*Date:* Mon, 16 Oct 2006 16:07:46 +0100
I am looking at Green Leopard custom ear plugs for shooters at around
£120. I'm finding muffs stop me mounting the gun cleanly but I want to
be bale to hear what other folks are saying on walked up days etc.
Does anyone have any experience of them or other makes?
Without wishing to detract from your search for in-ears, have you had
someone look at the way you mount the gun? I've noticed that over the
various lessons I've had, there have been things that people have said
that don't make sense until much later. One of these was "put your nose
against the stock". This seems a bit wierd. Until I noticed that I was
quite often (particularly on second barrel, but often on first) tilting my
head over the stock. This had two effects; my muffs banged against the
stock, and my eye moved over the stock and I missed stuff to the right.
If you press your nose against the stock it is almost impossible to tilt
your head over and get out of line. It's also very hard for your muffs to
hit the stock. Assuming your headshape/stock is very similar to mine, of
course.
Having said that, I have a pair of Green Leopards (considerably cheaper
than £120, I think, but only the passive vented ones, not the actives) as
well as my active muffs. The ambient noise penetrationon the GLs is so
much lower than the muffs (even with the microphones turned off) that I
often wear the GLs for competitions when I don't want distractions. They
take a few minutes to settle in, and I often find that the most
comfortable approach is to put them in for 5 minutes and then take them
out and put them in again, but they are definitely effective ear
protection. The passive vents are much less good at letting normal level
conversation through than the muffs though.
About the only other downside is that they don't stop your glasses
shuffling forward in the same way that muffs do!
DC