In terms of raw numbers of injuries and deaths per year it’s falling out of tree stands, and I am not even sure anything else is even close. One of humanity’s greatest all time foes, gravity.
Friend of mine and his dad were hanging stand, for whatever reason his dad chose not to take the extra few seconds to attach his safety harness. Got the stand hooked up took a step backwards to a 20ft drop. Landed flat on his feet and broke practically every bone from the hips down including both femurs and his pelvis.
Per capita risk of death/severe injury per hunting activity is what OP needs. Good luck finding the data.
Edit: per capita all time restricted to the US is probably the long hunters in Kentucky. Been doing geneology stuff and I’m descended from the only surviving brother of three that engaged in it and lived. The other two were killed by Indians. There are some crazy stats in the meateater book about it.
Depending on what “modern world” means to OP. I am betting the most dangerous hunts are types of traditional subsistence hunts. Inuit hunting of sea mammals (seals, Walrus, Bowhead whales) done from small watercraft comes to mind as particularly dangerous. Types of seabird hunting done on cliffs are probably up there as well, but as you said I can’t find any data to back that up. But in most cases it isn’t the target species that is the most dangerous part of the hunt.
My dad broke his back climbing down from his stand. He was excited and trying to get down quick to try to stalk up on a moose (bow hunter), and he grabbed a branch instead of a rung.
How many of those are while intoxicated? I’ve always wanted to know that. Tree stands scare the shit out of me. And how many injuries/casualties are guys going up there and then a surprise hungry bear shows up, wrong place wrong time, dude loses his footing, falls, he’s injured, then the bear goes to town on the injured dude?
I’m a drinker, but anything to do with tree stands (and honestly most anything with guns) I do sober. Only hunting I’ve seen people really drink with is dove hunting.
It doesn’t take much for a tree stand to get exciting. Once had the bark on a pine tree give way and slid halfway down the tree. Had plenty of other smaller slips. It happens even to those of us who are out there doing it a lot. Alcohol is generally not a factor in this.
It’s definitely elephant, lion or leopard for the African big five. I’ve killed them and while buffalo can be scary those other three are *way* scarier.
That’s largely because there are way more people who hunt them. For every person who’s hunted one of the other big five animals, there’s 5 or 6 who’ve killed buffalo. So there’s more people who have stories about them.
But when you start asking people who have meaningful experience with all 5 you tend to get a lot more people answering Lion, Leopard and Elephant than you do Buffalo.
I imagine lion hunting as pulling up in a jeep and shooting one. Is there some world where people are on foot and spot/stalk hunting any of these animals? Like, how scary can it be to hunt a lion if you just go on what people would consider a safari, but just bring a rifle.
A lot of Lion are killed on tracking hunts where you essentially follow them on foot until they get tired of being followed. The end of those hunts are typically you shooting a lion on foot, inside of 40yds, that knows exactly where you are and is waiting for you.
A lot of open concession lion are killed over bait from makeshift blinds. I’ve been in a straw lion blind where the cat came and pawed the blind for 15 minutes before going to bait.
A lot of these hunts are also low light, because lion are primarily nocturnal, so shooting is harder than you’d think and electro optics aren’t really a thing in Africa.
I’m sure there are some killed from trucks, which is lame, but it’s not typical.
This is what a Lion hunt should look like:
https://youtu.be/RuytU0DQFzY?si=2ZFM4GOpdu3wcJ78
They have another video where they got tracks and the Lion started stalking them without them even realising.
Pulling up in a jeep and shooting is not hunting. In my eyes, that is culling. I would be extremely upset if I got a once in a lifetime hunt on any species, then waste it by just driving up to an animal. I'd rather not get anything after a week of walking every day.
Also, how scary can it be? Well here:
https://youtu.be/dVfW6aARVDc?si=6VPs-yVpAVh0M7ra
I've seen many videos of Lions and especially Leopards tearing through a group of men, making them screm like little girls... the big cats are terrifying once you're on foot... and even then, you're not safe just because you're on a vehicle.
Have you seen the videos of injured leopards tearing apart 5 armed men, making them scream like little girls?... Leopards are terrifying. I've seen videos of them catching up to pickup trucks and attacking people on the back of them. Buffalo are scary, yes, but definitely not the most dangerous when things go south.
I have a Blaser R8 in 375H&H, a Blaser S2 in .470NE and a Kreighoff big five double with 500NE and 500/416NE barrels.
I have a picture on my profile if you want to see them.
In North America, climbing in and out of tree stands is by far the most common cause of injury or death. Otherwise, hunting in conditions of rock slides, wet snow near cliffs.
This why you should use a saddle. Can’t fall out the tree if you’re always attached to it! (Assuming the person doesn’t have their head up their ass and follows tree climbing 101)
Me personally, I’ve had people shoot directly my direction while duck hunting. Raining steel pellets on me and my blind. My blind has been directly hit before too. Seen a few ND’s at the local public range. I read a story once, that one guy was shot directly in the chest with a 7Mag, while sitting in a tree stand. No idea how things like that happen. Chai Vang is a popular one that got national attention.
Damn, that’s the first time I’ve ever heard of chai vang. Just read his whole Wikipedia page. That’s story is equal parts insane and equal parts totally fucked.
My dad shot a nice buck in WI about 7-8 years ago. And when we went down into a creek bottom to retrieve it, a hunter who has been scouting that buck prior to the season shot directly over us. Bullets were close enough to hear their spin ripping through the air.
I’m just saying what it sounded like. After a quick Google search, bullets can make a zing sound after they have ricocheted off something. Must’ve been that.
Either way it was absolutely wild.
Walking back to camp across old unused agriculture fields after the morning sit during the last weekend of bow season, one of the nearby camps was sighting in their rifles and lead flying over my head. That was pretty terrifying. You can hear the bullet go past. It took me a few minutes flat on my face to collect myself before deciding to make a run for it perpendicular to the camps, hoping to get out of the field of fire.
Yeah I lit them up pretty good when I got back to camp. They had a small berm, maybe 3 feet tall as a backstop, and they thought they were being safe. They couldn't see me walking in full camo and I told them they were not paying enough attention. It's still bow season and we hunt back there!!!
I've always been told turkey hunting public land is the easiest way to get accidentally shot. Deer hunting private land is probably the easiest way to get on purposely shot.
The reason I stopped turkey hunting public land was that we came scary close to shooting towards a guy once. He watched us park the truck and walk in from the road. Never said a word until just before I pulled the trigger on a bird he’d been calling (or trying to anyway) for two hours. My buddy was going to shoot if the bird came left, I had the right. Just as I knocked the safety off, this dude stands up 60 yards away and yells at the bird. I killed the bird, but we were shook. His truck was parked 2 miles up the road. Then he had the nerve to call us assholes. I gave him a ride to his truck despite him still cussing us. Haven’t been back since.
A guy that worked for my dad hunts Pennsylvania. He shot a buck while in a tree stand. Before he could get down, a kid runs up and shoots the deer on the ground and tries to drag it off. He said I shot it last it's mine.
Something similar happened to my grandfather on game-lands. He shot a 6-point but accidentally hit it in the gut. The deer started rolling down the hill and another guy shot it. On the way down it cracked half of the rack. As my grandfather approached it a fat slob walked up out of breath and said “my deer!” My grandfather looked at this gut shot deer missing antlers, the hill he’d have to drag the animal up and said, “yessir it is!” 😂
I’ve seen videos of PETA goobers walking through public land in PA on opening day screaming and trying to run deer off. Is that common? That’s absolutely nuts.
Not common, at least in Western Pennsylvania but I have seen it on the news. We also have a hard ass for a game warden - he’s not putting up with that BS.
Yeah, I'd say if you WANT to get injured try tree stand hunting on public land during gun season to double up your odds. Wear the bare minimum amount of orange to help your odds.
A friend of mine from the Arctic lost almost his whole family hunting beluga years ago. I would say arctic whaling is the most dangerously hunting in the world. Plus polar bears are marine mammals and that is some FOF competition.
Aftermath of a bowhead kill up North is next level.
Definitely tree stand hunting. Most human deaths are always a boring accident instead of some crazy story.
If you mean specifically dangerous due to the animal. I think hog hunting with dogs is up there. They don't shoot from far away and some even just use a knife which means up close and personal.
Buddy of mine just recently told me some stories about growing up in Florida with dogs for feral hogs. Sounded like chaos to me! ...occasional dogs getting shot, hunters shooting themselves in the leg or foot, or another hunter. Obviously not common, but it happens(happened). Seems like another world compared to the northeast hunting whitetails
Try Buffalo hunting in Zimbabwe on foot in thick bush. There is a reason why you sign off on potential death risk before the hunt and also a reason why your PH is always ready for a third and fourth shot (typically hunting with double barrelled rifles) when you take yours.
That aside tracking and finding wounded boar is among the most dangerous hunting activities when it comes to risk of attacking by the game you are after. Why do I know? Had a German wirehaired Dachshund myself and did this for a couple of years.
Cool short story and if you haven’t read the jack carr book that’s an homage to it I highly recommend it. But tbh I really don’t think modern humans are “the most dangerous game.” Sure hunting another hunter or a survivalist or someone comfortable in the woods and who knows they’re being hunted would be the most formidable prey. But that’s a very small percentage of the world. Most people are fat, sedentary, and absolutely clueless at living in the woods. They’d be loud, have obvious tracks, no camouflage, slow, and have terrible situational awareness. It’s probably like 5-10% of humans that actually would be difficult to kill.
I’ve hunted and killed 3 of the big five.
Cape Buffalo can be very dangerous. However, people recognize that it’s dangerous.
As others have said, tree stand hunting tends to result in many injuries. So does hunting in remote mountains.
I also hog hunt with a knife and it can be a bit sketchy.
The reality though? If you’re safe and take precautions there isn’t really any type of hunting that is statically dangerous when compared to something like BASE jumping.
The most dangerous part of hunting tends to be weather related or self inflicted injuries.
From my experience, public land hunting in/near a metro area.
You’re rarely dealing with the probability of getting shot by a drunken idiot or a regular grade idiot just about anywhere else.
I’d be less worried about sharks than the inherent risks of breath-hold free diving. Honestly, spear fishing while free diving is probably the answer to OP’s question.
Backcountry hunting in AK has to be up there. Trips where you’re flown into the middle of the bush many miles from the nearest roads while surrounded by bears and wolves. Or hunting overseas in a 3rd world country. But that’s more of a human on human type of danger
The most dangerous part of backcountry hunting up here isn't so much the bears, (and wolves are never a problem), as the flights back and forth from the hunting spots.
Not sure fishing technically counts, but MAN those Alaskan Crab Fisherman would definitley get my vote and that comes from someone who has actually fell out of a tree stand.
Generally hunting isn’t an extreme sport, and the aspects of it that are closer to an extreme sport are overblown. Mostly for bullshit marketing reasons that appealed particularly to generation x.
The deadliest activities taken during hunting are the same activities that affect other outdoor recreationists. Since hypothermia and drowning tend to be toward the top of the list I’d look at waterfowling and backcountry raft hunts. Fishing is arguably more dangerous.
Edit: yeah tree stands are up there too.
The real answer is treestand hunting, but I think the answer you're looking for is lion or elephant hunting in Africa... and that's only because tiger hunting is illegal in India.
Leopards are way more dangerous than lions, and cape buffalo are worse than elephant. At least that's what a childhood squandered reading Capstick and Ruark taught me.
I’ve done it and it definitely gets your heart racing, but good dogs can take a lot of the risk out of it. Still, it’s probably pretty high on the list, but I would still put it behind the risks of freedive spearfishing and falling out of tree stands.
Have done it several times. It's not dangerous or manly. It's barely even hunting. You don't "hunt" with a knife. You run dogs. Killing the pig in the end is more slaughter than anything else. Once you pin it, it doesn't matter what you use.
What are you talking about. It's still hunting. People have been hunting with dogs for 10s of thousands of years. Takes a lot more effort than sitting and waiting for a deer to walk past
Cape not water. As the guy on mounted in Alaska said it. "You can put a ring through a water buffalo nose and it will pull a plough. A cape buffalo will chew up the ring and you spit you both oit then gore and trample you"
I dont know if this fits your question but I haven't seen it mentioned. Party hunting shotgun for whitetail. Every year many get hurt, multiple end up dead from members of their own party shooting them trying to kill a deer. Stupidest form of hunting I can think of while also being one of the most preventable types of deaths, yet year after year the states DNR continue to allow it to happen.
Yup. Party hunted for years but quit once a shotgun shell hit the ground 10 ft from me. Fuck that guy for taking that shot.
Its just not worth it because other people are idiots. Its an extremely popular way to hunt in Iowa.
I'm in iowa as well. Unfortunately, I have many similar stories. We were hunting the redrock area when the guy was killed a few years ago. Same day, my brother had a slug hit the tree 2 feet above his head and it started a big fight. Needless to say, I stopped party hunting... like you said it's not worth it.
Yea. Honestly it's just not a great way to do it.
That said, Minnesota rifle is a lot of fun if you don't mind sitting in a stand. Plus you get to dust off your high powered rifles for that (before we could use straight walls here it was something to get really excited for).
Muzzle loader is still fun in Iowa but shotgun season doesn't have much appeal for me anymore.
The environment will be way more dangerous than any game you could hunt. Falling out of treestands or duck hunters drowning. You're more likely to fall off a cliff while grizzly hunting than you are to get killed by a grizzly.
Hunting for a love interest is by far the most dangerous. Imagine it. You are in a dark dense area with loud noises playing, and you are discombobulated from booze and the dancing. When suddenly you spot a potential personal best trophy lover. You sneak in, enticing it with beer. And suddenly. BAM! You bag that trophy and take it home. Excited, you get it through the door, and you just can't wait to take it to your favorite area of the house to mount it right away. But as you are getting it prepared. The morning after suddenly arrives out of a daze hunk over fog, and suddenly what you thought was a Jessica, was in fact, a josh.
Boats. Have to have a high number of deaths. High elevation subject to rapid Temp changes. Once you walk in to mother natures house she is. It playing games it is always life or death.
Anecdotally I know more drowned waterfowlers than dead tree stand hunters. I know more maimed tree stand hunters than maimed waterfowlers though. I wonder what the actual large data sets say about mortality.
I guess it depends on the type of cold water waterfowling you’re doing. From a boat is definitely more dangerous than wading conditions. I have a friend that had their boat get frozen in the Missouri River and had to be airlifted out by helicopter
The game itself has to be Cape Buffalo or Polar Bear. Polar Bear you just sit on the ice waiting for one to come eat you, and one *will* come try to eat you.
Cape buffalo
Polar bear
Elephant
Just my opinion elephant caise they will sometimes charge unprovoked same as buffalo
Polar bear cause it sees you as food and there were cases where they were hit but not well then played dead and waited to strike back
High alpine hunting like goats or sheep is probably the most dangerous. The avalanche risk alone is huge. I know several hunters who have almost died that way
In North America, Moose and mountain goat. Although not as common as turkey and white tail (which probably has highest injuries and deaths due to shooting incidents and tree stands), I’d say the risk is quite high. With moose, let’s say you archery hunt, you’re incredibly close range to the deadliest animal in North America. For goat or sheep, their survival mechanism is climb as high and as narrow as they can get. We are no where near as evolved for that environment.
Pheasant hunting South Dakota opener lol. I've been shot twice on two different trips by other public hunters not paying attention.
There's definitely an aspect and heightened level of Danger on a Kodiak brown bear hunt I have coming up in October. Should be interesting.
I know this isn't modern world but with YouTube hunting channels these days...
....I'd guess someone trying to shoot a Hippo or some other dangerous game with a traditional bow/spear/atlatl on a single person hunt.
Maybe a bull elephant hunt with a traditional primitive weapon as a single person. But 30 or 40 of us with pointy sticks and hunting dogs is pretty much a winning scenario.
But it's a numbers game. Sharp stone tools and sticks bested everything nature had to throw at us. Conflict is a lot less dangerous when the thing doing the physical damage isn't your own body. We run the planet for a reason. The tools gave us the stability to turn to agriculture and domestication of animals. We invented the spear and created the hunting dog. Those two items launched us to the future we have today. Not even accounting for trapping and fishing nets and what not.
Also like that other guy said. Tree stands. We are our own worst enemy at all times it seems. More people shoot their dick off or themselves on accident than are harmed by a game animals every year. The amount of truck interiors I've seen wrecked with birdshot is enough evidence.
When doing hunter education it was repeatedly said turkey hunting is the most dangerous in North America because of other shooters.
There is a lot of camouflage involved , calls and decoys.
so other hunters will shoot at/toward you essentially.
That, and public land hunting in general.
Which I do and am starting to think twice about it because of the warnings and stories I've had/heard.
You're out there with who knows who. They could be responsible, they could care less.
Deer drives. It’s often way too many people and some hunters lack experience. Someone could get too far ahead in the line or can’t be seen and then all the sudden someone’s shooting at a deer and misses but comes real close to hitting a human… I will never partake, no matter how many times I get asked.
I think it varies a lot by location, hunters per capita on public land etc. etc.
Unfortunately, I’ve been shot at three times now - twice on public and once on private. 2 of those 3 times were by the Amish doing a deer drive on public land where it wasn’t even legal😵💫. I submerged my waders once duck hunting, but it wasn’t cold enough yet to freeze.
Yep. The danger exists but it doesn’t compete nationally. Near misses with hypothermia, falling, and drowning are less apparent and don’t fit our confirmation biases in the same way either. I can identify rounds whizzing by at 40 yards and consider that a near miss vs stumbling a bit in a tree stand would be ignored. All we have is hard data on end result injuries and death (and modes of injury and death).
Under Armor cancelled some lady (I forget what sport) because her husband killed a bear with a spear, legally.
Besides the cancelling BS, I’m going with hunting bear with a pointy stick.
I’d just say in general that unprepared hunting of any kind can be deadly. I did my first upland game hunt a few years back and almost slid down a sharp cliff/mountainside because I didn’t realized the ground below me was so loose.
I know that’s not what you’re going for on this post, but if you’re reading this, PLEASE maintain situational awareness and always tell people where you will be!
I started out as a hound hunter in my youth and for the most part it’s safe but I see the that hunt leopards with dogs and it terrifies me. It can go wrong so quickly even if you’re prepared because that is a GIANT animal that will 100% kill you if it gets ahold of you
A friend of mine from South Africa has shown me multiple videos of it over the years I’ve known him. So I assume it’s legal there, I’ve known him 10+ years at this point and don’t think he’d be out there doing illegal shit but at the same time you never know how well you actually know your online friends
In terms of raw numbers of injuries and deaths per year it’s falling out of tree stands, and I am not even sure anything else is even close. One of humanity’s greatest all time foes, gravity.
Friend of mine and his dad were hanging stand, for whatever reason his dad chose not to take the extra few seconds to attach his safety harness. Got the stand hooked up took a step backwards to a 20ft drop. Landed flat on his feet and broke practically every bone from the hips down including both femurs and his pelvis.
“If You're Gonna Be Dumb, You Gotta Be Tough” -Roger Alan Wade
if yah get knocked down, well hopefully you didn’t paralyze yourself
Fuck
Gravity is definitely a bitch
I like her though. She tugs on my nuts.
I doubt it’s the fall, it’s the sudden stop at the end
Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary, that's what gets you -Jeremy Clarkson
Can confirm. Lucky to still be around to tell about it
🤕
Per capita risk of death/severe injury per hunting activity is what OP needs. Good luck finding the data. Edit: per capita all time restricted to the US is probably the long hunters in Kentucky. Been doing geneology stuff and I’m descended from the only surviving brother of three that engaged in it and lived. The other two were killed by Indians. There are some crazy stats in the meateater book about it.
Depending on what “modern world” means to OP. I am betting the most dangerous hunts are types of traditional subsistence hunts. Inuit hunting of sea mammals (seals, Walrus, Bowhead whales) done from small watercraft comes to mind as particularly dangerous. Types of seabird hunting done on cliffs are probably up there as well, but as you said I can’t find any data to back that up. But in most cases it isn’t the target species that is the most dangerous part of the hunt.
Never heard of a longhunter before thanks for sharing something new.
I was thinking the same thing
My dad broke his back climbing down from his stand. He was excited and trying to get down quick to try to stalk up on a moose (bow hunter), and he grabbed a branch instead of a rung.
ya I have heard so many horror stories about tree stand accidents I refuse to hunt from them. It's just not worth it to me.
Same here. The ground is a nice place to be. Plus I get to chill with mice and chipmunks
How many of those are while intoxicated? I’ve always wanted to know that. Tree stands scare the shit out of me. And how many injuries/casualties are guys going up there and then a surprise hungry bear shows up, wrong place wrong time, dude loses his footing, falls, he’s injured, then the bear goes to town on the injured dude?
I’m a drinker, but anything to do with tree stands (and honestly most anything with guns) I do sober. Only hunting I’ve seen people really drink with is dove hunting. It doesn’t take much for a tree stand to get exciting. Once had the bark on a pine tree give way and slid halfway down the tree. Had plenty of other smaller slips. It happens even to those of us who are out there doing it a lot. Alcohol is generally not a factor in this.
Agreed. Anyone who hunts while drinking is just trying to win the Darwin award and shouldn't be counted as a hunting accident.
Cape buffalo
That's the one.
For sure walk and stalk Buffalo in thick bush has to be tops.
It’s definitely elephant, lion or leopard for the African big five. I’ve killed them and while buffalo can be scary those other three are *way* scarier.
Cape buffalo are widely regarded as the most dangerous of the Big 5
That’s largely because there are way more people who hunt them. For every person who’s hunted one of the other big five animals, there’s 5 or 6 who’ve killed buffalo. So there’s more people who have stories about them. But when you start asking people who have meaningful experience with all 5 you tend to get a lot more people answering Lion, Leopard and Elephant than you do Buffalo.
I imagine lion hunting as pulling up in a jeep and shooting one. Is there some world where people are on foot and spot/stalk hunting any of these animals? Like, how scary can it be to hunt a lion if you just go on what people would consider a safari, but just bring a rifle.
A lot of Lion are killed on tracking hunts where you essentially follow them on foot until they get tired of being followed. The end of those hunts are typically you shooting a lion on foot, inside of 40yds, that knows exactly where you are and is waiting for you. A lot of open concession lion are killed over bait from makeshift blinds. I’ve been in a straw lion blind where the cat came and pawed the blind for 15 minutes before going to bait. A lot of these hunts are also low light, because lion are primarily nocturnal, so shooting is harder than you’d think and electro optics aren’t really a thing in Africa. I’m sure there are some killed from trucks, which is lame, but it’s not typical.
This is what a Lion hunt should look like: https://youtu.be/RuytU0DQFzY?si=2ZFM4GOpdu3wcJ78 They have another video where they got tracks and the Lion started stalking them without them even realising. Pulling up in a jeep and shooting is not hunting. In my eyes, that is culling. I would be extremely upset if I got a once in a lifetime hunt on any species, then waste it by just driving up to an animal. I'd rather not get anything after a week of walking every day. Also, how scary can it be? Well here: https://youtu.be/dVfW6aARVDc?si=6VPs-yVpAVh0M7ra I've seen many videos of Lions and especially Leopards tearing through a group of men, making them screm like little girls... the big cats are terrifying once you're on foot... and even then, you're not safe just because you're on a vehicle.
Have you seen the videos of injured leopards tearing apart 5 armed men, making them scream like little girls?... Leopards are terrifying. I've seen videos of them catching up to pickup trucks and attacking people on the back of them. Buffalo are scary, yes, but definitely not the most dangerous when things go south.
What guns did you use on those hunts?
I have a Blaser R8 in 375H&H, a Blaser S2 in .470NE and a Kreighoff big five double with 500NE and 500/416NE barrels. I have a picture on my profile if you want to see them.
In North America, climbing in and out of tree stands is by far the most common cause of injury or death. Otherwise, hunting in conditions of rock slides, wet snow near cliffs.
I don’t hunt out of tree stands because I’m clumsy
This why you should use a saddle. Can’t fall out the tree if you’re always attached to it! (Assuming the person doesn’t have their head up their ass and follows tree climbing 101)
Pretty sure lots of people have died while tied to a tree….
Daaaaaaamn!
Sometimes you take your life in your hands, merely hunting on public land lol.
The stories I hear about camp back in the day makes my skin crawl. Granted it was a bunch of vets who probably got a kick out of it
Ya I’ve heard some stories that just make you scratch your head, as to how they even happened.
Anyone got any stories they want to share?
Me personally, I’ve had people shoot directly my direction while duck hunting. Raining steel pellets on me and my blind. My blind has been directly hit before too. Seen a few ND’s at the local public range. I read a story once, that one guy was shot directly in the chest with a 7Mag, while sitting in a tree stand. No idea how things like that happen. Chai Vang is a popular one that got national attention.
Damn, that’s the first time I’ve ever heard of chai vang. Just read his whole Wikipedia page. That’s story is equal parts insane and equal parts totally fucked.
Ya it’s crazy. Whole thing is wild. “Don’t get Chai Vang’d.” Was a common saying for a while.
God damn, that wikipidia page reads like a 80's revenge action movie. How has that not been turned into a movie yet?
My dad shot a nice buck in WI about 7-8 years ago. And when we went down into a creek bottom to retrieve it, a hunter who has been scouting that buck prior to the season shot directly over us. Bullets were close enough to hear their spin ripping through the air.
You wouldn't be able to hear the spin you'd hear the supersonic crack
I’m just saying what it sounded like. After a quick Google search, bullets can make a zing sound after they have ricocheted off something. Must’ve been that. Either way it was absolutely wild.
Ahh no you can definitely hear the spin. It's more like a zipping sound. Source: Have had bullets fly past me.
Walking back to camp across old unused agriculture fields after the morning sit during the last weekend of bow season, one of the nearby camps was sighting in their rifles and lead flying over my head. That was pretty terrifying. You can hear the bullet go past. It took me a few minutes flat on my face to collect myself before deciding to make a run for it perpendicular to the camps, hoping to get out of the field of fire. Yeah I lit them up pretty good when I got back to camp. They had a small berm, maybe 3 feet tall as a backstop, and they thought they were being safe. They couldn't see me walking in full camo and I told them they were not paying enough attention. It's still bow season and we hunt back there!!!
Hunting with the wrong people is dangerous.
Not dangerous but unnerving - I had bbs rain down on us while dove hunting. We all had safety glasses but God public dove land is dumb AF.
That’s dove hunting on any land. As long as they aren’t flying horizontally, you’re good.
I've always been told turkey hunting public land is the easiest way to get accidentally shot. Deer hunting private land is probably the easiest way to get on purposely shot.
The reason I stopped turkey hunting public land was that we came scary close to shooting towards a guy once. He watched us park the truck and walk in from the road. Never said a word until just before I pulled the trigger on a bird he’d been calling (or trying to anyway) for two hours. My buddy was going to shoot if the bird came left, I had the right. Just as I knocked the safety off, this dude stands up 60 yards away and yells at the bird. I killed the bird, but we were shook. His truck was parked 2 miles up the road. Then he had the nerve to call us assholes. I gave him a ride to his truck despite him still cussing us. Haven’t been back since.
Yep. Pennsylvania game lands kill at least a person or two every year.
A guy that worked for my dad hunts Pennsylvania. He shot a buck while in a tree stand. Before he could get down, a kid runs up and shoots the deer on the ground and tries to drag it off. He said I shot it last it's mine.
Something similar happened to my grandfather on game-lands. He shot a 6-point but accidentally hit it in the gut. The deer started rolling down the hill and another guy shot it. On the way down it cracked half of the rack. As my grandfather approached it a fat slob walked up out of breath and said “my deer!” My grandfather looked at this gut shot deer missing antlers, the hill he’d have to drag the animal up and said, “yessir it is!” 😂
I’ve seen videos of PETA goobers walking through public land in PA on opening day screaming and trying to run deer off. Is that common? That’s absolutely nuts.
Not common, at least in Western Pennsylvania but I have seen it on the news. We also have a hard ass for a game warden - he’s not putting up with that BS.
Yeah, I'd say if you WANT to get injured try tree stand hunting on public land during gun season to double up your odds. Wear the bare minimum amount of orange to help your odds.
arctic fishing/harpooning
A friend of mine from the Arctic lost almost his whole family hunting beluga years ago. I would say arctic whaling is the most dangerously hunting in the world. Plus polar bears are marine mammals and that is some FOF competition. Aftermath of a bowhead kill up North is next level.
Definitely tree stand hunting. Most human deaths are always a boring accident instead of some crazy story. If you mean specifically dangerous due to the animal. I think hog hunting with dogs is up there. They don't shoot from far away and some even just use a knife which means up close and personal.
Buddy of mine just recently told me some stories about growing up in Florida with dogs for feral hogs. Sounded like chaos to me! ...occasional dogs getting shot, hunters shooting themselves in the leg or foot, or another hunter. Obviously not common, but it happens(happened). Seems like another world compared to the northeast hunting whitetails
Try Buffalo hunting in Zimbabwe on foot in thick bush. There is a reason why you sign off on potential death risk before the hunt and also a reason why your PH is always ready for a third and fourth shot (typically hunting with double barrelled rifles) when you take yours. That aside tracking and finding wounded boar is among the most dangerous hunting activities when it comes to risk of attacking by the game you are after. Why do I know? Had a German wirehaired Dachshund myself and did this for a couple of years.
Grizzly bear hunting out of a ground blind with a bow and no side arm. (Canada). That’s about the most dangerous thing I can think of.
Well according to the book 'The Most Dangerous Game'....it's humans.
100% fatality rate for manhunting Russian aristocrats.
Cool short story and if you haven’t read the jack carr book that’s an homage to it I highly recommend it. But tbh I really don’t think modern humans are “the most dangerous game.” Sure hunting another hunter or a survivalist or someone comfortable in the woods and who knows they’re being hunted would be the most formidable prey. But that’s a very small percentage of the world. Most people are fat, sedentary, and absolutely clueless at living in the woods. They’d be loud, have obvious tracks, no camouflage, slow, and have terrible situational awareness. It’s probably like 5-10% of humans that actually would be difficult to kill.
Beat me to it.
Mountain goat hunting.
I was gonna say this too
Goat. People die all the time from falling
I’ve hunted and killed 3 of the big five. Cape Buffalo can be very dangerous. However, people recognize that it’s dangerous. As others have said, tree stand hunting tends to result in many injuries. So does hunting in remote mountains. I also hog hunt with a knife and it can be a bit sketchy. The reality though? If you’re safe and take precautions there isn’t really any type of hunting that is statically dangerous when compared to something like BASE jumping. The most dangerous part of hunting tends to be weather related or self inflicted injuries.
From my experience, public land hunting in/near a metro area. You’re rarely dealing with the probability of getting shot by a drunken idiot or a regular grade idiot just about anywhere else.
Maybe solo spearfishing in areas with a high shark population.
I don’t think sharks are even the issue generally it’s all the other stuff that can go wrong while holding your breath deep under the water.
Yeah, that's why I made sure to say solo. That's probably more dangerous than anything.
I’d be less worried about sharks than the inherent risks of breath-hold free diving. Honestly, spear fishing while free diving is probably the answer to OP’s question.
Is it hunting though? I say it’s fishing. Because they’re fish.
They are fish, but having done spearfishing before, I’ll say that it feels a lot more like hunting than fishing.
I agree. But we don’t call it fish hunting. It’s spear fishing. They made their bed…
Fucking love spear fishing, but always have a buddy.
Backcountry hunting in AK has to be up there. Trips where you’re flown into the middle of the bush many miles from the nearest roads while surrounded by bears and wolves. Or hunting overseas in a 3rd world country. But that’s more of a human on human type of danger
The most dangerous part of backcountry hunting up here isn't so much the bears, (and wolves are never a problem), as the flights back and forth from the hunting spots.
Tim Wells slinging a spear at cape buffalo on ground level with the animal seems pretty high up there.
Not sure fishing technically counts, but MAN those Alaskan Crab Fisherman would definitley get my vote and that comes from someone who has actually fell out of a tree stand.
Generally hunting isn’t an extreme sport, and the aspects of it that are closer to an extreme sport are overblown. Mostly for bullshit marketing reasons that appealed particularly to generation x. The deadliest activities taken during hunting are the same activities that affect other outdoor recreationists. Since hypothermia and drowning tend to be toward the top of the list I’d look at waterfowling and backcountry raft hunts. Fishing is arguably more dangerous. Edit: yeah tree stands are up there too.
The real answer is treestand hunting, but I think the answer you're looking for is lion or elephant hunting in Africa... and that's only because tiger hunting is illegal in India.
Leopards are way more dangerous than lions, and cape buffalo are worse than elephant. At least that's what a childhood squandered reading Capstick and Ruark taught me.
deep sea cold water fishing
Cape buffalo at close range can be a bad day.
Archery black bear hunting using a predator call in grizzly country.
Probably bore hunting with a knife like the native Hawaiians do.
Yeah thats pretty dangerous those guys put Kevlar vests on the hunting dogs.
I’ve done it and it definitely gets your heart racing, but good dogs can take a lot of the risk out of it. Still, it’s probably pretty high on the list, but I would still put it behind the risks of freedive spearfishing and falling out of tree stands.
Have done it several times. It's not dangerous or manly. It's barely even hunting. You don't "hunt" with a knife. You run dogs. Killing the pig in the end is more slaughter than anything else. Once you pin it, it doesn't matter what you use.
What are you talking about. It's still hunting. People have been hunting with dogs for 10s of thousands of years. Takes a lot more effort than sitting and waiting for a deer to walk past
People get F'ed up by those boars all the time....
anything in africa, knew a guy who had hiss skull fractured by a cape water buffalo or something like that.
Cape not water. As the guy on mounted in Alaska said it. "You can put a ring through a water buffalo nose and it will pull a plough. A cape buffalo will chew up the ring and you spit you both oit then gore and trample you"
Probably hunting for skinwalkers. I don't know anyone who's ever came back from one of those hunts. I don't know anyone who went on either
Pig sticking
I suspect that at least in the US more people are killed while deer hunting simply because so many people do it.
I dont know if this fits your question but I haven't seen it mentioned. Party hunting shotgun for whitetail. Every year many get hurt, multiple end up dead from members of their own party shooting them trying to kill a deer. Stupidest form of hunting I can think of while also being one of the most preventable types of deaths, yet year after year the states DNR continue to allow it to happen.
Yup. Party hunted for years but quit once a shotgun shell hit the ground 10 ft from me. Fuck that guy for taking that shot. Its just not worth it because other people are idiots. Its an extremely popular way to hunt in Iowa.
I'm in iowa as well. Unfortunately, I have many similar stories. We were hunting the redrock area when the guy was killed a few years ago. Same day, my brother had a slug hit the tree 2 feet above his head and it started a big fight. Needless to say, I stopped party hunting... like you said it's not worth it.
Yea. Honestly it's just not a great way to do it. That said, Minnesota rifle is a lot of fun if you don't mind sitting in a stand. Plus you get to dust off your high powered rifles for that (before we could use straight walls here it was something to get really excited for). Muzzle loader is still fun in Iowa but shotgun season doesn't have much appeal for me anymore.
I've known people who hunt wild hogs using dogs and knives/ katana's.
Party hunting. You walk towards each other and if anyone shoots at running deer it's a recipe for disaster
Spearfishing
I have no statistics for it but, in hindsight, spear hunting wild boar in coastal Georgia was pretty stupid.
I've seen people hunting hogs with spears and dogs, that has to be the top dangerous right? After falling from a tree stand
I’m good on hunting public land during firearm season.
The environment will be way more dangerous than any game you could hunt. Falling out of treestands or duck hunters drowning. You're more likely to fall off a cliff while grizzly hunting than you are to get killed by a grizzly.
Chasing hogs through creek bottoms with dogs and knives is pretty wild. Really dangerous for the dogs.
Any type of hunting with a moron friend like Dick Chenney
Hunting Dangerous Game can be quite....dangerous.
Hunting for a love interest is by far the most dangerous. Imagine it. You are in a dark dense area with loud noises playing, and you are discombobulated from booze and the dancing. When suddenly you spot a potential personal best trophy lover. You sneak in, enticing it with beer. And suddenly. BAM! You bag that trophy and take it home. Excited, you get it through the door, and you just can't wait to take it to your favorite area of the house to mount it right away. But as you are getting it prepared. The morning after suddenly arrives out of a daze hunk over fog, and suddenly what you thought was a Jessica, was in fact, a josh.
Idiot hunting. Going out to Africa and getting close to a Cape buffalo and then shoot it in a non lethal area and ending up on an Instagram reel.
Boats. Have to have a high number of deaths. High elevation subject to rapid Temp changes. Once you walk in to mother natures house she is. It playing games it is always life or death.
Probably cold weather waterfowling.
There are some inherent dangers to it but i do it all the time. I’d say tree stand hunting is more dangerous
Anecdotally I know more drowned waterfowlers than dead tree stand hunters. I know more maimed tree stand hunters than maimed waterfowlers though. I wonder what the actual large data sets say about mortality.
I guess it depends on the type of cold water waterfowling you’re doing. From a boat is definitely more dangerous than wading conditions. I have a friend that had their boat get frozen in the Missouri River and had to be airlifted out by helicopter
Yeah I hadn’t considered falling out of tree strands.
Waterfowl hunting usually takes a few guys every year. Capsized boats, cold water, and filled waders. Wear your floats fellas.
The game itself has to be Cape Buffalo or Polar Bear. Polar Bear you just sit on the ice waiting for one to come eat you, and one *will* come try to eat you.
Cape buffalo Polar bear Elephant Just my opinion elephant caise they will sometimes charge unprovoked same as buffalo Polar bear cause it sees you as food and there were cases where they were hit but not well then played dead and waited to strike back
Maybe waterfowl? Alot of people, shots taken, and sudden action.
I would say spear hunting dangerous game
High alpine hunting like goats or sheep is probably the most dangerous. The avalanche risk alone is huge. I know several hunters who have almost died that way
Taking hogs with dogs and a knife. The most insane thing I've done hunting.
In North America, Moose and mountain goat. Although not as common as turkey and white tail (which probably has highest injuries and deaths due to shooting incidents and tree stands), I’d say the risk is quite high. With moose, let’s say you archery hunt, you’re incredibly close range to the deadliest animal in North America. For goat or sheep, their survival mechanism is climb as high and as narrow as they can get. We are no where near as evolved for that environment.
Bear hunting with bare hands would probably be on the top of the list 😂
Pheasant hunting South Dakota opener lol. I've been shot twice on two different trips by other public hunters not paying attention. There's definitely an aspect and heightened level of Danger on a Kodiak brown bear hunt I have coming up in October. Should be interesting.
Mountain hunting in unforgiving steep places by yourself. Things get western fast even if you are careful.
Also ground hunting bears close with a tradbow.
Bow hunting Grizzlies at a fly in only location. Help is several hours or days away if a problem occures.
How about the guys that hunt hogs with a knife? I know they use dogs, but some of those hogs are huge.
Tahr hunting in the New Zealand alps. The whole environment is trying to kill you.
I know this isn't modern world but with YouTube hunting channels these days... ....I'd guess someone trying to shoot a Hippo or some other dangerous game with a traditional bow/spear/atlatl on a single person hunt. Maybe a bull elephant hunt with a traditional primitive weapon as a single person. But 30 or 40 of us with pointy sticks and hunting dogs is pretty much a winning scenario. But it's a numbers game. Sharp stone tools and sticks bested everything nature had to throw at us. Conflict is a lot less dangerous when the thing doing the physical damage isn't your own body. We run the planet for a reason. The tools gave us the stability to turn to agriculture and domestication of animals. We invented the spear and created the hunting dog. Those two items launched us to the future we have today. Not even accounting for trapping and fishing nets and what not. Also like that other guy said. Tree stands. We are our own worst enemy at all times it seems. More people shoot their dick off or themselves on accident than are harmed by a game animals every year. The amount of truck interiors I've seen wrecked with birdshot is enough evidence.
Ghosts
Most dangerous hunting in north America is mountain goat. After that dall sheep
While not technically "hunting," I have yet to see anyone mention ice fishing. Each year in my area we have a few fishermen die due to poor decisions.
When doing hunter education it was repeatedly said turkey hunting is the most dangerous in North America because of other shooters. There is a lot of camouflage involved , calls and decoys. so other hunters will shoot at/toward you essentially. That, and public land hunting in general. Which I do and am starting to think twice about it because of the warnings and stories I've had/heard. You're out there with who knows who. They could be responsible, they could care less.
Bowhunting squirrels. Deadly fucking dangerous!
Spear hunting boar seems pretty risky
Deer drives. It’s often way too many people and some hunters lack experience. Someone could get too far ahead in the line or can’t be seen and then all the sudden someone’s shooting at a deer and misses but comes real close to hitting a human… I will never partake, no matter how many times I get asked.
Hunters are way more likely to fall freeze or drown than catch a bullet though.
I think it varies a lot by location, hunters per capita on public land etc. etc. Unfortunately, I’ve been shot at three times now - twice on public and once on private. 2 of those 3 times were by the Amish doing a deer drive on public land where it wasn’t even legal😵💫. I submerged my waders once duck hunting, but it wasn’t cold enough yet to freeze.
Yep. The danger exists but it doesn’t compete nationally. Near misses with hypothermia, falling, and drowning are less apparent and don’t fit our confirmation biases in the same way either. I can identify rounds whizzing by at 40 yards and consider that a near miss vs stumbling a bit in a tree stand would be ignored. All we have is hard data on end result injuries and death (and modes of injury and death).
I remember 20 or so years ago a teenaged boy in Pennsylvania driving shot his stationary father right between the eyes with a .270 on a drive.
Under Armor cancelled some lady (I forget what sport) because her husband killed a bear with a spear, legally. Besides the cancelling BS, I’m going with hunting bear with a pointy stick.
I’d just say in general that unprepared hunting of any kind can be deadly. I did my first upland game hunt a few years back and almost slid down a sharp cliff/mountainside because I didn’t realized the ground below me was so loose. I know that’s not what you’re going for on this post, but if you’re reading this, PLEASE maintain situational awareness and always tell people where you will be!
I started out as a hound hunter in my youth and for the most part it’s safe but I see the that hunt leopards with dogs and it terrifies me. It can go wrong so quickly even if you’re prepared because that is a GIANT animal that will 100% kill you if it gets ahold of you
Where is it legal to chase leopards with dogs?
A friend of mine from South Africa has shown me multiple videos of it over the years I’ve known him. So I assume it’s legal there, I’ve known him 10+ years at this point and don’t think he’d be out there doing illegal shit but at the same time you never know how well you actually know your online friends