r/canadaguns • u/macmuaythai • Apr 03 '26

Misc New to shooting, fearful of ear damage

Interested and excited to start this hobby/pastime. But am fearful of the damage to ears, I already purchased some walker xcel 500 headphones for outdoor shooting and was going to double up. Wondering if there is anything else I can do or if I should just not worry

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u/chillyrabbit Apr 03 '26

Like others have said double up, ear plugs and ear muffs.

Something to consider and keep in mind is that if you wear eye protection and muffs. You can lose most of or all the effectiveness of the muffs because the glasses legs are breaking the seal and providing a noise pathway to your ears.

Solutions to that issue are:

  • wearing the legs of the glasses outside of the ear protection
  • getting gel pads that have more flexibility and can "seal" around the legs better than rubber.
  • Getting noisefighter earpads, or similar. They are gel pads that have a shelf cutout to rest your glasses legs on so it doesn't break the seal.
  • Get eye protection with very thin legs like ESS crossbow suppressor or smith optics echo (discontinued, but you can see what I mean thin temple legs) so you aren't breaking the ear pad seal very much