Is active hearing protection/ear buds necessary???

[Wegalaxy]

Hello,

So I play outdoors mainly and I am starting to do CQB more often.

I play on average once a week.

I use a 209 primer BFG timed.

Whenever I throw the BFG or see a flash bang get thrown I cover my ears with my hands.

I look a bit strange when I do this haha but it works muting the sound.

I sometimes cannot cover my ears in time for example if someone throws a flash bang at my feet.

So this brings me to the question.

Would it be worth buying active hearing protection as I really don't want to damage or lose my hearing as I airsoft regularly.

Or is my technique good enough?

And if I need some does anyone have any recommendations for affordable protection as I am not fussed about top dollar.

Thanks 
 

 

[MrTea]

Yes. 100%

I use a copious amount of pyro and have been on the receiving end of plenty and I now pretty much always use active hearing protection after i've left airsoft fields with smashing headaches and/or ringing ears far too often to not advocate fields at least offering the disposable foam earplugs on hand for everyone who plays and wants them. There's almost zero downside to using it other than having to buy and set it up.

People will debate on this but I will always say I can hear everything that's happening around me sooner than I would without but at the same time, you get tricked into thinking it's closer than it really is if that makes sense.

Personally, I use the Earmor M20T in-ear hearing protection. I originally bought mine for £55 on ebay and it seems to still be the cheapest place to grab them. I've always found that the over-ear style hearing protection makes my ears/head sweat too much so the in-ear ones make much more sense (for me).

I'd suggest going for the M20 as the '-T' variant are the bluetooth ones which have a red/blue flashing LED when not in range of a connected device. I've had to apply black tape over this light. The M20 doesn't have this light AFAIK but i'm not sure if there's any difference in the technology used in the device.

 

[Wegalaxy]

Thanks looks like I'm ordering some ?

 

[KirbyHCI]

I usually play CQB, and I have both hypersensitive hearing AND hearing damage of different types in each ear (physical damage one side, extended high volume damage the other), so despite a lot of people not bothering with hearing protection even if indoors, I really do require it personally. I'd say it's worth it. Active hearing pro so you can hear marshals, teammates, etc., but block out loud bangs, and also you can plug any comms/radios or even music in as a bonus (I used to run music in one ear, radio in the other, as it automatically worked that way if I plugged my phone and radio in on a splitter)

I used to run fairly cheap civilian shooting active earpro, but they did have a habit of dying randomly, so it's worth maybe researching into current choices for value vs. money and investing in something decent if it's actually gonna last

 

[Wavey_Gravey]

You can’t get your eyes or ears back once they’re gone, protect them.
 

Don’t cheap out either, tinnitus / deafness isn’t the best!

 

[Jacob Wright]

Definitely - do it before you get tinnitus like me, not nice to live with!

 

[Adolf Hamster]

Bonus for over-ear protection is it keeps them warm and protects them from ear hits.

 

[Galvatron]

I've had noise-induced hearing loss (non-airsoft event) and that wasn't fun. Thankfully it returned in a few hours with no permanent effects.

For indoors with BFGs, I would definitely use ear pro. I use plugs that have something like a 20dB attenuation so I can still hear voices but loud noises are dulled.

 

[TheFull9]

A good budget option is a set of the SuerFire sonics (Ep3/4/7) which allow enough through that you can hear and play basically normally but they also knock loud stuff down a few dB.  EP3 are a standard issue item and do well for shooting.