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Wayne:
Nope, I've just got "conventional" muffs, 30 db'ers. They seem to do the job well enough. That, and I've trained myself to tune out just about everything around me on the firing line. It comes from doing so much target archery, where you don't use any ear protection at all. We used to train ourselves to ignore everything, up to and including throwing paper wads at whoever was shooting -- sounds crazy, I know, but it pays off come tournament time.
Besides that, I just trained myself a long time ago to just tune out everything I'm not interested in. If it doesn't concern me, I ignore it, it just becomes background noise -- especially when I am busy like at work or while at the range. So, cell phone conversations close by, even when not at the range, just don't register to me. It is one of those "Mind over Matter" things -- I don't mind that others want to have a phone conversation, so it just doesn't matter to me. Whatever it is they are talking about, it isn't any of my business, and I've got much better things to do than obsess over someone wanting to have a conversation that doesn't involve me, or to get all worked out of shape over it like so many people do. Like, for instance, keeping my mind on what it is I'm doing at the time.
Oh, BTW -- Way back when, I used to have a set of those "Sonic Ear Valve" plugs, and they seemed to be pretty good at letting me hear normal coversations while protecting the hearing at the range -- ok, not as good as my current muffs, but still not too bad. Anyway, they got lost in a move and never got replaced, and now I just use the muffs.
Bobby:
Yep -- you get it. Learn to do what it is you do under adverse conditions -- even while people are going out of their way to distract you, because when it comes crunch time you sure can't be assured of "perfect" conditions.
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