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Jesse's Hunting > Hunting Articles > Hunting Gear > Get Your Game Ear On
Get Your Game Ear On
Holly Heyser -JHO ProStaff
- Sacramento, CA
February 06, 2008
“Bird coming up behind you! … Holly! On your left!”
Whizzzzzzz.
I couldn’t actually hear the sound of the duck speeding away – I just saw its backside when it was way too late to shoot.
It was opening weekend at the Delevan National Wildlife Refuge in Maxwell, Calif., and my earplugs had thwarted me once again.
Delevan is a primo public refuge, thick with birds. But while my hunting partners bagged limits or near-limits that morning, I went home with one duck. I missed at least five opportunities just because I couldn’t hear my partners alerting me to incoming birds.
This had been my plight for my first year of hunting.
My hearing was in trouble going into this sport, damaged by years of loud music and a particularly bad ear infection. I knew I’d need to wear protection in the field if I wanted to have any hearing left in my old age.
Unobtrusive but effective
The Walker's Game Ear II fits comfortably over the author's ears, and provides amplification for those hard-to-hear sounds, but protects her from the damaging sounds of gunshots. |
Here’s how it works: The device consists of two parts. One is a pair of cylindrical foam earplugs that reduce all sound by 29 decibels. The other is a microphone/amplication device that hooks over your ear like a hearing aid, amplifying sounds by as much as 48 decibels, depending on where you set the volume. The amplified sounds go through a tiny plastic tube that shoots through a hole in one of the earplugs, right into your ear. The amplifier puts out no more than 110 decibels, so when your gun goes off, typically at more than 140 decibels, it sounds as muffled as it would with earplugs alone.
The distinction between Game Ear II and the original Game Ear is that the newer version has a frequency tuner that allows you to choose the frequency you’d like to amplify most, e.g., higher-pitched sounds versus lower-pitched sounds.
The first time I took the Game Ear out for a test drive was for my club’s pheasant opener. I was alone, so the organizer paired me up with Brian, another solo hunter who had a dog, and off we went through the plowed rice fields.
I turned up the volume and started walking. Everything sounded great. I could hear other hunters talking to us from 75 yards away, and of course I could hear everything Brian said to me. Including, “Did you hear that?”
“What?” I said. A pheasant had cackled, but I’d turned my frequency pretty low, so the Game Ear wasn’t picking it up. In this case, hearing the pheasant wasn’t as important as watching the dog work, so I didn’t worry about it. There wasn’t anything I could do, anyway: Changing the frequency requires a tiny screwdriver that comes with the package, but I’d left it in my car so I wouldn’t lose it in the field.
The next day, I went duck hunting with my friend Matt, his brother Steve, and his friend John at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area. Before we went out, I tuned the frequency a bit higher so I could be alert to the bird sounds I’d be looking for. But it didn’t take long to realize that I could no longer hear Matt, who has a pretty deep voice.
I could hear the ducks and geese just great, though, picking up the sounds of a coming flock as often as not before my hunting partners, who weren’t wearing hearing protection. Of equal if not greater importance, I could hear my own calling, no longer left guessing whether if it actually sounded right.
As my morning at Yolo wore on, I discovered that we were hunting in the landing path of the Sacramento Metropolitan Airport, and that’s when I was introduced to the downside of the Game Ear: It amplifies everything indiscriminately. I’d already learned that the rustling of my hood and the crackling of plastic snack wrappers in the pit blind became uncomfortably loud when amplified. The landing airplane, though, was awful. I’ve found it best to turn the volume to the lowest acceptable level to minimize the inconvenience of constant readjustment.
Since my purchase, I’ve hunted with the Game Ear 16 times, and the only other downside I’ve discerned is something that some customer reviewers also noted: You tend to lose your sense of sound direction, because everything you hear is being funneled into one ear.
For the most part, the Game Ear works exactly as promised. But – not surprisingly – the battery-life promise is overly optimistic. The package promises an average battery life of 110 hours, but my batteries began to fail quite suddenly on my 10th hunt with the Game Ear. I definitely don’t spend an average of 11 hours on each hunt – more like four to six hours.
The good news is the device takes a fairly standard hearing-aid battery (No. 13 Mercury or Zinc-Air) that you can buy in bulk at warehouse stores like Costco. And unlike changing the frequency, changing the battery in the field is pretty easy, as long as you remember to bring your spares.
If you’re one of those hunters who’s been putting off wearing hearing protection because you don’t want to sacrifice what you hear in the field now – and you’re hoping there’ll be a surgery for you by the time you’re stone-deaf – the Game Ear could be an acceptable compromise. Hearing the laughter of your future grandchildren and great grandchildren is worth $200, don’t you think?
And if you’re one of the hunters who already wears hearing protection, you’ll love this. It’s a huge relief to be able to do the right thing and still have a good hunt.
Review Summary
Product: Walker’s Game Ear II
Manufacturer’s claim: Amplifies most sounds while dampening the dangerous decibel levels of gunshots.
Cost: $199
Overall: Worth the money - not like going without hearing protection, but way better than regular ear plugs or muffs.
Strengths:
- Works as described.
- Volume and frequency are adjustable.
- Battery replacement is easy.
Weaknesses:
- Amplifies everything indiscriminately, nearby trains and airplanes can be unpleasant.
- Battery life is shorter than suggested on the packaging.
- Frequency tuning requires a tiny screwdriver that could easily get lost in the field.
Special feature: The frequency tuner and another $50 are what set the Game Ear II apart from the original model. You may not need it for waterfowling and upland game hunting, where you need to hear not just a single type of animal, but other hunters around you.
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