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How many times have you been sitting on a deer stand or quietly slinking through the peaceful fall woods, when you started to feel that tickle in your throat that signaled a need to cough? Plenty of times, I'd guess - and the tickle just refuses to go away unless you cough.
Knowing that a cough is a distinctly human sound likely to alert game to your presence, and that it carries a long way in the woods, just makes it worse. Well, here's some info on a couple of items designed to allow you to let that cough without spooking all the game in the neighborhood.
Among the many things I discovered at the SHOT Show was that two different manufacturers are making two different products for essentially the same purpose - to muffle one's coughs while hunting.
Now, two companies competing isn't exactly newsworthy in and of itself, but this is a bit of a different situation... both were relatively new on the scene, and most folks don't realize that there are more than one of them on the market. At the SHOT Show, I realized a great opportunity when I saw it, and jumped on the chance to try them both so I could report to you, the informed hunter.
(Photo by Russ Chastain, world rights reserved)
I first became aware that there was a product of this type when I received an Email from a reader last year. He had seen one of these items on a television show, had a chronic cough, and wanted one of his own. Five minutes later, I had found a Web site for a suitable item and reported back to him. At the time, I didn't realize there were two of them on the market, so I really don't remember which one I referred him to.
At any rate, my wanderings at SHOT took me past the Silencer booth, and I briefly spoke with one of the fellows there, who was demonstrating it for the passers-by. The next day found me meandering (there's really no way to move quickly at the Show, and if there were, I'd have been too tired and sore to do it anyhow!) by the booth of the makers of the Cough Muffler. The realization that there were two cough-squelching devices in the world hit me like a ton of bricks, and I paused to talk with Glen Copeland, CEO, which got the ball rolling towards this review.
In ensuing conversations, these apparent nemeses spoke ruefully, though not unkindly, of one another's presence in the marketplace and their products. A demonstration of each product revealed some notable differences in design. Both of them do the job, but is one better than the other? Well, that's what we're here to find out. Read on!
Next page - Cough-Quieting Devices - Cough Muffler
-Russ Chastain
