Jeff Callahan can still recall the morning he dozed off while hunting deer from a homemade tree-stand in upstate New York.

The resulting fall — a 13-foot plunge that caused a spinal injury and left him paralyzed from the neck down — was avoidable, he said, if only he had followed precautions and tethered himself to the tree with a safety line.

“Some guys think they’re indestructible, and that’s what I thought too,” said Mr. Callahan, 57, who now hunts from his wheelchair. Even aiming with his teeth and firing with the help of a breathing tube, he has bagged many deer with both shotgun and crossbow.

“They call me one-shot,” he said.

While the topic of dangerous hunting mishaps has long seemed synonymous with gun-related incidents, there is now a more deadly category: falls from tree stands that have become increasingly popular among gun and bow hunters seeking a high vantage point.