Ear Pro

The Liberator 2.0 By Safariland – Hear the Difference

Protecting your ears from loud noises, like you know gunfire, is pretty dang critical. I say this as a person with tinnitus because the younger version of me was headstrong and thought an M240 would never bother my ears. These days I’m older and wiser and armed with gear like the new Safariland Liberator 2.0 hearing protection. The Liberator headset goes beyond your normal hearing protection, though.

It’s 2021, and if you ain’t rocking electronic hearing protection, you are missing out. The Liberator 2.0s are fully electronic and provide you three modes for various amplification and noise-canceling modes. Let’s break down those modes real quick, so we are all on the same page.

Liberator Modes And Audio Quality

Mode 1 – Used for most tactical operations requiring the ability to hear speech and audio, recognize threats, and maintain situational awareness while gunfire or explosions may occur without warning.

It blocks impulse noise, allows speech and environmental audio to be heard. Allows all radio communications.

Mode 2 – When high-level steady-state noise is occurring, such as operating in a helicopter, aircraft, boat, or ground vehicle for extended periods.

Blocks external noise. Allows all radio communications.

Mode 3 – When operating in high steady-state noise environments and face to face communication is desired.

Blocks external noise, except speech. Allows all radio communications.

To Swap between modes, you hold both the + and – buttons. A soothing voice tells you what mode you are in.

In terms of audio quality, the Safariland Liberator delivers crystal clear, easily understood audio. Having conversations between people both near and far, even with gunfire present. At a recent media event at a firing range, my future wife and I had no issues talking around machine guns, AKs, bolt action precision rifles, and more.

Speaking of, she immediately stole the Liberator from me and regulated me to an older pair of muffs. As a new shooter, she received plenty of instruction when firing rifles, SMGs, and even a medium machine gun. The Liberator muffs blocked the noise but allowed her to hear the instructions various range officers issued her.

Inside the Liberator 2.0

The microphones on the Liberator muffs provide you 360 degrees of sound amplification. Unlike other headphones, this allows you to pinpoint where the noise is coming from. Some range-friendly hearing protection has a simple mic that amplifies noise but makes it sound like it all comes from the same direction. The Liberator muffs are true tactical ear muffs and allow you to have maximum situational awareness.

These muffs aren’t just great for the range but for tactical environments police and military deal with daily. The Liberator design is modular and does allow you to use the muffs with a helmet. This requires an additional behind-the-hand band, but the change over is relatively simple.

My girlfriend loved them because they were super lightweight and insanely comfortable while remaining slim. Gel cups not only provide an excellent seal to prevent noise entrance but also incredible comfort. She wore them for hours at a time without complaint. I feel the same. I’ve used them for about a month now, almost daily at various range trips and for testing purposes. They’ve been nothing but comfortable.

Safariland designed these for professional users, and the little things show. For example, you can wear it under a helmet. Second, they are tough as hell! Thirdly, they have a dual fuel design. By dual fuel, I mean they can use either 2 AAA batteries or a single CR123A battery.

Oh, and don’t forget they have an auto turn-off mode that will auto shut them off after 5 minutes of no movement. You’ll get five warnings before they shut off. A low battery indicator goes off when there are only 20 hours of battery power left. Battery life ranges from 200 to 300 hours, depending on the mode selected.

Over and Out

The Safariland Liberator 2.0 provides users a true tactical set of hearing protection at a great price point. Everything about these headphones seemingly rocks. They’re durable, extremely comfortable, provide crystal clear audio, and they’re even lightweight. Add in the modularity factor for batteries, and wearing a helmet and bam, you have a professional-grade option that keeps the ringing away.

Howard Leight Impact Sport Bolt: Attack the noise

Hearing protection: if you’re shooting, you’re gonna need it. Even exposure to certain suppressed guns can accumulate over time to cause permanent damage. The problem with the most effective methods of ear protection (earpro) is that they’re effective against all sound. If you’re stalking a deer or listening for range commands, hearing (or not) can be the difference between a great day and a monumentally borked one. This is why electronic earpro such as the ubiquitous Howard Leight Impact Sport (hereafter just Sport) have gained such popularity: amplifying normal volume sounds, while dampening loud noises. The downsides being they’re battery operated (Murphy’s Law), provide less of a noise resistance rating (NRR) than passive muffs and are usually uncomfortable with eye protection (without aftermarket gel cups). With the popularity of the Howard Leight Sport’s, it was with great anticipation that many of us waited for the improved version, the Howard Leight Impact Sport Bolt earpro (hereafter just Bolt’s).

Many have remarked that the images of the Bolt released as far back as 2017’s SHOT Show bore a remarkable resemblance to the elder Sport model. That’s because externally, almost nothing changed. On the inside, Honeywell (manufacturer of a great deal of OSHA related workplace safety equipment) opted for a hardware revamp. Digital compression circuity replaced the outmoded analog circuitry, leading to a much faster “attack time”, or the speed at which the circuitry detects a noise over 82 dB and shuts down the electronic amplification dampening the loud noise. This digital circuitry comes at a price however, as battery life plummets from ~350 hours with the Sport set to ~150 hours with the Bolt set.

Aside from the digital circuitry improving attack time and granting some improved low-level noise amplification (as the cost of battery longevity), the performance metrics are identical to the previous generation. A 22 dB NRR means the Bolt’s are as effective as the Sport’s for attenuating noise once the circuit is compressed. Other shared features are “Airflow control technology”, 4-hour auto-shutoff, 3.5mm AUX jack for audio input, folding design, AAA battery usage and recessed microphones.

Howard Leight Impact Sport Bolt: Attack the noise — Cheekweld? Just fine, thanks.

The headband on the Sport was never lacking, but the material used to line the Bolt seems to be a step up. The ear cups on the Sport were never much good and were replaced with aftermarket Sightlines gel cups to good effect. The Bolt shares a similar set of ear cups as it’s predecessor, meaning replacement would equal improvement.

I want to pause this review for a moment to tell a little story. My first experience with electronic ear pro was terrible, but I’ve since come to respect that they have a place. The location was Nasiriyah, Iraq and the event was the rescue of American POW Jessica Lynch. We had received a few sets of first-gen Peltor electronic earpro a couple weeks prior, and on that night my squad leader decided to ditch his and I jumped on them. Shortly after being dropped off by chopper, we made our way into the heart of the city. The droning of support helicopters overhead and the overly “digital” sound of anything that wasn’t dampened was too jarring and I bailed on the set not a half hour after disembarking the bird. I never wore electronic earpro again while in the service.

Why do I mention the preceding story? Well as it turns out, I love electronic earpro. The first gen Howard Leight Sport‘s are among my favorite, with Peltor also in regular rotation at my range days. Besides the constant “limiting out” of the issued Peltor’s I used on that mission (which was unavoidable with helicopters in such close proximity), the problem I had was with the overly digitized noise quality I was hearing. It was like kids stringing wire between tin cans, but only if someone made a poor cassette copy of that game and played it back. The Leight Sport set has great sound quality, so the Bolt with it’s upgraded audio equipment should be a big improvement. While the “attack time” is improved, the digital circuitry seems like it’s always one bad turn from shrieking feedback into my ears. Minute noises are amplified excessively.

The solution is to simply turn down the volume right? Well, no. The problem isn’t with my volume being cranked up, it’s the actual compression circuitry. Turning it down just means the overly sensitive, digitized sound is quieter, along with everything else. This really negates the benefit of electronic amplification versus simple (and cheap) passive ear muffs. This leaves me in a tough spot, as the Howard Leight brand has engendered a lot of consumer goodwill with the Impact Sport brand, but has missed the mark with the Bolt lineup. Perhaps this is why the Bolt was delayed so long? I know my review set was one of the early ones out the door, and I’ve had it for a while wanting to give it a thorough break in period before the review was up. Perhaps I got a buggy early model, or perhaps the Bolt came out a bit prematurely. Either way, I’ll stick with my Sport set until the problems are ironed out, or a new model is released.

The Bolt set runs $89.95 on the Honeywell website, and can be found for just a couple bucks cheaper elsewhere. If you’ve had a different experience with your set of Bolt‘s, sound off in the comments below!

-Rex Nanorum

@Rexnanorum

The Peltor 500 Tactical Ear Muffs – A Quiet Riot

Hearing protection is something I rarely give much thought to. It all works reasonably well. From the 99 cent disposables to the Peltor 500 Tactical ear pro I’m currently using. The goal of hearing protection is simple, and it’s in the name. Protect my hearing! One of the joys of living in a western capitalist country is choices. A pair of squishies works well, but does something like the Peltor 500 Tactical ear pro offer enough to spend the extra dough on?

“Now you wanna run around talking bout guns like I ain’t got none” – Dr Dre

What Are they?

The Peltor 500 Tactical ear muffs are electronic muffs that do the typical song and dance of reducing loud noises and amplifying low ones. Anything higher than 82 dB will be reduced, and any low-level sounds will be amplified. However, they are trying to do it a little smarter. In fact, they call the system SMART technology.

“Scared to look, they shook, ’cause ain’t no such thing as halfway crooks” Mobb Deep

According to Peltor, the Smart technology ‘measures the energy in a gunshot noise as well as echoes in the environment and automatically sets suppression time for optimized comfort and communication.

This technology offers a variety of shooters some advantages. For example, hunters can hear game approach, you can carry a conversation at an indoor range, and if you are taking classes y,ou can listen to your instructor. The whole time your ears are protected.

They run on double As and have a low battery indicator. If the batteries die, they do still function as ear protection, but you lose your amplification component.

The Peltor 500 Tactical has Teeth! (well a tooth)

The Peltor 500 Tactical muffs also pack a Bluetooth option. Bluetooth lets you pair your phone to your headset. Why would I need to do that? Of course, you can take and receive calls using the headphones and the built-in mic. I see this pretty valuable for large classes for a quick response, and an easy way to address a problem. Let’s not forget this could solve communication problems when pulling pits for rifle ranges.

There is also an AUX cable port and included AUX cable for other noisemaking devices.

“Wit the non-stop, pop pop and stainless steel” – DMX

To me, most importantly, I can listen to music while shooting. If you haven’t caught on the captions of these photos are from some of my favorite rap songs that feature guns.

Protection

Let’s talk protection. I use these mostly at my outdoor, private range and there they work brilliantly. Mostly because I don’t have anyone else to worry about. During a recent out of town CCW class, I had the perfect chance to try them at an indoor range. While it’s much louder indoors, I never had protection issues.

“Gun in the holster be, Right in the upholstery, Somewhere right close to me” – Run the Jewels

I could easily listen to students as other people shot around me. It would have been perfect if every student had a pair of these, but alas I wasn’t giving them up.

Comfort

Oh man, they excel here. I thought my Walker’s were comfortable. These things are lightweight, the ear cups are super soft, and they fit my big head well. I’ll let you guys in on a behind the scenes secret to this job. While I try to take as many action photos as possible, I often fail. This means lots of reshoots, many of them dry to capture that perfect feeling.

“My Glock bursts, leave in a hearse, I did worse” – Wu Tang

Typically when setting up for a shoot (camera kind), I immediately ditch the ear pro and go to work. Just something about wearing ear pro when it isn’t needed irks me. However, with the Peltor 500 Tactical ear muffs, I never felt that way. Maybe it was the Wu-Tang Clan blasting in my ears, but I’m pretty sure it was the comfort level I felt.

I’ve been wearing this exclusively while I work, through different gun reviews and different situations I’ve used them extensively. I’m often wearing them for over an hour after I’m done with any live fire. I just forget they are there. That’s a sign of comfort to me.

Sound Quality

These aren’t designed to give you Bose levels of sound quality, so don’t expect that. The quality is more than enough to listen to music that’s being interrupted by gunshots though. Call quality is great. It’s easy to hear your side, although people have told me it sounds like they are on speakerphone on their side.

“Hand me a nine and I’ll defeat foes” – Nas

Overall I‘m impressed and satisfied. The Peltor 500 Tactical ear muffs are simple, robust, and reliable. The controls are all intuitive and easy to use while wearing the headset. Peltor did a good job, and while the MSRP is 200 bucks, they can be found for less than 150 online. Check ‘em out and let us know what you think.

Peltor Sport Tactical 300 and 500 Electronic Hearing Protectors

The Peltor Sport Electronic Hearing Protectors feature proprietary 3M SMART technology that suppresses harmful gunshot noise above 82 dBA while amplifying low-level sounds. Peltor Sport Electronic Hearing Protectors are ideal for both indoor and outdoor shooters with Clear Voice Tracking that seeks voice within background noise to improve speech intelligibility. Using Dynamic Suppression Time technology, the Peltor Sport Electronic Hearing Protectors optimize the shooting experience by measuring the energy of the gun shot and echoes in the environment to set suppression time.

PELTOR SPORT TACTICAL 300 ELECTRONIC HEARING PROTECTOR:

24 Noise Reduction Rating (NRR)
Mobile device compatible
MSRP: $149.99

PELTOR SPORT TACTICAL 500 ELECTRONIC HEARING PROTECTOR:

26 NRR
Bluetooth® to enable two-way communication and phone function
MSRP: $199.99

ADDITIONAL FEATURES AND BENEFITS:

Vented headband for heat release and increased comfort when worn with hats or caps
Low-profile cushioned cut-away cups with rubber bumpers for long gun use
Durable recessed microphones to reduce wind noise
Easy-to-use button interface and voice guidance for operation without removing the headset
Foldable and compact for storage

Peltor Sport products are available nationwide. Visit 3M.com to find a retailer near you.

Walker Razor Electronic Muffs

This past October my wife and I celebrated our 6th Anniversary and as a gift, she put together a ‘man can’ of my favorite gun goodies. Included in this was a set of Walker Razor earmuffs. I had wanted new a set of electronic muffs for some time. My last set grew a pair of legs between moving from Camp Lejeune back to Florida. My wife luckily picked up on a few stray comments that I had wanted a pair for some time and took the initiative. I sat on the fence for some time simply because I wasn’t that impressed by my last pair and didn’t know if another pair would be worth it. In reality, I should have invested in a set of Walker earmuffs a long time ago.

If you are on the fence about electric hearing protection but are a serious shooter, consider what Larry Vickers says about electronic hearing protection on his website.

“Attending the class without electronic ear protection is brain dead.”

As someone who teaches basic firearms classes to small groups, this isn’t a major concern for me. However, I have noticed students who take my class who wear electronic hearing protection tend to get more out of the class. They also tend to be safer students because they can easily listen to range commands without having to remove their ear pro.

Walker Razor Review

The Razor’s gain their name from their compact nature. The Razor earmuffs are super thin and fold up very easily for storage and carry. They fit into the small pouch of my range bag or into my cargo pants when totally folded up. Tese earmuffs are lightweight but are wired framed without much plastic in their construction.

They are quite comfortable, and I have a big head. Like an XL helmet size head. The Razors fit comfortably without pinching or pulling. The padded earmuffs keep sound out and keep the earmuffs comfortable for extended periods of time.

Speaker Quality

This was a big issue with my first pair of electronic earmuffs. The speaker quality sucked and sometimes made it difficult to understand people. The Walker Razor earmuffs boast two high-definition speakers that made it very easy to hear people, to hear the wind, or to even hear people moving around you.

Since I can pay closer attention to my surroundings I generally feel safer while running a range. No one will sneak up on me mistakenly and create an unsafe situation. As an added bonus there is an input point. This allows a user to plug-in an aux cord and listen to an outside source. I wouldn’t recommend it on the range, but you can listen to music through these speakers. I generally wear earmuffs when I mow the yard or run a weed eater, chainsaw, or circular saw. In those situations, I do enjoy listening to music.

Ear Protection

These Walker Razor earmuffs have an NRR rating of 23dbs. This sufficient for all outdoor use for most small arms. Indoor use of full powered rifles in anything louder than a standard 16-inch barrel 5.56 may want to double up. The loudest weapon I tested was an M92 AK pistol outdoors, and I had no issues. Indoors maybe a bit different. though. These are compact earmuffs that retail in 45 dollar range so you can color me impressed.

They start sound compression at .2 seconds, so you are never at risk for a shot sneaking through at full volume. Being able to hear your shots as a distant noise is interesting, but you get used to it pretty quickly.

Parting shots

The Walker Razor Earmuffs run off of two double A batteries and have lasted me about 40 hours on one set of batteries. How long they last will largely be determined by how loud you keep the volume since it is completely adjustable.

The control is a single knob that turns the unit on and off, as well as adjusts the volume. It’s simple and easy to use one-handed. The Walker Razor ear muffs are comfortable, easy to use, and incredibly convenient. If you are looking for an affordable and effective set of earmuffs I wouldn’t hesitate to suggest the Walker Razor Earmuffs.

The essential range-day loadout

Shooting sports are a popular family event for many of us, so we figured it was time to get people brainstorming and talking about what equipment they take to the range with them. I go to the range for different reasons: Sometimes it’s to test out a new gun build or to help friends with theirs, other times it’s with my family to just relax and have fun.

I always have a basic loadout I take with me no matter the reason I’m shooting. I’m a fan of simple things; my usual gearbox is a .50-caliber ammo can and a patrol bag I picked up from L.A. Police Gear that has been discontinued and replaced with their Jumbo Range Bag.

Inside the patrol bag, I put the following:

These are the basics I put in the range bag. I also make sure that my individual first-aid kit (IFAK) is attached to it. My range IFAK contains QuickClot gauze and a SWAT-T tourniquet in the unfortunate case of someone getting struck by a bullet. A good all-in-one package that I have seen a lot of people use on the range instead of a full IFAK is the Outdoor Adventure Trauma Pack.

A standard-issue .50-caliber ammo can is the other major component of my range loadout. They are available at Wal-Mart and at almost any Army-surplus store and are very affordable. I only use metal cans because plastic tends to shatter in the sub-zero winter temperatures where I live. Inside the can, I store extra magazines for whatever weapons I am shooting, plus the following items:

Generally, I keep things in the ammo can that have to do with feeding or cleaning whatever weapon I am using that day. You will notice I have two types of MagLula/Butler Creek magazine loaders in my kit. These are wonderful tools that make loading and unloading magazines a quick process and saves the tips of your fingers. If you shoot often, it might be worth it to look and see if they make them for your particular weapon.

That’s an inside look into the basic loadout I put in my car when I load up to head to the range. Occasionally, I will toss in a few more tools, or knee pads when I know I am going to be shooting from prone or kneeling positions.

What’s your range-day loadout?