Sorry yes, I do mean the .209, same as I have in my 'nade. I saw him loading it (and complaining about how a batch of his seem not to work at all).
Yup, I've got foam plugs, and also the Army ones (forget the make). I have got a snood-style mask somewhere, but that's not really enough protection given the close ranges involved - my torso looks like I rolled around in a bee's nest after Wednesday! It just seems a shame to have good ear pro and not use it, if there's something halfway between a snood with a mouth guard, and the mesh masks
Oh yeah, to those of you with active ear-pro... my only testing with the Howard Leights so far is clapping loudly while I've got them on: the first clap I hear mostly(?) unimpeded via the pass-through capability - it's only on successive claps that the active side kicks in and really dulls it down. Are they broken, or is that expected? It's not like I'm trying to protect my hearing from a second grenade! Are my claps not loud enough to demonstrate the actual usage?