walkers game ear

[mossberg man]

I admit it my hearing is not what it used to be. Guess I'll blame it on listing to my wife all the time. Anyone had any experience with the game ear?

[GSP]

I admit it my hearing is not what it used to be. Guess I'll blame it on listing to my wife all the time. Anyone had any experience with the game ear?
No, cause I don't won't to hear mine any better! :)

[COJOMAY]

I've tried 'em all and believe me, none of them live up to their expectations.

The older style (over the ear) Game Ear is always falling off and getting caught in the brush. It does work well, but just a pain in the butt to use.
The "muff" style is too hot for my liking but is probably the best of the bunch.
I've gotten to the point where I just went to Wal-Mart and bough a pair of Game Ear copies for just a few bucks and they work as well as any of them in my estimation.
But if you want the best, go to your hearing aid dealer and get a professional hearing aid that fits in the ear.

[woodsnwater]

My dad's hearing has gotten pretty bad from 35 years in the coal mines, so we got him one of the models that goes in the ear for Christmas a couple of years ago. He says it makes a pretty big difference, at least enough so that he still uses it. Like anything else, you won't really know how it works for you until you try it.

[mossyhorns]

You can get a professionally fitted and adjusted set for about what the top of the line digital game ears would run. Game ears are hearing aids but they call them "hearing enhancers" to get around the regs on hearing aids. I tried various models at the Walker's booth in Nashville last Sunday -- the high end digital model is definitely superior to the analog. They are also skewed to the high end of the frequency spectrum to enhance the sound of game walking in dry leaves. Believe me, they will enhance the sound of turkeys, too.

If you don't have a lot of high frequency hearing loss, those things would drive you nuts. A boost in the higher frequencies will cause listener fatigue in short order. Crunching leaves, blue jays, woodpeckers, and such sounds would be like fingernails on a chalkboard. If you have noticable hearing loss, it will be in a specific range of frequencies that an audiologist can identify and then custom adjust a pair of hearing aids to compensate.

I have questions about the protection that game ears provide. I have talked with audiologists and ear specialists who say that the devices fail to limit loud noises (gunshots) quickly enough to prevent damage to the ear. At the very least, a person should always wear some sort of hearing protection in the "off-side" ear (ear turned toward muzzle while shooting).

[mossberg man]

thanks mossy horns. Can you get custom hearing aids that reduce muzzle blast or are they going to amplify it? I've also heard that if you didn't use two it messed up your ability to tell which direction yhe sound came from. Is this so? I've also heard that the original game ear doesn't work well when the wind is blowing. What about this?

[Hunt4Ever]

A buddy of mine has used one, and he definitely commented on how with just one, he could tell where the sound was coming from.:(

[Hunt4Ever]

A buddy of mine has used one, and he definitely commented on how with just one, he could tell where the sound was coming from.:(

Sorry, that was supposed to read "couldn't tell where the sound was coming from" :D

[mossyhorns]

Just like you use two eyes for depth perception, you use both ears to triangulate the source of the sound for locaton. As far as I know, all regular hearing aids have compression/limiting circuitry that would not amplify the sound of the shot. Compression is where a loud sound is mashed down to a manageable level. Limiting is where the device cuts off the sound completely at a certain level. The game ear rep said their's cut off at 110 db. That's pretty loud.

The older and cheaper units are analog as compared with the newer digital models. Any of them will pick up wind noise and amplify it but the digital models are better at cutting that kind of noise out.

THe problem with these devices, hearing aid or hunting enhancer alike, is that it takes a certain amount of time (in milliseconds) for the device to register the sound pressure level (spl) and clam down on the amplifier. The longer it takes to clamp down on the sound (the attack), the more potential exists for hearing damage. THis is especially pronounced in the non-amplified ear plugs with valves that allow normal spls to pass through but clamp down on loud noises. The rate of attack is too slow to prevent damage to the ear.

I assume that reputable manufacturers like Walkers have hearing aid quality compression/limiter capabilities built in. I would be suspicious of the cheapie rigs that are probably nothing more than a cheap mic and speaker rigged to deliver amplified sound directly to your eardrum.

I spoke with an audiologist today and he still maintains that the only true protection from muzzle blast is the ear plug or headset muffs.

[turk2di]

I've tried 'em all and believe me, none of them live up to their expectations.

The older style (over the ear) Game Ear is always falling off and getting caught in the brush. It does work well, but just a pain in the butt to use.
The "muff" style is too hot for my liking but is probably the best of the bunch.
I've gotten to the point where I just went to Wal-Mart and bough a pair of Game Ear copies for just a few bucks and they work as well as any of them in my estimation.
But if you want the best, go to your hearing aid dealer and get a professional hearing aid that fits in the ear.
Ah, the voice of reason. Thanks for saving me some bucks!

[N2MyWake]

I would think they have limiters on these that won't allow sound from a certain decible range. I wouldn't think it would be a matter of it deciding if the noise was too loud not to amplify it, it would just be capped off so it's not capable of exceeding that limit.


(I'm no hearing expert, LOL)