Howard Leight Impact Sport Ear Muffs – Long Term Review

I purchased a pair of Howard Leight Impact Sport Ear Muffs after looking for some budget oriented electronic ear-pro in September 2010. These earmuffs came highly recommended from several different websites, so I decided to give them a try. These muffs offered several things I wanted, the first being a low profile muff, that does not get in the way when shooting long guns. At the time I was shooting a lot of sporting clays, and I found regular earmuffs to be too big, and plugs to be uncomfortable. In come the Impact Sport ear muffs.

These ear muffs retail for about $45 at the time of this posting. According to the Howard Leight website they offer a Noise Reduction Rating of 22NRR. The speakers inside the muffs are supposed to amplify noise to 82db, while cutting out when noise goes above 82db, keeping ears safe.

My first impression of these muffs was great. Being able to hear people, and have a conversation, while the range is hot is awesome. In the beginning, these muffs would cut out when a gun shot would go off, offering what I feel was suitable protection outdoors.

Indoors, I found that I had to double up on ear protection, adding plugs under the muffs. With the speaker turned up all the way, I was still able to hear range commands, and carry on a conversation pretty good.

After about a month of using these, I noticed them cutting out less and less, and finally, they got to the point where they would not cut out at all. This happened pretty gradually, so I didnt notice right away that they were not cutting out anymore.

One feature that I really like about these earmuffs, is the auto-off feature. After 3 hours or so, the earmuffs will turn themselves off regardless of the position of the volume switch. During a long day on the range, they may turn off on you, but a quick switch off, and back on, and you are good to go for another 3 hours. Many times I have pulled these ear muffs out of my range bag to find them left in the on position, and the auto-off feature saved my batteries.

Speaking of batteries, the battery life with these earmuffs is phenomenal. In almost 2 years, I can only think of a couple times that I have changed the batteries, and only once did I actually NEED to change them (Just so happened that the one time I needed to change them, I didn’t have spares… Thanks Rich!)

My Impact sport muffs were used about 5 times a month, for several hour long shooting matches for about 14 months or so. After sweating in them under the Carolina sunshine for countless hours, I found the foam earpieces began to harden up, and the level of protection I received from the earmuffs to degrade.I really wish Howard Leight offered gel cups for these muffs, as I feel even if it raised the price a little, it would make them a much better earmuff.

Maybe it is these earmuffs, or maybe its my big head, but I find that after wearing them for several hours, I begin to get a headache from the way they squeeze my head. I don’t have a ton of experience wearing other brands of muffs, but it does seem that these are extra tight.

Howard Leight sells a hygiene kit for these muffs, that replaces the foam earpieces, and the foam backers. I’ve not ordered the hygiene kit just yet, as I’ve been using some custom molded earplugs that I prefer to the muffs.

Anyways, for the $45 price of these, I feel they are a pretty good value, although, they are not as high quality as some of the better muffs out there like the MSA Sordins. The lack of a gel-cup, and the noise cut-off feature that stopped working hurt the rating of these muffs. I’ll give them a B-, for the good price, and excellent battery life. I hope Howard Leight will offer a gel cup for them in the future. For the occasional user, these would probably be fine, however, if you take your competition and training real seriously, I would look to a more serious set of muffs.