Peltor Sports Tactical 500 Great at suppressing harmful noises from gunshots & heavy machinery while amplifying low-level sounds

Where to buy the Peltor Sport Tactical 500?

Shopping online, I found eBay to have some of the lowest prices for new sets of these ear muffs.

• eBay
• Amazon

First impressions of the Peltor Tactical 500

When I was first handed these ear muffs at ShotShow, I was surprised by how light they were and how well they folded up. I found them only to take up a small space in my backpack.

This would have been on Monday, Range day at the ShotShow year 2020. Now backpacks at the range show can get overcrowded easily with all the swag offered by the different vendors. Peltor supplied a set of their Tactical 500 for their Range day event and they were one of the only items I made sure to keep in my backpack. First impressions are that they were of quality, well constructed, and easy to use.

Installation and setup of the Peltor Tactical 500

There isn’t much for installation other than you put them over your ears. The setup was pretty easy. A few of the other Gearreport writers were with me, and they showed me with ease the location of the power button on the side of the right earmuff. Reading a little instruction online, I could easily figure out how to navigate the Bluetooth, the up, and the down arrows, on the right muff, and also found the charging port below the arrows on the right muff.

Specs for the Tactical 500

This set of earmuffs surprisingly is only rated for 26-decibel noise reduction. Now, I say this surprises me because I've used ear muffs with much higher ratings that don’t do near as good the job as this Peltor earmuff. Much of the reason for this, I believe, has to do with the clear voice tracking and the dynamic suppression time technology utilized in the headset. Clear voice tracking worked exceptionally well. I was surprised how well I could hear my colleagues through the plethora of semi-automatic and full-auto rifle rounds flying downrange. The filter worked well and accurately picked out the frequencies in which most human voices speak.

The dynamic suppression time also worked very well and that the ear muffs worked equally well for all different types of firearms. Now the dynamic suppression time can be adjusted and I did mess with that in the settings. The purpose of the dynamic suppression time is an intelligent feature that measures the amount of energy in the sound and calibrates a length of time to suppress the noise to ensure that no hearing damage is allowed. It doesn't overshoot the suppression time. This makes it so that as soon as noise levels are acceptable, the clear voice tracking kicks in and you can instantly hear your colleagues once again.

The Field test results for the Peltor Tactical 500

The results from the technology and the design of these earmuffs is a very comfortable easy to use earmuff that works superb for all different types of firearms. At the Range day, we shot handguns, shotguns, fully automatic rifles, suppressed rifles, semi-automatic rifles, and bolt action sniper rifles. All of these different types of firearms were well suppressed with the Peltor Tactical 500. I never had any issues with noises being too loud and I actually enjoyed wearing the headset off the range because of the hearing capabilities from the clear voice tracking. I had fun clapping my hands together just to hear the headset suppressing the clap and make it sound like nothing had ever happened. Throughout the day in different scenarios, the Peltors continue to work without fail. Even though the batteries ended up dying at the end of the day, they gave you a warning, roughly 15 minutes beforehand so that you wouldn't be caught ill-prepared. I look forward to continuing to use these and they have found themselves replacing my current earmuffs and they are now my go-to shooting muff for my hobby.

The Peltor Tactical 500 Pros

The largest pros I’ve found from this headset, not only includes the clear voice tracking and the dynamic suppression but also the Bluetooth capabilities built-in. On the airplane ride home from ShotShow, I was able to mess around with the Bluetooth technology and it works efficiently. I was happy with how well the music sounded in the headset. It wasn’t superb but it was effective. What these headsets excel at are providing comfortable hearing levels while at the range.

Peltor Tactical 500 Cons

No product is perfect and there are a few cons with the Peltor headset. One of the cons is common to all headsets and that con presents itself when you are wearing safety glasses or eyeglasses. Most glasses due to their design will create a bump that the foam on the muff needs to form around in order to create a tight and proper seal against your ear. Now because the Peltors like all your muffs are designed to go around your ear, going around the frame of your sunglasses does provide an air gap in which noise will get through. Technically, no-fault from the earmuffs. This does lead to diminished quality and reduced sound reduction. The other negative would be the sound quality when working with Bluetooth. Now, even though having a Bluetooth is a benefit, I found the quality to be mediocre. It was efficient and it worked and for the price point of these earmuffs, definitely acceptable. Being an audiophile, I find great joy in having the highest quality sound supplied to my delicate ears. In this regard, the headset doesn’t suffer but could provide a higher quality of Bluetooth sound when listening to music.

Peltor Tactical 500 Thoughts

As previously stated, the final thoughts can easily be summed up as they are my new go-to headset for all my shooting and range activity. Given the price point of the Peltor Tactical 500, I think they are superb and a much-needed tool in any sportsman’s bag. Never owning a noise-reducing headset before, I found these to be an exceptional first set. The quality in which Peltor builds leads me to be a lifelong customer of theirs. Details all the way down to the quality of plastic and the suppleness of the foam muffs shows me that their company dedicated to building high-quality product. They are also a company dedicating to providing their customers with what they need and I think this is an excellent, all-around headset for hunters, shooters, and sportsmen alike.

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