A couple of years ago in Zimbabwe, I was with a PH who was only a few meters from becoming "toe-jam" due to a charging tuskless cow. The only reason he survived was his quick reaction, shooting skills, and luck. There is definitely danger involved.

Sneaking into cow herds to check if there are any shootable tuskless amongst them is certainly not danger free, as they are much more likely to get pissed off than bulls are IMO. I think this is partially due to there being calves in such herds, with the mothers and "aunts" thus being extra protective. When you are only 10 meters or so away from these cows, in the dense jesse, it only takes a bit of swirling wind to make things go very wrong.

Erik