thought that someone stuck me in the eye with a hot stick. It hurt so bad. Point being, you really need to wear them anytime shooting.
Shooting Eye Protection Standards.
Glasses come in many styles, shapes, colors and sizes. In my opinion the most common by far and the style that I prefer is the wrap around, top frame style (yes, that is my own description). I just feel that they offer the widest and clearest field of view. Your glasses of choice should have a rating of ANSI Z87.1 or a military standard of MIL-PRF-31013. For a better description of these standards see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballistic_eyewear
I also would recommend wearing a baseball cap or a hat with a visor on it. This will help to keep hot brass from getting between your glasses and your face/eyes.
