Looks lke I wasnt photogenic enough to make it in any pictures.
A few additionl notes:
LAV said he wanted to make Electronic Ear-pro mandatory for upcoming classes.
He said you miss to much with standard ear pro. Sell a kidney, sell a son if you have too, just show up with electronic ear-pro.
ATS staff were friendly and accomadating, realy enhanced the environment.
The facilities were nice, the food was good, the team environment is great, and the price is unbeatable. If you train at Ares, there is no reason to stay anywhere else.
Can’t wait to train at Ares again, and am saving pennies for the next time LAV comes this way. I can’t reccomend his training enough.
Maybe I’m strange, but I’ve never had a problem hearing an instructor even with standard muffs on. I never really needed electronic ear pro to hear anyone talk.
I can understand why instructors would want to make it a requirement, though…
I haven’t either, but it doesn’t stop these people from wearing plugs, insisting on standing on one end or the other, and then complaining the whole time that they can’t hear.
As much as it is to learn, these classes are even moreso to unlearn.
Hopefully, the ‘that guy’ just needs to take what he was taught and use it to unlearn some of the things that are dogging him.
In many respects, It would benefit Larry and us if we showed up the very first time largely a ‘tabula rasa’. Unfortunately, we seldom are. Sometimes this is a good thing but more often it is not.
An example:
How many of us learned bad habits playing with cap pistols growing up?
A cap pistol is nothing more than ‘El Snatcho Jr.’ for kids.
Correct muscle memory takes time and effort.
I once heard it takes ten times the effort to expunge a bad habit than it does to learn something correctly the first time. I believe it.
You maybe the exception. Their are a few instances were folks can’t hear the “beep” or verbal commands, to perform some of the move and shoot drills because of not wearing electronic earpro. I know quite a few folks who wear ear plugs with the conventional head sets and can’t hear nada. I think it’s a valid request as far as safety is concerned.
Doc b had a lot of problems hearing with his earplugs. It is a safety issue.
I had a pair of wally world earmuffs, and I didn’t have any problems hearing instructions, but with electronic ear pro starting under $50, there’s no reason not to own a pair.
You will find them for $40-45 plus shipping. Easy to find on the net. At that price, if they break you can get another pair. A friend of mine bought them on my recomendation and is very happy with them, so far. N.N.R. 22.
16" carbines are metered routinely at 168dB. I suspect that 10" guns, like Dinger and I run, are a little louder.
At electronic ear-pro @ 19 or 22dB reduction is still letting 146-149dB through. I could not have shot our Vickers Mod class with just the Peltor 6S’s on…especially with Dinger’s 10" HK upper blasting the hell out of me.
I beleive that above 130 decibels is considered harmful. I guess that is why many guys wear plugs inside the electronic muffs. I wear one plug in my bad ear and leave the other without, just to make sure I don’t miss any commands.
The problem I see is how few do it, or how many times I still hear them say “huh? What’s the drill?” afterwards.
I generally won’t run more than 10 guys on a line, and I STILL get people that don’t hear the range commands and I’m by no means a quiet guy.
Frankly I’d like to see an instructor demand electronic earpro with an input jack and hand out FRS (or make you bring your own) radios.
If wearing plugs works for someone and they’re getting all the drills etc. then I don’t care what kind of hearing protection they wear. The problem is that most turn into an 80 year old man with plugs in; stone deaf, constantly asking what was said, don’t even realize they’re doing it, insist on behaving like they can still hear, and denying all of the above and insisting they’re fine when confronted.
I wear plugs under my Sordins all the time. Two clicks down from max is equalized to be the same as no hearing protection, so when wearing plugs I turn the volume all the way up. I can still hear the range commands, better than most people without earpro at all, but have double protection.
I always thought it worked that way as well, but according the the two audiologists who did my last two hearing waivers double hearing protection only gives you about 7-8% increase in protection. It’s still better than muffs by themselves, but not double like many of us non-audiologists think. They explained how it works, but it was too complicated for my knuckle dragger brain.
I understand all that as pertains to the science of it all in terms of dB and all that stuff, I’m just talking “double” in terms of two sets. Run a shooter with an SBR and a Miculek brake next to a wall or down a corridor with only the muffs and then run the same shooter with the muffs and plugs, and I guarantee you’ll view it as “double” too!
While I understand that I’m doing it wrong, all I ever really care about is the pain threshold, and if muffs only hurts and muffs with plugs doesn’t, I call it good!
