Hunting

Is hunting safe?

For a careful hunter, mostly yes. The risk most people picture, being shot by another hunter, has fallen to very low levels. The risks that remain are falls from tree stands and heart attacks, and both are largely in the hunter's hands.

There is no single national count of hunting deaths in the US, so our risk figure is an estimate. Texas, which publishes full shooting records, recorded 0.2 to 0.4 hunting shooting deaths per 100,000 licences a year in 2014–2018. Americans spent 241 million days hunting in 2022, about 17 days per hunter, so shooting deaths come to about 0.1 to 0.2 micromortsMicromortA one-in-a-million chance of death. It lets you compare the risk of very different activities on one scale.More in the glossary per hunting day. New York, which counts both, averaged one shooting death and 1.6 deaths from tree stand falls a year over the five years to 2025. Heart attacks are not in these state counts and may kill as many hunters as accidents do. Adding falls, heart attacks and drownings, we estimate roughly 0.5 to 2 micromorts per day afield: more than a day of skiing, less than a day of mountain hiking.

How hunting shootings became rare

Texas shows the change. In 1966, before hunter education, the state recorded 28 hunting shooting deaths, or 4.3 per 100,000 licences. Since courses became mandatory in 1988, the rate has averaged 0.44, and in 2014–2018 it was 0.2 to 0.4, with two to five deaths a year.

What still goes wrong is telling. Between 23% and 38% of Texas incidents each year were self-inflicted. The case notes describe the same mistakes again and again: a loaded gun passed down from a stand, a loaded gun in a vehicle, a hunter swinging on a bird across a companion, a person mistaken for game. Shotguns were involved in more incidents than rifles, probably reflecting bird hunting in groups, where people move and shoot close together.

Tree stands: the bigger risk

Falls from elevated stands now cause more serious hunting injuries than guns in several US studies. In Pennsylvania, trauma centres admitted 10.4 hunters after tree stand falls per million deer hunting days in 2017, up from 1.5 in 1990, while shooting incidents fell from 4.9 to 1.2. In New York, falls killed more hunters than guns over the five years to 2025, and most victims wore no harness or had not attached it to the tree. A 30-year review of Arkansas hunter injuries found tree stand injuries rising while shooting injuries fell. In rural Wisconsin, between 3.6 and 6.0 deer hunters per 10,000 needed medical care after a tree stand fall each season in 2009–2013, with no clear improvement. Two of those 39 hunters died and one was paralysed. Most fell in the evening, while climbing down, and most were bow hunters.

The injuries are serious. In a Rochester, New York trauma series of 54 tree stand falls, the average fall was 18 feet and 54% of patients had spinal fractures, most often in the neck. Reasons recorded included stand failure, loss of balance, falling asleep and harnesses that broke.

Heart attacks in the woods

Hunting is one of the few activities where a sedentary, middle-aged person does a burst of hard work in the cold: climbing to a stand, then dragging a deer out. In Québec, coroners recorded 24 sudden natural deaths during hunting in 2006–2019, the third-highest count of any sport or recreation, behind cycling and ice hockey. Across all activities, 95% of those deaths were cardiac. The authors pointed out that hunting grounds are among the places where a defibrillator is least likely to be close.

Who should be careful

• Bow hunters using tree stands, especially when climbing down in fading light.
• Middle-aged and older hunters with heart risk factors. Talk to your doctor before a season if you have heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes or chest pain on exertion, and get help dragging game.
• Hunters in groups, such as on bird drives, where shooting zones overlap.
• Hunters on water. Waterfowl hunters in small boats in cold water face drowning and cold shock. Wear a life jacket.

How to hunt more safely

1. Wear a full-body harness and stay attached from leaving the ground to returning to it, using a lifeline or climbing strap. Check straps and stands before each season.
2. Never climb with a loaded gun. Haul it up and lower it unloaded on a rope, muzzle down.
3. Identify your target and what is beyond it before every shot. Wear blaze orange where it is required or advised.
4. Unload before vehicles, fences and stands. Several 2018 Texas incidents happened at or in a vehicle.
5. Tell someone where you are and when you will be back, and carry a phone or satellite messenger.
6. Pace the hard work. Drag game in short stages or with help, and stop if you feel chest pain or unusual breathlessness.

How we scored it

Fatality risk (84) reflects our estimate of about 0.5 to 2 micromortsMicromortA one-in-a-million chance of death. It lets you compare the risk of very different activities on one scale.More in the glossary per hunting day, with low confidence because no national all-cause count exists and heart attacks are rarely counted. Injury risk (82) is fair, though tree stand falls cause serious injuries. Controllability (78) is good because most shootings and falls follow avoidable mistakes. The remote, cold setting (55) is the weakest factor. Compare horse riding, another rural activity where falls cause the worst injuries.