Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I'm a competitive shooter so hearing protection is really important. In my experience, I have found that over the ear muffs always give me a headache. Mostly because they press the arms of my protective glasses into the side of my head. Inner ear buds or those spongy expanding buds always irritate my inner ear. To the point where I have to take them out to try to scratch the inside of my ear. I've been wanting custom molded ear plugs for a long time but could not justify the hundreds of dollars that most companies charge. I found these on a random google search one day and at first it was the multitude of colors that drew me in. After a few days of research and finding out that a lot of my fellow shooters used these I decided to give them a try. I was still pretty hesitant since they do sit in your ear so I was concerned about the itching problem. The whole molding process is easy. You set select the correct bud size for your ear, plug up the hole with the included plug, stick one in boiling water for about 5 minutes, let it cool slightly and then stick it in your ear and go about molding it the way you want it. You let it dry/harden, which honestly doesn't take more than a couple minutes and then repeat with the same steps with the other ear. If you mess up or don't like the way it looks you just stick it back in boiling water and start over. I used them for the first time at a match this last weekend and they were fantastic. The blocked out just about everything. I was still able to hear the range officer, the beep of the timer, and conversations near me, but the sound of firing guns was muffled quite a bit. I'm an open shooter that shoots 9mm major ammunition so the sound is quite a bit louder than a standard 9mm. The best part? My ears didn't itch! I'm probably going to pick up a few more pairs as gifts for my close shooting friends and maybe even as back up. The next best thing would be having the electronic ear buds, but really, are they necessary? My only complaint is that I wish the two buds were some how connected. That way I wouldn't have to hold onto one if I did take it out and risk losing it. it would just be on a string of some sort connected to the other one.