Firearm season here starts is from Nov.12-22 . I generally get a backpacking trip just before it starts because that's really the prime time to be out there.

But I strictly avoid being out in the forests for a week starting on opening day of the firearm season. After that, I'll start backpacking again during the middle of the week and I'll avoid the weekends until it's over.

I always wear blaze orange while hiking here, even on my own property. It's always hunting season here for something, so I buy cheap lightweight plastic hunter's vests that I tie to my backpack, and have blaze orange flagging tape streamers dangling all over the place.

I also keep a sharp eye out for blaze orange. If I'm bushwhacking and I spot a hunter wearing it (they have to by law) then I just hike the other way.

If your hiking a mile or more from any road or ATV trail, you probably won't even see a hunter here. They don't like to haul their game that far.

On the whole, hunters here in the Ozarks are some of the best I've ever encountered. They're generally not a bunch of drunks shooting guns like a few places I've been. Most all of them have been hunting with firearms since they were kids. Each year the newspaper post photos of boys and girls that have "Bagged their first deer". Right now I can already hear people shooting their rifles and tuning up their skills all around me.

I rarely hear of accidents here. I found 17 reported in all of Missouri last here, but not all were firearm related. Same number in California ( source)

So I don't worry too much about it. But, here in the Ozarks, the first couple days of firearm season for deer you'll hear shots fired at the very crack of dawn, and keep hearing them until just before sunset. I make a point to know when opening day is and stay out of the forest then.

It tapers off pretty fast after that first week. After the last weekend of firearms season for deer I feel plenty safe wearing my blaze orange and bear bell.