There is no need to make a choice. You can keep skilling both.
Tag mobs in with rifle, and when they are close enough, use
swords. If you think this is a dirty approach, well yes, hunting
is dirty business. We used to see blood sprouting before it
was removed...
You can have a quite small rifle, since the decay used seems
to induce the skilling of other equipement. Keep mobs coming in
all the time (occasional tagging shot), while you have one on
the queue waiting for to be killed. That way you are busy and
happy all the time.
Edit: And you can take bigger mobs one-by-one, shoot them
until they lean on you, then start slicing them.
There is no reason to skill
only lb or
only rifle.
Hg and lb exclude each other though. It was your mentor
who wanted you to do only this or only that I guess. So forget
that.