I'm a very inexperianced hunter, but here is my thoughts on it. I have three different situations 1st. If I'm concentrated in my hunt for non-dangerous game, I would always have one in the chamber unless I was climbing something with the safety on.
2nd. If I'm just lazily wandering the woods content weather i find game or not, I would not have one in the chamber and it would be on safe
3rd. If I was to hunt in dangerous game areas, I would have my rifle off of safe but an empty chamber. This is because cocking the rifle would be second nature to me where is turning the safety off I would more likely forget. I would instinctively load the chamber. Turning the safety off wouldn't be as instinctive to me.
