I have had my hearing checked after years of shooting plus working in a vibration test lab. I always figured I was going to come up "bad" but it turns out that I have better than average for my age

My big problem is that in an even slightly noisy environment, I "loose" what people are saying - I can hear them, but unless they speak clearly and fairly loud, the background noise will kill all meaning

I guess that fact that in my early teens, someone told me about hearing loss problems, and I started wearing ear plugs - heck, I used to go to concerts wearing earplugs - I feel I get the best that way - I could feel the bass, hear the music at a reasonable level, and the crowd noise was muted to "background" - even the idiots who whistle

Where/when to begin? Chainsaws, my .22 rifle, mowing lawns, all during the summers of my youth. Then I joined the Navy and was introduced to the Government .45 pistol, M-1 Garand and Thompson SMG. I had tinnitus by age 23. First tour was flying in the Navy, lots of jets and turbine noise just added to the problem. I stopped having my hearing checked when I left the Navy; it's bad and not getting better.