Which is harder: public land archery or public land rifle?

[pilsner]

I'm pretty bad with a rifle, so I'm gonna try archery this year. From what youtube shows, you just walk a couple ridges and blast on your bugle a bunch of times. A little bit later a bull walks into 20 yards and you shoot him. Looks easy enough to me.

That only works if you have a flat brimmed hat and a Keep Hammering tattoo.

 

[375H&H]

Easier to find elk in archery season
Easier to kill an elk once found in rifle season

Comes out to about a draw in my eyes.

This. Except I will favor towards rifle season being harder due to the morale boost needed if you can’t find elk. Finding elk easily during archery seasons makes the mental game far more surmountable.

 

[cgasner1]

To quote BuzzH... "Elk hunting isn't hard, just stop sucking so hard"

Each has it's challenges, but the bro train prefers when it's warm so they can wear their muscle tees so I tend to gravitate towards rifle where there are less folks in the woods.

We also don’t like the recoil from the super light rifles so archery

 

[BuzzH]

Easier to locate elk in archery season.

Harder to find elk on public during rifle season.

Getting them killed depends on the hunter in both cases.

 

[bigsky2]

I haven’t done a lot of elk hunting in MT general units since the college days, but based on that experience, I found rifle hunting to be harder. Actually I would say rifle hunting for elk in MT general units can be downright difficult if you’re trying to kill a branch antlered bull.

On the other hand, I’ve deer hunted in some OTC elk units in Colorado where I thought the elk hunting would have been fairly easy with a rifle based on how many elk I was running into on public.

 

[Joseph Peterson]

After guiding both archery and rifle hunts for 35 years, I would summarize it as: Any bull, archery, a big bull, rifle. This is central Idaho public land.

 

[benclimbing]

Archery. More fun, but more difficult.

 

[WYelker]

Archery is harder but a better hunt and more enjoyable. Killing elk with a rifle is not much a challenge unless you really restrict yourself on what you are willing to shoot…

 

[GrantK]

I'd say archery is a bit harder overall, but its much easier to find elk so it's easy to stay motivated... Rifle hunting in general is more of a grind to find elk but if you stick with it long enough to find them you are probably going to get it done.

 

[brocksw]

I'd guess harvest success rates would suggest archery is significantly more challenging to fill a tag in a vast majority of states, if not all. I'd also think, as Buzz suggests, a small percentage of hunters are responsible for filling most of the tags....this is even more true for archery.

 

[Wyhunter]

For me, I find the difficulty to be about the same. I have killed bigger bulls with a rifle, but I have way more fun archery hunting. A raghorn is a raghorn whether is 200 or 250 ... might as well throw arrows

 

[sclancy27]

Are we saying any elk? If any elk, OTC MT rifle season no question.

Any bull? I would still say OTC MT rifle season.

Big bull? I've killed a couple in both rifle and archery, I think it is a toss up between them, depending on the weather that year. Years like last year are a recipe for finding a big bull in rifle. Warmer years are going to lean more towards archery. IMO

 

[MT Bound]

MT: public land archery hands-down. every Tom, Dick & Harry is out trying to hunt like Cam Hanes, Joe Rogan & Cory Jacobson....

 

[gonhunting247]

Here at home in OR I'd say archery is a bit better.

 

[corndog1]

I cant find a mature bull during rifle season.

 

[ccc23454]

I have more non harvest days in bow season than rifle, dont think its harder just different challenges.

 

[rogerthat]

MT: public land archery hands-down. every Tom, Dick & Harry is out trying to hunt like Cam Hanes, Joe Rogan & Cory Jacobson....

I’m not sure Joe quite fits in with that group when it comes to hunting. He could obviously kick their arses however.

 

[mtmuley]

Where I hunt it is tough with either weapon. Pounded public. But, a few of us have it figured out. mtmuley

 

[Fremont15]

Archery is more difficult because even when you find them they are difficult to kill. With a rifle, when I find them I can usually find a way to get it done. It also helps having a rifle season that begins on Oct 1 when they are still going nuts.

 

[Montan'n]

Equally as hard, just in different ways.