Should I become a muzzle loader or an archer?

[M_ray]

Curly spells it out for ya just look what you get if you have an Eastside tag ... Now tell me those late hunt opportunities are the same as archery or are any good at all  It's not even worth spending the gas money on the late hunt! The overall list is much shorter I can't see where they changed enough to make it equivalent! 

[Little Fish]

I went through the same process you are going through a few years back and since I didn't seriously start hunting until my late 30s I had a lot of catching up to do and figuring things out.  Here is the process I went through and where I've ended up.

When I started out I went modern, but really only hunted a few days during a couple seasons with friends who had an established camp. It was fun, but generally I found that there were a lot of people in the woods. After this I tried muzzle loader on the theory that there are way fewer muzzle guys in the state. This is true, but if you look at how few open areas there are relative to archery and modern it was nearly as crowded as modern. Finally I switched to archery and although I see other people in the woods there are not nearly as many people and I feel like I have the woods to myself. So it really depends what's important to you in hunting. I love doing it all (modern, muzzle and archery), but at the top of the list of what I enjoy is the feeling of kicking around in the woods by myself/with a partner. If I had to summarize the best parts of archery hunting (and I am talking archery elk) this would be the list:

Uncrowded/Woods to myself relative to muzzle or modern
Fantastic weather (most of the time) and a great time to be in the woods
I see 10x more animals than during other seasons (keeps things exciting even if I can't get close to them)
I have the chance to take a bull or cow by either calling them in or spot and stalk

[carpsniperg2]

do them bolth pick one for deer one for elk i muzzle deer archery elk try bolth see which one you like better

[TheHunt]

Stick to rifle or move to muzzleloader.  Tooooo many people archery hunting.

[WDFW Hates ME!!!]

72 it is not just archers that leave animals lay. every method has its bad apples. i muzzle hunt. i prefer it to the others.
from what i see is you need to decide what you want out of it. meat... easy. bow. i could shoot a cow every year. but i hunt hard and off the road. run into tons of people that road hunt and wonder why they cant fill a tag. like i said i prefer to ML hunt, but that is me.

[carpsniperg2]

and to me being a landowner we have never once found a dead archery deer on our property but lots of people wound and shoot to shoot with a rifle or muzzleloader even the public ground i hunt i have yet to find a dead animal lost to bowhunting but i don't hunt were everyone else hunts i usally don't see any people were we hunt not many ambious hunters that put to many miles on and wdfw hates me could not be more right with the wording every method has its bad apples i know alot of bow hunter that shoot there bow better at 100 than most people do with a muzzleloader or rifle it is sad to say the least but we all need to be bound by the love of the sport and stay united if we don't and we start nitpickin eachother thats what the anti people want and lets not give it to them

[M_ray]

muzzleloader. I find way to many dead lost animals with arrrows laying near by rotting and going to waste. Oh ya whoever stuck the 6x6 elk and never found it by Riffe lake nice bull dude . Totally awesome finding a big rotting wasted trophy. I dont have anything against bowhunters im one but too many knuckleheads flingin arrows already.

Hey 72 I have heard this argument before from Rifle hunters and I'm here to tell you when you are an Archer you find just as many lost animals in the late Archery hunt that rifle hunters didn't find! The problem is there is no late Rifle for most of you guys to see that your compadres make just as many bad hits as any other method!!!  

[72k5blzr]

Oh come on now there is how many more rifle hunters than archery hunters if lost kills is even close in numbers than its bad for archery. And carp your absolutley spot on about in fighting being bad for us sportsman. I like bowhunting i do. And i will say this ive been really spooked by idiots scoping me and blazing away at moving game not seeing the whole picture with me in it and ive never had any of these irresponsible type experiences during an archery season.

[M_ray]

Oh come on now there is how many more rifle hunters than archery hunters if lost kills is even close in numbers than its bad for archery. And carp your absolutley spot on about in fighting being bad for us sportsman. I like bowhunting i do. And i will say this ive been really spooked by idiots scoping me and blazing away at moving game not seeing the whole picture with me in it and ive never had any of these irresponsible type experiences during an archery season.

Really? now you are going to say that because there are more rifle hunters that it's an exeptable number of lost animals and it doesn't mean as much since the numbers might match that of Archers? I'm saying that late Archers find your mistakes and don't complain and throw it in your face! How many days did you spend afield last year? I hunted 24 days for Moose 12 days for Deer and 5 days for Elk for a total of 41 days and a hell of alot of miles cross country infact one 4 day period we kept track of 40 miles on foot!!! And I found 1 animal that was not recovered by a hunter and it was from a rifle!!!  Your argument doesn't hold much water we are all considered the same user group and again late archers find your mistakes as well so don't sling mud!!! 

[funkster]

I will put my 2 cents in.The woods are really getting crowed during archery season. The last two years I have ran into guys bragging on how they hit an elk and did not recover it. The next question I ask is how long have you been bow hunting?  Almost all of them say "this is my first year hunting" and more than a few say "first year with bow but rifle hunted for years. I counted 7 lost elk this year alone from first year archer's. I don't really blame them because most of them just don't know. I really feel that ethics and tradition passed down from family to family is being lost. The greed of harvesting is out waying the memories made with grandpa,dad,uncle etc,it is very sad. When you are practicing out at the range and a guy pulls up and his first shot is out at 80 yards and shoots 5-6 arrows and doesn't even hit the dot, then says "I am good for the season".There is no doubt why animals are being wounded.

[GoPlayOutside]

I archery hunt...so I would say go with muzzleloader

[M_ray]

ya and if youd quit movin thru the woods so damn fast youd be back at camp celebrating your accomplishment a hell of alot sooner. Some guys on here will go "wow that mray sure hunts alot" and others will go "huh whatever weekend warrior" me. i own a small construction business and this year was the toughest ive seen. point being if you want to split hairs over who had more time in the field this year i will take you up on that i didnt work much and you didnt mention any bird season or coyote hunts or bear hunts. ya sounds stupid huh.

No I think your the one who looks stupid now 72 you missed the point completely  ... it's not a pissin match over who spent more time afield ... you were defending rifle hunters vs archery hunters loosing game!!! You are so busy being insecure and defensive that you can't even stick to the subject! I'll spell it out a little slower so you can stay on topic, The comparison of time had to do with the amount of lost game I ran across which was 1 rifle kill lost. The point was in that much time afield and in the late hunt as well I personally did not find any Archery lost game. The comparison of how many miles was to show that I don't road hunt!!! which means that I have a greater chance of finding said lost animals than someone who road hunts ... Ya still with me? I think most could see where I was going with this.

OK so as far as back at camp celebrating??? you are obviously a newbie to this forum and I highly doubt others who know me here will agree with your quotes. If I were just meat hunting then I would be back early ... but we usually hunt specific animals first and last year was a case in point. If I can't connect then on the last possible day of my Hunt's I'll settle for something less for the meat if I need it! I have eaten tags & Special permits before not for lack of finding an animal to shoot but for lack of not finding the right one!!! And that's not a slam on the way you or others hunt at all that's just to show that the reason a person spends allot of time afield isn't allways because they are a bad hunter    I have had hunts where I wasn't holding out for anything special and been done quick and other times I didn't need meat and passed  I passed on two Elk in Montana at 20 yards allready this year!!! So who sounds stupid now???

[DJR]

This thing is kind of sliding off topic but I'll put my oar in the water. Are you talking about solo hunting elk? If so consider the weather during early archery which can be pretty warm over here on the east side. I've got one of the any-season tags this year and that means my usual partners are not present for two out of the three seasons.

Had a couple of opportunities during archery but no arrows sent. Always on my mind was what I was going to do with something the size of a small horse once it hit the ground in near 80 degree temperatures.

Just got back from hunting the M/L season. Hunted hard except for one day I had to come out to take care of a vehicle problem (tree fell on it) which means up and in the woods before daylight and maybe back for lunch, maybe not, then the timber again until after dark. Saw elk alright but no spikes.

I'll hit the center-fire season for at least the first three or four days then the late archery again.

Anyway to answer your question if you intend to do this thing alone consider that you will have a pretty tough time retrieving the meat (your goal) from an early archery back country solo hunt. Problem still exists but not as bad during the M/L season.

My solution to the same question (I'm pretty much a meat hunter) is fiddle around here in Washington but spend the money on a serious DIY out of state hunt. That is an option that probably won't be there in a few years but for now is probably your best chance for meat.   

Just another opinion.

DJR

[DJR]

Let me add to the above that if you are asking the question for yourself and your present centerfire hunting partners you probably need to make sure they are equally committed (particularly if it's archery) or you will be on your own anyway.

DJR

[septemberfan]

If your sole purpose is for meat then I agree that you should save your money and buy a beef it would be a lot cheaper.  My dad and I have had this argument about wild game being cheap meat. It didn't take me long to prove my point of how expensive hunting is.

That being said I have hunted rifle for 5 years, bow for 5 years, and ML for 17 years.  I think an antlerless permit for rifle is your best chance (and cheapest) to put meat in your freezer.

As far as wounded or lost animals.  I agree that every weapon has its share of lost animals.  Bow probably gets the worst rap because it is so visible. I mean it's not like you can see an animal running around with a bullet sticking out of it or lying next to it. We need to stick together regardless of how you hunt. The important thing to remember is not take a shot that you are not sure will result in a quick kill.