Our ears were designed before guns were so they tend not to cope with gunshots terribly well. As a result many if not most people who get involved in the shooting sports finish up with some level of hearing loss, me included. Hearing loss is often not reversible and the hearing specialist I consulted has said to me that the problem is in the inner ear and not repairable. So despite my having been conscientious about the use of hearing protection at the shooting range we don’t normally have the benefit of hearing protection when we are out hunting or on a vermin control shoot – until now.
Axil SportEAR devices are designed to not only protect your hearing against gunshot damage but also to enhance the sounds around you, cutting off loud gunshot noise when it happens and providing enhanced hearing when it isn’t. Its a product I would have liked to have had back in 1971 when I first started shooting seriously both for use out hunting and for use on the shooting range.
The video below is a SportEAR commercial that gives a quick forty second simulation of the difference between hunting and shooting with and without SportEAR enhancement and protection.
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Axil SportEAR come at different levels of performance at correspondingly different prices. The top of the range is the SportEAR 360 which offers the highest levels of enhancement and sound quality. Technical specifications from Axil’s website are reproduced below along with links to each product.
Custom 360
• Tailored, Custom Fit
• 48 dB Volume Gain
• Higher fidelity audio than 90 Series
• 27 dB Noise Reduction Rating
• Digital Hearing Compression (Blocks noise over 85 dB)
• 4x Background Noise Reduction
• Wind Cover for Microphone
• Lifetime Re-Programmable Guarantee
The SportEAR 360 Custom Edge can be found if you click here.
Custom 90
• Tailored, Custom Fit
• 42 dB Volume Gain
• Higher fidelity audio than 60 Series
• 27 dB Noise Reduction Rating
• Digital Hearing Compression (Blocks noise over 85 dB)
• 3x Background Noise Reduction
• Wind Cover for Microphone
• Lifetime Re-Programmable Guarantee
The SportEAR 90 Custom Edge can be found if you click here.
Custom 60
• Tailored, Custom Fit
• 36 dB Volume Gain
• Higher fidelity audio than 30 Series
• 27 dB Noise Reduction Rating
• Digital Hearing Compression (Blocks noise over 85 dB)
• 2x Background Noise Reduction
• Wind Cover for Microphone
• Lifetime Re-Programmable Guarantee
You will find the SportEAR 60 Custom Edge if you click here.
Custom 30
• Tailored, Custom Fit
• 30 dB Volume Gain
• High Fidelity Audio
• 27 dB Noise Reduction Rating
• Digital Hearing Compression (Blocks noise over 85 dB)
• 2x Background Noise Reduction
• Wind Cover for Microphone
You will find the SportEAR 30 if you click here.
If you are not yet ready to try out the more expensive Custom Edge models of the SportEAR there is a non-custom model called the Ghost Stryke which is an entry level device but still providing hearing enhancement along with protection from damaging sounds such as gunshots.
The Ghost Stryke is available in different colors to suit taste; black, red, pink and tan.
You will find the Ghost Stryke on Axil’s website if you click here.
You can also find Ghost Stryke on Amazon if you click here.
There is a four part series of reviews of SportEAR on YouTube presented by James Yeager of Tactical Response below so you can get an impression of the custom fitting procedure and performance of the SportEAR products.
At Revivaler we have not had the opportunity to personally test SportEAR yet but look forward to doing so in the future.
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(Feature image at the head of this post courtesy westleyrichards.com).
Jon Branch is the founder and senior editor of Revivaler and has written a significant number of articles for various publications including official Buying Guides for eBay, classic car articles for Hagerty, magazine articles for both the Australian Shooters Journal and the Australian Shooter, and he’s a long time contributor to Silodrome.
Jon has done radio, television, magazine and newspaper interviews on various issues, and has traveled extensively, having lived in Britain, Australia, China and Hong Kong. His travels have taken him to Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan and a number of other countries. He has studied the Japanese sword arts and has a long history of involvement in the shooting sports, which has included authoring submissions to government on various firearms related issues and assisting in the design and establishment of shooting ranges.
