Hey Bowguy...sorry for your situation, especially when hearing is such an important part of what we all love to do, but I must say I really admire your perspective/outlook.
It's pretty easy to find something to complain about or a reason to feel sorry for ourselves, but all we need to do is to take a look around and it's not hard to find someone that's worse off than we are.
A couple years ago I lost a long time turkey hunting buddy to cancer at only 53 years old. Over the years we hunted together alot, both at home, as well as trips to other parts of the country and we spent many, many mornings together, out listening for the first gobble of the day. Now I think of him often, especially while waiting for that first bird to sound off....and wish he could hear just one more gobble.
I don't post a ton on here, but I read a lot and the one thing that I've noticed is that there are many hunters on this forum (including myself) that are lucky enough to spend MANY days, sometimes in multiple states, chasing spring gobblers every year.....we should try to cherish every day we get to do it!
But to your situation, I have another buddy that I hunt with quite often who has poor hearing and like you, he especially has trouble with direction. We work around it by.....
1. Relying more on my ears.
2. When possible, we set up shoulder to shoulder, so we can whisper to each other.
3. His left ear is his strong ear, so I always walk and sit to his left. He shoots lefty and I shoot right, so when sitting together it works good anyway to cover the most area.
4. If we can't/don't sit right together, he sits where he can keep a close eye on me. If I shift or adjust my gun, he knows that I either see or hear something, so focuses toward that area as well.
5. We have some subtle hand signals and I use some specific hen talk on a mouth call to let him know if I hear something behind us or if I hear a gobbler drumming. (which he can rarely hear)
Sorry for the long post, but keep up the positive attitude and you will make out just fine.
