Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting whats more expensive... rifle or bow hunting?

Seriously,

I started working on my archery last year for this season. and between bows, sights, arrows, broadheads, and getting everything all tuned in perfectly, I am starting to think this bow stuff might be more costly than my rifles/ammo!!!

What are your thoughts?

Archery, for sure.

It depends on how much of an equipment fiend one happens to be, and where one goes to hunt. Bow hunting is cheap as hell for me, since I've virtually no interest in owning more than one bow, that one is now a decade old, and aside from a tune-up, new arrows, and broadheads as needed, no money is put into it. Bow hunting, as well as target practice, both may happen out of the dining room window. This tends to drastically lower one's travel costs.

Rifle hunting means picking out which rifle I'll be bringing to the hunting property located three hrs from my home. If the cost of venison per lbs. taken during WI gun deer season was tallied up, munching Kobe beef would probably be a cheaper alternative.

Most bowhunters I know have one bow, most rifle hunters I know have many rifles to choose from... I'd say rifle hunting unless your an archer who has to have the latest bow and thus changes set-ups every year.

For me, Archery.

I can accomplish rifle hunting with one rifle, one scope, and one box of shells a year after that.

-Jake

Archery easily, in my opinion.

I'd say archery by a good bit. Thanks to the fire, I just bought a Weatherby 30-06 from Wally World for $250. It has a plastic stock and is not exactly "beautiful" but its plenty good enough for anyone to kill anything in North America if you are sane and all you are interested in is killing a few animals each season.....not that any of us are! . Being a rifle nut is a whole other kettle of fish. I have a $150 Leupold VX-1 scope on the rifle that I also bought on sale last year just after Christmas. You ain't touching a decent archery rig and all the accessories you need for $450. You need a bow, sight, quiver, release aid, arm guard and arrows. The arrows are god-awful expensive and they get lost and damaged. You need points for the arrows. You are going to need a target because you have to practice a lot and the target is going to wear out.

Rifle guys should practice more than we do but for sake of argument plenty of people don't shoot more than a box of ammo a year if that and fill tags quite well. Its not a feat of marksmanship to kill an animal with a scoped rifle unless he is way out there.

I used to shoot a lot of archery when I was a kid. I'd be all over it if I lived in a state where the archery season was long and the gun season was a week. As it is, I can't get motivated with a 4 month gun season. You actually do use your muscles for pulling the bow and retrieving the arrows so maybe you save by not needing a gym membership!

I think a feat of marksmanship is relative to the weapon, for example 30 yds was most ethical archers max for a number of years. Now with a modern parallel limb bow, drop away, release, carbon, etc. 30 yds is almost a chip shot from what I hear.

Archery for me. It’s my first love so I’m ok with that but some of the prices are crazy. $1500 bows that are outdated in a year?? Imagine that with a rifle...

Craig

Archery. When it comes time, your guns if halfway decent will bring as much if not more than they were purchased for. Your bow and equipment will bring $10 at a garage sale...if they sell due to being "outdated".

I bought a basic Excalibur crossbow and forgot all of the nonsense. And that will bring nothing when I decide to sell it too.

My rifle, by far. (In initial costs, continued costs are less.) I have it, and parts do not need to be replaced often)
My go to bow has been the same bow for @39yrs. Continuing costs in arrows, heads, bowstrings, a bit higher than my ammo costs, I think.

Then move to Ohio. 3 months of bow session. 1-2 weeks of deer gun season.

for me archery gear is more expensive but amortized over the seasons archery is less expensive per hunt than rifle. However, archery gear depreciates much more substantially than rifle and finding a buyer for used bows is tougher than selling used guns.
my next bow is going to be a crossbow they come ready to hunt.

Good point. When you factor in depreciation, archery gear goes way up. You can usually sell a used firearm for what you paid or even more if you hang onto it for a while.

For Me it was archery by far until I sold My vertical bows (lost My arse) and bought a couple Excalibur crossbows, I spend very little on archery now but I still suffer from "Rifle loonyizm"....😁.......Hb

Archery easily.

A $1000 rifle will hold it's value for an indefinite period......but very long indeed


A bow goes and the equipment for it falls in value quickly.....year after year forever

Yeah your lucky if you can get 60% of what you paid for a top of the line bow a year after you buy it....It's really a joke how fast the value of archery equipment falls like a rock......Hb

THIS !!!!!!!

...plus every arrow shaft and head costs me about $13.00 on average, and a ground hog just bent another shaft. My rifle bullets are $1.50 per round.