I've been trying - so far in vain - to get suitable hearing protection for my wife.  Nothing fits.  

Regular size earplugs weren't comfortable for her.  So we got some of the special pink, Howard Leight lady-sized ones.  That problem is solved.  

Unfortunately, for anything more powerful than .22 LR, plugs alone aren't going to cut it.

I had a pair of passive earmuffs that didn't quite fit her.  Another pair was basically worn out.  The adhesive holding the ear seals to the muff bodies was hardly sticking any more, so they weren't good enough either.

The last thing we tried was a pair of Howard Leight Impact Sport electronic earmuffs.  I've worn these for years, but they didn't fit her. She's not tiny (5'6" and north of 120 lb.), but the ear cups did not form a good seal around her ears.  I think her head is so small that the headband of the Impact Sports can't put pressure on the cups to sit the right way.  The ear cups sat a good 1/4" to 1/2" away from her head at the bottom, and a lot of noise was getting through.  I returned these earmuffs.

Any suggestions?  Other than going to a store with a lot of different earmuffs and trying them all until we find a good fit, I'm out of ideas.

Everything felt like crap and even doubling up on plugs and muffs wasn't awesome. Then I was given some electronic peltors. I even sleep in them. Use them for yard work too. I'm itty bitty, though I never thought that muffs didn't fit me because of it, I just figured they were crap muffs that didn't fit good.

Hope this helps.

Foam inners with passive or active outers is more or less the gold standard of non-bespoke hearing protection.

I've survived raw roadie work at rock concerts with dinner napkins chewed swiftly into plugs and stuffed into my ears ad-hoc.

The fit doesn't have to be perfect, just good enough.  If good enough isn't good enough, then she shouldn't be around what disturbs her.  Sorry.

Went through the same thing with my GF. We eventually found these:





They're good and they work. The muffs are just not quite as spongy as my Peltor Pros so she gets fatigued with them after a while.


I'm getting us both MSA Sordins for xmas. I know several women that shoot practical pistol at my club and they all wear MSAs.

Peltor or Howard Leight Impact Sport.

I use the ones for kids.

This. I have a set that I bought at a gun show a few years ago. They are my go to set. A bit tight, but I don't have to worry about it not working.

I've been looking at the PRO EARS REVO for my young daughters..

I am happy to report that we found earmuffs that work for my wife.

We took a chance on a set of Howard Leight Leightning L3 earmuffs from a local shop.  They were willing to let us return them if they didn't fit.

It turns out they do fit.  They form a good seal around her ears, and also aren't too tight.

This afternoon at the range, she was finally comfortable shooting again.  So much so that she shot several magazines out of my M&P Shield .40 S&W, with no complaints.

We'll see about active noise-cancelling earmuffs later.  For now, I wanted to get her the maximum protection possible, since the main thing she was having a problem with was noise.  That was all down to ill-fitting earplugs and earmuffs.  The L3's are rated at 30 dB NRR.  Together with the 30 dB NRR earplugs, she was getting about 33 dB of protection.

Thanks for your suggestions.