RE: When to rifle elk?
If you are rifle hunting, I have to agree with Howler. If you can hunt the first season after archery you still get some bugling elk, making them easy to locate, although they generally stop bugling pretty fast after the first shots go off. And avoiding the later snows is pretty nice. As for tactics, I would recommend getting out into the woods a couple days (minimum) before the season starts to do some glassing/listening. I've been most successful, even when there are plenty of other hunters around, if I can glass and pin down movement patterns for a few days.