Swithback,

Thank you for the excellant point you make I just hope others out there are reading this.

Hearing protection is so VERY important when using firearms of any type. I have been wearing hearing protection for many years now, muffs at the range 100% of the time and ear plugs (solid type as the baffle type with the little hole in them are dangerous and don't always work and will still let dangerous levels of nose into your inner ear). I found out I had a moderate sensorial neural high frequency hearing loss (SNHFHL) 25 years ago and was educated by the Audiologist about wearing hearing protection. If you don't your hearing will most likely get noticeably worse and you could end up with "Tinnitus" which is a nasty teapot whistling or humming sound in your ears which can become so loud it's disabling for about 4 million people in this Country. Just ask some of our Vet's coming back from the gulf war that saw action. The human ear was not designed for noise levels above 85 decibels let alone 100-110 db.

I wish I could wear electronic muffs out hunting all the time as most rifle fire isn't an issue for me when wearing them like at the range. The problem is when it's cold out (10-20 degree's) in the winter wearing a set of electronic muffs proves to be tricky. You have to wear a good hat to keep your head warm and from body heat escaping. When hunting I wear solid ear plugs which then makes it hard to hear game. I want to get a quality pair of Walkers Game ear electronic hearing aids that turn off in a fraction of a second to protect your inner ear when you fire your weapon. These are expensive a good set is approximately $500-1,000 dollars I believe.

Again, thanks for the advice.