I still hear well, at 76 yrs, but have some "hissing' in my left ear. It was caused when my buddy and I were shooting at a running fox in a "woodchuck field" We were standing "side by each" when we started him to my left, but the fox came out of a woodchuck hole in the field and ran across the scene from left to right and the last shot put my buddy's .30-06 muzzle about two feet from my left ear. My ear rang for a whole day after that and the last few years, "hisses", sometimes quite loudly. We hit the fox poorly until my last shot, which nailed it. Prior shots nicked legs, etc. and if anything, caused it to run faster.
An other event that didn't help my hearing was, when about 18, I bought a new 4 3/4" Ruger .357 single-action. I was twirling it and throwing it over my shoulder and catching it when I decided to load it, just to find out how much of a difference there would be in the balance. It worked well for about 10 minutes, then I spied a piece of paper on my next-door Aunt's lawn. Without a lot of thought, I cocked, aimed and fired through the window screen. I thought the room had suddenly EXPLODED! My ears rang for several days and I swear the bedroom must have gotten a few inches bigger from the blast!!!