Hearing Protection under Hats

I’ve scoured the internet looking for an answer and have an email out to Soundgear but curious if anyone has experience using sound enhancing hearing protection like Soundgear instafit, phantoms, or any of the other brands under a beanie hat. My experience with my instafits is the microphone rubs on the fabric and makes them unusable. Has anyone had luck with any other models where they don’t get feedback or noise from your hat fabric. Most of my use will be pheasant hunting so lots of head movement and I don’t like flat sound suppression (like a standard plug). I’d also be curious if anyone has experience with what I’ve heard to reffered to as ‘filtered’ earplugs that are just solid plugs that somehow filter out noises at certain frequencies or decibals but let standard sounds in.

I’ve worn hearing aids for the last 15 or so year s and before that I used the non-prescription “woods” ears and I never found a hearing assist of any kind that worked well under a cap, especially a stocking cap/

That was my fear. Was debating spending some HSA $s on nicer plugs. Probably still will since they’ll be better than what I have when I’m not wearing a stocking cap. The plus side is my stocking cap is pretty thick and I feel it muffles the sound to some degree, but may look into pairing that with the filtered non-electronic style plug.

I don’t have any experience yet. I am either going to try the Soundgear Phantoms or something similar from Alclair this fall.

You could wear full earmuff style ones over a hat. Wear the hat higher or push up over the ear cups. The ear cups will keep your ears from freezing off and the band will keep your hat on even though you aren’t wearing it right. Something like the Howard Leight Impact Sport has pretty thin cups and I don’t find they interfere with shooting.

Last year I went to the local ENT Dr and got custom hearing protection made that is specifically for hunting and they’re fricken awesome. The ENT takes a custom mold of your inner ear so you get an absolute perfect fit. They allow you to hear normal conversation (albeit at a slightly lower decibel than normal) and will cut out hearing ability anything over a certain decibel, so the gunshots/loud noises get blocked out and you can go right back to talking in a normal voice. They are not electronic and don’t have batteries. Not sure of the physics of how they work but man are they a godsend and only cost about $250 and two 5 min trips to the ENT. I wish I would have got them 10 years ago. Not only do I use them for hunting, sporting clays shooting, and any time I’m shooting guns, but I also use them on the lawn mower, weed wacking, chainsawing, etc.

Gitchi, would you post the brand and model # please?

Yeah please post any info you have on that Gitchi. I don’t need the sound enhancement so I’m fine with non electronic as long as it doesn’t muffle everything.

Reef I’ve looked a bit into the over ears. I may have to adapt my hunt style and get a pair for cold weather.

the plugs I got are Weston’s #39 passive shooter plugs. I got them custom molded to my ear at the ENT.

Thanks Gitchi. These were the ‘filtered’ type I was looking into as well. I’m tempted to give these a chance before grabbing another pair of electronic plugs.

Thanks Gitchi. I’ll give them a look!!

FinickyFish wrote:

Thanks Gitchi. These were the ‘filtered’ type I was looking into as well. I’m tempted to give these a chance before grabbing another pair of electronic plugs.

no problem. these would definitely have a good fit under a hat. I’ve been using them all summer dog training (lots of gunshots) and love them.

Has anyone gone to an ENT in the south metro area that offers these passive shooter plugs that Gitchi recommended. I would like to get some ordered and if I can narrow down a vendor without having to call a bunch of them that would be nice.

I made a molding appointment for tomorrow with America’s Best Hearing. They’ve got a few locations around the metro. I’ll report back on how they goes.

Thanks, I will look them up. Did they give you a cost estimate prior to setting up an appointment?

$25 an ear for the molding. Not sure what the plugs will cost yet.

Let us know what they charge in the end. I’m interested in these as well.

I’m following also Finicky

Had my appointment pushed back to today. Took 20 min. Made 2 molds and will order the plugs for me. $300 total. Originally told me $25 per ear for molds but when I told the doc (if they were a doc) what i wanted they said they could just order everything now in one package. Plugs will be here in 2 weeks then I go back for a fitting and should be on my way. Said they used to do a lot of these for the Osseo Gun club back when they were around. I’ll report back on performance when I get the chance.

good to hear finicky. what plugs did you end up going with?

hearing is one of those things you dont fully appreciate til its gone. being proactive with ear protection is the way to go

How many db are they supposed to reduce? The brake on my deer rifle is ridiculously loud and I definitely will not ever shoot it without some kind of protection. I always wear electronic ones now but another option for rain would be nice.

Reef W wrote:

How many db are they supposed to reduce? The brake on my deer rifle is ridiculously loud and I definitely will not ever shoot it without some kind of protection. I always wear electronic ones now but another option for rain would be nice.

Reef, here are the specs on mine:

Attenuation @ 132 dB = 15.1 dB
Attenuation @ 150 dB = 22.8 dB
Attenuation @ 168 dB = 26.7 dB

Added decibel scale for reference

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Went with the Westone Defendear Hunter passive based on your recommendations. I’ve been blessed with good eyesight and hearing at least this far and am pretty anal about eye protection so figured it’s time to do the same with my hearing.

I just bought a pair of Axil xcor pros,havent used them much yet,the hearing protection is very good,the amplification is good,but not like my hearing aids,the blue tooth connectivity is also very good,much better than my hearing aids.
They were on sale on Axils sight 199$ save 100$.Suppose to be FAS eligible,but have not been reimbursed yet.
Limited use,but overall satisfied with my purchase.

the thing I don’t like about the electronic hearing protection I’ve used is how it amplifies everything that isn’t a gunshot. For example, using them walking thru a grass field in South Dakota while pheasant hunting, all you hear is the sound of grass crunching and it gets quite annoying and distracting and you can’t hear your buddy 50 yards away yell something to you because its the grass sound amplification drowns everything else out

My Soundgear instant fits actually work pretty well pheasant hunting and with grass crunching. I would say heavy wind is what kills the sound amplification features and the reason for the original post, rubbing on hoods and hats. Probably different from model to model, and the Soundgears are higher end.

I had an appointment yesterday at the American Best Hearing in Mendota Heights and asked to get a set of the westone defenders ordered and the doc said he had never heard of them. He didn’t really seem to have a good grasp on the options. I left without getting anything ordered. He did give me a soundgear brochure and it looks like they make a similar passive plug to the westone. There is not as much info on the soundgear brand attenuation levels. I will probably end up going to a different place and getting the Westones ordered.

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Odd, they must be a franchise and every place run differently. On Westones website they had a ‘find a provider’ map with my providers exact location. Maybe Mendota Heights isn’t on there? If you at least got the molds done I think you can pretty much contact any company you want now to have the plugs made. I’d have to imagine the Soundgear are comparable. I didn’t even know they had a ‘passive option’ otherwise I might have gone that route.

Just looked it up on the Westone website and the Mendota Heights location is listed as an option. The doc was trying to talk me out of getting them and said you probably don’t even need hearing protection for pheasant hunting. The whole appointment was just strange.

dhpricco wrote:

Just looked it up on the Westone website and the Mendota Heights location is listed as an option. The doc was trying to talk me out of getting them and said you probably don’t even need hearing protection for pheasant hunting. The whole appointment was just strange.

That is very strange. Definitely go some where else.