Cartridge’s seemingly meant for shorter barrels/suppressors

[Gatorgrizz27]

Has to still be better than shooting without hearing protection.

Correct. Most people don’t understand the “hearing safe” 140 dB threshold properly. It’s not as if you can do mag dumps all day at 139.9 dB and then one shot at 140.1 on a mule deer will ruin your ears.

It‘s more akin to eating one Big Mac a month vs one every day. Neither is “good” for you, but the damage is vastly different.