Long time fans of ThruMyLens know that I used to be a competitive shooter, and for several years competed in shooting disciplines like 3-Gun, USPSA, and Steel Challenge.  Every increasing demands on my time as well as age forced me to shift back into simply recreational shooting.  But during the time that I was shooting competitively, I was going through 1000-2000 rounds a month, and shooting 1-2 matches a week, I went through a LOT of gear.  And I had the opportunity to try a lot of different kinds of hearing protection.

Through much of my competitive shooting career, I wore MSA Sordin ear protection – apparently MSA and Sordin have parted ways, and now the company which markets and sells ear protection is just Sordin.  But the model I wore was the Sordin Pro-X Ear Muffs that were about $300.00 when I bought them ten years ago.  For 90% of my uses, they were excellent.  They were one of the first sets of hearing protection which offered gel pads around your ears so they were EXTREMELY comfortable relative to the competition.  I competed at the State and National level in both USPSA and Steel Challenge, and those Level II and III matches started early in the morning and often you were on the range most of the day, so comfort was an important factor.  The two biggest problems I had with the Sordin Ear Muffs were two-fold.  Firstly, the most common complaint you’ll read about the Sordin Ear Muffs is that changing the batteries were a huge pain, and it was extraordinarily difficult to remove a battery stuck down in the battery well.  Second, the decibel rating for noise cancellation was on the low end at that time at ~24 decibels.  Which was fine in most instances, but get an Open Division shooter on your squad shooting a compensated .38 Super or 9mm, and you’ll soon wish you had doubled up on your hearing protection.  But doubling up would make it difficult to hear range commands from the Range Officer as well as the buzz of the timer, so that’s not something you did in competition.  But their comfort and slim design were really what sold me.  I also had a pair of 3M Peltor Tactical 500 Ear Muffs in my bag.  They’re about half the price of the Sordin Ear Muffs, and actually provide about 2 decibels more hearing protection (rated for ~26 decibels) which made life tolerable even when compensated AR-15’s were shot in a 3-Gun match.  The problem is they were much less comfortable.  I could wear them for a couple of hours of practice on the range, but would not want to use them in a match.  They also were much thicker and sometimes made getting a good cheek weld while shooting rifle or shotgun difficult.  So I mostly used my MSA Sordin ear protection for many years, but brought out the 3M Peltor set occasionally.  It was about two years ago that I went out to the range to get some fun practice in when I reached into my bag and discovered much to my dismay that one of the gel cup inserts on my MSA Sordin Ear Muffs had either been punctured or blew out and had leaked gel on the inside of my range bag.  Since then I’ve kept saying that I needed to order another set of the gel cap inserts, but kept on using my 3M Peltor Tactical 500 hearing protection for my range sessions.

This year I decided it was time to get another set of hearing protection that better suited my needs.  I can’t say I’m planning to return to serious competition, but I could well jump into the occasional local Steel Challenge match.  So having a premium set of hearing protection was something I saw as worthwhile.  After scanning the marketplace and researching options, it looked as the the Safariland Liberator HP 2.0 Hearing Protection was the answer.  And having used the Liberator HP 2.0 for a few weeks now, I can confidently say that it provides everything I liked about my set of MSA Sordin ear protection (and then some…which I’ll discuss) but also solves my two biggest problems with them.

You can probably find a set of Liberator HP 2.0 ear pro at any number of vendors, but I’d recommend ordering them directly from the Safariland website because you get the opportunity personally select every available option, like color, battery type, and the type of padding used in the ear cup.  It felt like a custom order which I appreciated.

First and foremost, the Liberator HP 2.0 set solves my biggest problem with my MSA – the decibel rating.  The Liberator HP 2.o has a noise reduction rating of ~26db.  A difference of just 2db doesn’t sound like a lot, but keep in mind that Decibels are logarithmic, not linear. A 3 dB change is the point where sound energy is cut in half (or doubled).  So a 2 db improvement means the Liberator HP 2.0 reduces noise energy by roughly ~37% more than the Sordins.  That’s enough of a difference to make both Open division pistols and comped AR-15’s in 3-Gun tolerable without needing to “double up” on hearing protection.

The second problem the Liperator HP 2.0 solves for me is the annoying battery changes associated with the Sordin set.  Safari land has a simple, straight forward battery compartment that’s securely fastened.

Just unlatch the fastener, swing open the battery door, and the batteries are easily changed.

The model I ordered came with the “duel fuel” battery compartment that’s compatible with either AAA or CR123 batteries.  Pretty slick.

One thing I noted was how remarkably similar the Liberator HP 2.0 ear pro is to the MSA Sordin set it replaced.  You can see in the above photo it has a very similar slim profile that works well when shooting pistols or long guns. I selected the gel cup option when I ordered and found the Liberator HP 2.0 to be at least as comfortable as the MSA Sordins.

Ergonomics were also quite similar with a simple, easy to find and use three button layout – “Power”, “Volume Up,” and “Volume Down.”

Holding down the volume “+” and “-” buttons simultaneously will take you from the default Mode 1 to Mode 2.  Repeat the process for Mode 3.  Mode 2 provides maximum active noise camcelation for extremely noisy environments.   Mode three provides maximum noise reduction and active noise cancellation while allowing the human voice to be heard.

I’ve had the Safariland Liberator HP 2.0 hearing protection for a few range sessions and I’m quite pleased with them – best set I’ve owned to date.  They’re not cheap – with the options I selected, my set ran $359.98 (I did get a bit of a discount bringing the price down to $305.99).  About what I paid for my MSA Sordin set several years ago.  But I shoot quite a bit and value my hearing – hopefully you do as well.