Eye Protection - Pilla

[Jeffro_510]

How’d you determine what insurance would cover, did you call the insurance company and give the specific model and ask? Or go through a PCP? Do you have an underlying condition that makes them covered or are they covering it just for heating loss prevention?

My wife did the research.
I work construction, and have the oast 22 years. Setting up a "hearing test" is the first step. I already know my hearing isnt petfect.
My insurance will cover 1200 for any hearing aide and protection.
My wife did the research, not me, shes way smarter than me, lol. Im just the goid insurance.

 

[ikeo1]

My wife did the research.
I work construction, and have the oast 22 years. Setting up a "hearing test" is the first step. I already know my hearing isnt petfect.
My insurance will cover 1200 for any hearing aide and protection.
My wife did the research, not me, shes way smarter than me, lol. Im just the goid insurance.

The Sound Gear guys are the best in the business. If you have insurance covering it, go ahead and do that once. Buy once cry once. That would actually be the next level up if i were to buy another set.

 

[weaverftw]

My wife did the research.
I work construction, and have the oast 22 years. Setting up a "hearing test" is the first step. I already know my hearing isnt petfect.
My insurance will cover 1200 for any hearing aide and protection.
My wife did the research, not me, shes way smarter than me, lol. Im just the goid insurance.

Was that just your regular health insurance you have through your employer or purchased yourself? Or is it somehow through work comp or something? GET WIFEY ON THE LINE, I have questions lol

 

[Jeffro_510]

My health insurance through work.
I dont know how to tag her on here, lol

 

[grandpapeepap]

I have questions too, like is she busy friday night, or does she have a sister

 

[socalgunowner909]

$$$

 

[Hgray81]

Is there a set of in ears you like better than others?
I was dead set on ordering some Ottos this weekend, then my wife was telling me to order other ones. I forget the brand, but they are like $2000 and custom fit. My insurance will cover $1200 of the cost though. So I may go that route.

ESP

Custom-fit digital hearing protection for hunting, shooting sports, military/law enforcement and industrial and occupational shooters

www.espamerica.com

 

[Aura510]

Was that just your regular health insurance you have through your employer or purchased yourself? Or is it somehow through work comp or something? GET WIFEY ON THE LINE, I have questions lol

We have Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illino

My wife did the research.
I work construction, and have the oast 22 years. Setting up a "hearing test" is the first step. I already know my hearing isnt petfect.
My insurance will cover 1200 for any hearing aide and protection.
My wife did the research, not me, shes way smarter than me, lol. Im just the goid insurance.

We have Blue Cross Blue Shield of IL PPO. Most insurers won't cover for hearing loss prevention. However, most insurers will cover if you have a report from an audiologist stating that you actually have hearing loss. All employer insurance plans are required to provide insures with a blue and white Summary of Benefits and Coverage. On page 6 of this document there is a row that says "Other Covered Services" . You can check whether your insurance plan covers Hearing Aids. Our plan provides $1,200 coverage for hearing aids every 3 years. I have seen other plans cover as much as $2,500.

I have researched Starkey/Sound Gear and they don't appear to support insurance billing. I am not saying they won't but I haven't called them.

I am looking at Harris and Sons for hearing protection for several reasons.

1) They sponsor quite a few competitive shooters (3 of which are women!)
2) They work with insurance to help with the claims portion
3) They provide up to 4 hearing profiles out of 8 to choose from. If my husband is diagnosed with hearing loss one of the profiles for the F12 series is hearing aid. He can then add 3 more of the following hearing profiles including:

1) Training
2) Competition Pistol
3) Competition Rifle
4) Competition Sporting Clays
5) Indoor
6) Customized
7) Passive
8) Hearing Aid (default if you use insurance)

The next level they offer for competitive shooters is their 24 Series. In addition to the 8 above, they offer the following additional profiles for those of you who hunt:

9) Tracking
10) Water Fowl
11) Big Game

It will be a process. My husband has an appointment on Monday to do a hearing loss screening, which should be 100% covered by insurance as a preventative screening under the Affordable Care Act/Obamacare. If it turns out he has hearing loss, then $1,200 of this cost is covered.

The next step is for the audiologist to take a mold of his ears at the 2nd appointment. We will then send those molds to Harris and Sons to make him a set of bespoke hearing protection that has 4 different hearing profiles depending on what he is actually doing. Harris and Sons will turn those hearing aids around in 10 days.

I spent quite a bit of my day today working with Harris and Sons. They responded to email inquiries within 20 minutes and found me an audiologist in our town that they will work with.

I have asked on the forums whether anyone has Harris and Sons ear protection to give me feedback but no one responded.

 

[Gawernator]

"
Your read is mostly right.

Pilla makes sense in a very narrow lane: serious clay shooting where visual contrast, lens tuning, unobstructed field of view, and rapid lens swaps matter enough that small advantages justify stupid pricing. For that crowd, a tiny gain in seeing orange clays faster against trees, sky, dirt, or haze may be worth money. Same logic as racers spending too much for suspension, tires, data, or helmet visors. Marginal gains become emotionally and practically valuable when the sport is specialized enough.

But for general shooting, pistol/rifle range use, CCW practice, vehicle use, or daily wear, I do not see the value proposition over high-end Oakley SI, Rudy Project, Wiley X, ESS, Smith, Revision, etc. At that point you need impact protection, optical clarity, comfort, anti-fog performance, and a lens tint that suits the light. Oakley already does that well.

A lot of Pilla’s value is not “this protects your eyes better.” It is more like:

“I want a hyper-specific lens tint for this exact background and light condition.”

That is useful for elite shotgun people. Less useful for you shooting pistols/rifles, doing PI field work, driving, and wearing glasses daily.

Aesthetically, I agree too. Pilla has that thin, high-cheekbone, European Olympic shotgun/ski-bike look. On the wrong face or with normal clothes, they can look weird as hell. Oakley M Frames look sporty/tactical. Pilla can look like expensive alien cycling glasses.

The honest comparison:

Oakley SI M Frame 3.0: better practical/tactical look, ballistic credibility, cheaper, easier to justify, good daily utility.

Pilla: better specialized lens ecosystem for clay target contrast, more boutique, more expensive, less normal-looking, questionable value unless clay shooting is a serious focus.

So for you, Pilla is probably not the move. You already have the right lane: old comfortable Hybrid set for clear/VR28 shooting use, newer M Frame 3.0 Prizm Grey for daily/dark use. That gets you 90 percent of the practical benefit without looking like a starving Italian Olympic skeet shooter who just walked off a Ducati ad."

lmfao

 

[grandpapeepap]

Once again gonna mention Leupold glasses, they got ballistic protections/ different lens colors for the need and not a bad price point and can look good in normal wear situations

 

[ikeo1]

So for you, Pilla is probably not the move. You already have the right lane: old comfortable Hybrid set for clear/VR28 shooting use, newer M Frame 3.0 Prizm Grey for daily/dark use. That gets you 90 percent of the practical benefit without looking like a starving Italian Olympic skeet shooter who just walked off a Ducati ad."

It's an AI interpretation for you.

There's more uses for it now besides the orange clays. They say it's for skeet but top pistol/red dot shooters use it to.. Any color you want to highlight or emphasize. It said pretty much what I said, for most people basic impact rating eye protection is enough. I've been on the range enough to see a bunch of close calls with eye protection due to frag and I play other sports.

You should ask it about its CIED lenses for strong sun 9.5 and 26CIED lenses in bright sun for multiple hours and the 50 strawberry for reddot I also use the 92 as a bluelight blocker night and indoor lens. Look up thermal reflection and LED Smoothing.

I was also looking at shooters global, osight, etc to see what we can offer our members here. Maybe we won't offer anything else, but in order to do some of the sponsorships that I'd like to do for young shooters to help we need to build up.

That says a lot though that last sentence is a good one. Main thing is to bring the price point down if possible, not the crazy prices.. Before we do that, I think we'll do regular T's, hoodies, patches for sure.

Stick with the budget stuff for now, the good thing in shooting that's perfectly legit. There's a lot of quality products out right now. I'm out on the range a lot so it works for me. The cool thing is meeting a lot of industry people right now and being exposed to things. Shot show next year will be interesting. Hopefully, we can start to go.

 

[JC2020]

It's an AI interpretation for you.

There's more uses for it now besides the orange clays. They say it's for skeet but top pistol/red dot shooters use it to.. Any color you want to highlight or emphasize. It said pretty much what I said, for most people basic impact rating eye protection is enough. I've been on the range enough to see a bunch of close calls with eye protection due to frag and I play other sports.

You should ask it about its CIED lenses for strong sun 9.5 and 26CIED lenses in bright sun for multiple hours and the 50 strawberry for reddot I also use the 92 as a bluelight blocker night and indoor lens. Look up thermal reflection and LED Smoothing.

I was also looking at shooters global, osight, etc to see what we can offer our members here. Maybe we won't offer anything else, but in order to do some of the sponsorships that I'd like to do for young shooters to help we need to build up.

That says a lot though that last sentence is a good one. Main thing is to bring the price point down if possible, not the crazy prices.. Before we do that, I think we'll do regular T's, hoodies, patches for sure.

Stick with the budget stuff for now, the good thing in shooting that's perfectly legit. There's a lot of quality products out right now. I'm out on the range a lot so it works for me. The cool thing is meeting a lot of industry people right now and being exposed to things. Shot show next year will be interesting. Hopefully, we can start to go.

If you can get a nice discount on these of, say, 20%, I’d probably buy some just to try.

 

[Gawernator]

It's an AI interpretation for you.

There's more uses for it now besides the orange clays. They say it's for skeet but top pistol/red dot shooters use it to.. Any color you want to highlight or emphasize. It said pretty much what I said, for most people basic impact rating eye protection is enough. I've been on the range enough to see a bunch of close calls with eye protection due to frag and I play other sports.

You should ask it about its CIED lenses for strong sun 9.5 and 26CIED lenses in bright sun for multiple hours and the 50 strawberry for reddot I also use the 92 as a bluelight blocker night and indoor lens. Look up thermal reflection and LED Smoothing.

I was also looking at shooters global, osight, etc to see what we can offer our members here. Maybe we won't offer anything else, but in order to do some of the sponsorships that I'd like to do for young shooters to help we need to build up.

That says a lot though that last sentence is a good one. Main thing is to bring the price point down if possible, not the crazy prices.. Before we do that, I think we'll do regular T's, hoodies, patches for sure.

Stick with the budget stuff for now, the good thing in shooting that's perfectly legit. There's a lot of quality products out right now. I'm out on the range a lot so it works for me. The cool thing is meeting a lot of industry people right now and being exposed to things. Shot show next year will be interesting. Hopefully, we can start to go.

I'd hella buy a hoodie, especially if you can get some sick designs. More than just a basic logo

 

[exnds]

We all have different use cases. For me, both my parents developed macular degeneration, so UV ray protection is of paramount importance. That and my eyes have always been light sensitive. The extra large lenses also help with blocking flying shrapnel. I've been tagged near my eyes more than once when using smaller lenses. I do mostly casual action pistol and long range sniper style shooting so I'm less concerned about target contrast and fashion statements.

Back when I got mine they were running a 20% off promotion. And I know they'll run something for Black Friday.

 

[Gawernator]

We all have different use cases. For me, both my parents developed macular degeneration, so UV ray protection is of paramount importance. That and my eyes have always been light sensitive. The extra large lenses also help with blocking flying shrapnel. I've been tagged near my eyes more than once when using smaller lenses. I do mostly casual action pistol and long range sniper style shooting so I'm less concerned about target contrast and fashion statements.

Back when I got mine they were running a 20% off promotion. And I know they'll run something for Black Friday.

Yeah it's real for everyone, UV light slowly damages your eyes. Last time I saw a VA eye doctor they said I should always wear sunglasses when I'm outside. Going to follow that more closely

 

[grandpapeepap]

Macular Degeneration is a motherless , i have issues with my eyes now that almost every 6 months i need steroid eye drops or an injection of steroids into the eye area. Getting old with bad eye genetics suck. At least my eyes are still pretty with their blue color

 

[exnds]

Right. The way I see it, if I have to pay exponentially more for an incremental improvement in that area, I'm fine with it.

 

[ikeo1]

We all have different use cases. For me, both my parents developed macular degeneration, so UV ray protection is of paramount importance. That and my eyes have always been light sensitive. The extra large lenses also help with blocking flying shrapnel. I've been tagged near my eyes more than once when using smaller lenses. I do mostly casual action pistol and long range sniper style shooting so I'm less concerned about target contrast and fashion statements.

Back when I got mine they were running a 20% off promotion. And I know they'll run something for Black Friday.

We would definitely hook up our members... That's one of the areas to explore. If we have memberships, that can offset some of the dealer price and we can offer a lower price to members. Ideas, but we have to find the right products and have the right critical mass to support it. If they match, then we'll bring them on and everyone wins. You get a better deal while supporting the site so we can in turn support other clubs, sponsor shooters, etc. Rather than it go directly outside of our community. We'll continually reinvest in here. It would be great to do something like Route66 with a range day for people to come out where we go to our partner ranges and set up test day for everyone up and down Cali.

 

[exnds]

Any chance you’d consider Prado, Raahauges, or Pala?

 

[ikeo1]

Any chance you’d consider Prado, Raahauges, or Pala?

Oh Shoot is in Prado.. So we have our in there... We're just starting with them so you'll see our banners there in a few weeks... That's like the vision, how long it take til we get there is unknown but we're getting some real traction now.