Howard Leight Impact Sport electronic ear muffs are the most popular electronic hearing protection that I see out at the range. They’re inexpensive at around $50-60 CAD, they collapse down very small, they have a slim profile that doesn’t jam into rifle and shoulder stocks as badly as bigger sets, and the electronics are OK for the price. While they’re normally pretty well priced on Amazon, I got this set at Bullseye North for a bit cheaper.
Fakes: Note that there are a ton of fakes and knockoffs of these Howard Leights. Beware if the packaging, battery connections, etc are different because you might have a knockoff that has crappier components.
Howard Leight Impact Sport Specifications
- Uses 2 AAA batteries
- Aux jack in
- 4 hour auto battery shutoff
- Max battery life: 350 hours
- Stereo microphones
- 22 db NRR
- Foam ear cups
Audio quality and Usability
Electronic ear muffs like these vary mostly in how good the audio is: both the speakers used and mostly, in the microphones and electronics. Although the Impact Sports are among the cheapest, their audio quality isn’t the worst. I’d say that the audio is slightly better than the cheaper Caldwell e-Max muffs, MUCH better than the Walker Razors, and much worse than the Peltor 3M Sport Tacticals (which is ok, because they cost 3X more). Volume is great and the ability to directionally locate where a sound is coming from is OK.
If you’re going to use the aux port on a regular basis, I’d recommend using a 90 degree connector so that it doesn’t stick out the back as bad.
Usability wise, the Impact Sports are pretty good. I love how compact they collapse down: it makes it easy to store them in a truck center console or a glovebox, and the extending wires move smoothly into the plastic arms that attach to the cups.
Improving comfort: adding gel cups
On the last set of Howard Leights, I installed Noisefighter Gel Cups. They’re solid, but they’re also $50. On this new set, I opted to try a set of $29 gel cups off Amazon. They’re great, my kid loves em, and I’d highly recommend you make the switch on yours.
Impact Sports vs the Competition
At the value-priced end of the market where the Howard Leight Impact Sports live, there’s not much competition. You can go slightly cheaper to a single microphone muff, but don’t do that because they’re bad. Walker’s Razors are in this price range, but in my opinion, they’re a worse headset than the Impact Sports: both in cup rotator quality and mostly in how bad the electronics are in them. The design is also better than the Caldwell e-Max. If you’ve got a bit more coin ($150), the 3M Peltor Tactical Sports have fantastically better microphone quality. If you don’t want to spend the coin, the Impact Sports are where you want to be.
