I tested out Howard Leight’s Impact Sport Electronic Earmuffs this year at SHOT Show Media Day. The set shipped out in December and the earmuffs sat on the shelf, waiting for me to go shooting. As I packed for SHOT show, I remembered that I would need hearing protection and tossed the earmuffs and some extra batteries into my bag for the trip.
The Impact Sport Collection offers three versions: a standard model, one in colors and one in Mossy Oak Break-Up. The earmuffs amplify sound up to 4X and block shot noise, protecting your hearing on the range while allowing you to hear range instructions. The lightweight, simple design of these made them comfortable to wear all day. I put them on at about ten in the morning and took them off again almost six hours later after shooting all day.
The Impact Sports are water resistant and will connect to MP3 players, smartphones and scanner radios so you can take them to the NASCAR race and use them all day. Where the Impact Sports really shine though is on the shooting range. Hearing protection has come a long way in the last 20 years but standard muffs without electronics muffle all sound. On the range that can be dangerous, especially if you cannot hear the range safety officer. The Impact Sports allow you to hear those around you.
The evening of media day I went to an indoor shoot where we were shooting FLIR scopes on AR rifles in complete darkness. Having the Impact Sports on my ears allowed me to hear everything going on in the dark and allowed me to pull off ten great shots on target safely. At the price-point of these muffs, Howard Leight’s Impact Sport Electronic Earmuffs are a bargain for good hearing protection and range safety.
Editors Note: We donated this set of hearing protection to a young boy who came into the range that night with his parents to do a little shooting and we made him smile but did not get good pictures of the product.
