Dugaboy1,
The key to your statement is in the first sentence, " if done properly is not dangerous at all." I just watched a program on TV last night where some people were hunting in Africa for Cape Buffalo. They were close to a herd and the PH kept handing his double back to a gun bearer and grabbing the shooting sticks from the carrier. Then he would quickly trade back again. There were at least two more trackers/gun bearers behind them and at least one of them had gun also.
During their tense walk to get up on the buffalo I saw numerous accounts where one of them either had his muzzles pointed at the back of the head of the man in front of him or down at his feet. All the shuffling back and forth with the gun and the sticks was blowing all their safety protocols out the window. You could see that the hunters and at least one bearer were very nervous. This is precisely what I was talking about.
Not all these guys had the guns pointing upwards at all, at least two of them were level across their shoulders and at times were passing back and forth past the head of the guy in front of them.
I still maintain that over the shoulder carry is sloppy gun handling, and it is much better to have the gun under control while having both hands on it and having it pointed upwards and off to the side.
I know for a fact that people have been shot and killed accidentally doing this.
I realize that in order to get shots on film that it is necessary to have one or even two cameramen in the hunting party, but the more people involved, the more confusion involved in getting through the brush and getting a shot at the animal. This was obviously part of the problem with the hunting party I watched on T.V. That is even more reason to avoid sloppy gun handling. Bob