The area I hunt is hilly, But I hunt from a tree stand, just me but I like the idea of shooting downward, I believe there is less chance of a mishap, but as with anything in life, there are no guarantees, here in Pa, two incidents come to mind, a couple years back, a guy was shot out of a tree stand, the guy that hit him was on the ground, but at a higher elevation on another hill top.
Some year’s back a guy was target shooting in the spring of the year, this was terrible, but unforeseeable. They found that a 22 long rifle round had missed his back stop, and traveled 1 mile threw a forest, and was still able to penetrate a house trailer and struck a baby in its crib.
Both of these were very freak accidents, and should have never happened but did.
When I introduced my grandson to firearms, two points I made very clear to him, first, there is no such thing as being to careful with any weapon, and yes it is a weapon if not used properly, the other was, that once the bullet leaves the barrel, nothing on earth or heaven can put it back, nor will any amount of apologies make a tragedy right.