A few years ago, most my trigger time was spent outdoors. For outdoor use, the Howard Leight Impact Sport is a great muff. It's light, low profile and very effective at reducing gun shots to a comfortable volume. I also had no problem hearing the people around me--in fact, it actually improved my hearing and could give you an advantage in a home defense situation (more on this later). Unlike some cheaper competitors, they also have an auto-shutoff, which kills the electronic functions if the muffs are left on for more than 4 hours. For me, this is critical since I am notorious for leaving on my electronics. I haven't had to change the battery on my impact sports after 2 years of use. Last winter, I starting going to an indoor range near my office to keep up with my training (too cold, snowy for an outdoor range in my neck of the woods). My indoor range is about the worst possible environment for hearing safety you can imagine. It's a 30 yard range made entirely of concrete, including the walls for each point. There are 5 points to a room and no limit on what you can shoot (up to 50bmg from a rifle, but shotguns are limited to slugs only). With 12 foot ceilings and NO sound deadening materials to speak of, you need to rely on you muffs entirely to keep you eardrums from exploding. In this environment, the Impact Sports are NOT up to the task. My first time indoors, I quickly discovered that the lmpact Sports offered almost no protection by themselves. I had double up with foam plugs before I could shoot comfortably. Unfortunately, with the foam plugs, the electronic hearing enhancement was almost useless. I ultimately purchased the Impact Pro muffs in September 2016 (so I have had them for over a year now). They Impact Pro offers essentially the same electronic hearing enhancement (with auto-shutoff) as the Impact Sport, but with a much heavier, bulkier profile that substantially improves the Impact Pro's noise reduction abilities when compared to the Impact Sport (31 decibel reduction compared to 22 decibel). My ears are safe, even when the range is filled with big bore rifles, AR's and shotguns. I can also carry a conversation with the Impact Pro on--just have to play with the volume a bit to find a good balance. The Impact Pro is, however, far from perfect. After switching to the Pro's, I had to adjust my cheek weld because these bulky muffs were in the way. I also find it can be tricky to wear these with a hat and eye protection because the hat and eye protect can cause the muffs to break their seal with your head, letting in dangerously loud sounds. I can tweak how I wear my glasses/goggles, but this can cause other issues by either reducing the protection from my eye protection or causing me to wear my eye protection in a way that makes it heard to aim well. In short, if I had a better, reasonably priced option for protecting my ears at an indoor range that allowed me to hear what is going on around me--without the bulk and compromises I have to make with the Impact Pro--I would jump all over it. If I am shooting outdoors, I would go for the Impact Sports over these every single time. However, for the purpose of shooting at a LOUD indoor range, this is really the only option I have come up with that fits my needs and costs less than $100 on Amazon. I know there are other options out there, but the cost of going to a custom made electronic plug is just not feasible for me. So, the Impact Pro's are my go to option for indoor shooting--at least for the time being. For this reason, I am giving them five stars (but with a caveat). Side Note: I also keep an extra pair of the Impact Sports, with fresh batteries, in my hidden gun safe in my bedroom for home defense purposes. The electronic noise filter on both the Sport and Pro muffs (I would guess they are almost the same, if not actually the same, electronics uses in both pairs) does an outstanding job of amplifying and enhancing low volume sounds. I can put them on in my bedroom, crank up the volume and hear my kids talking softly at the other end of the house. If you have never used a pair of electronic muffs, it can be quite starting the first couple of times you have them on. I expect this could give me a big advantage in a home invasion situation, where the introducers have nothing on their ears and I have the hearing of a fox. :) The Impact Sport and/or Pro are worth owning for this reason alone.
