The hardest part for beginning archer is choosing a bow.  These are a few things to look for:

                                                                             CAM

There are many type of cam options available,but the mager types are:  round or energy wheel (soft cams), single cam, dual cams which are hard to radical.  The type of cam option depends on experience, strength, and shooting form forgiveness.

Round cams or energy wheels are cams that are round or have a slight oval.  These cams are very quiet, forgiving of slight form flaws, and have a smooth draw.  They can launch arrows at about 210- 230 feet per second AMO.  These are great for beginning archers and very quiet for hunting

The single cam is a hard cam with a large idler wheel on the other end.  This set up is quiet, a little forgiving of slight form flaws, has a smooth draw, and may need a little more strength depending on how radical the cam design is.  This can be used for beginners and experts alike and is fairly quiet for hunting.  They can launch arrows at 225-245 fps AMO.

Dual cams are two hard cams which were designed for speed.  These bows are more noisy though new inovations are making them quieter, need greater strength to draw, and not forgiving of slight form flaws.  These bows are used mainly by experienced archers.  Depending on how radical the cam, they can launch arrows at 240- 275 fps AMO.

When looking for a bow, don't make speed the main reason.  Game such as deer have been harvested with arrows launched at 180 fps or less.  Accuracy and consistancy is what you strive for in archery.  Go to a Spoting Goods store or local Archery pro shop and try as many bows as posible to find the one  that is best suited for your expertise.

                                                               Fingers or Mechanical Release

If you want to shoot bow with fingers,  the bow should atleast be 38 inches in length.  The shorter the bow the more finger pinch during the draw.  If you are in pain while shooting, your accuracy will suffer because of lack of concentration.  Fingers are more reliable than mechanical releases because they don't jam or break like a release might.

Mechanical releases can be used on any compound bow.  They are more accurate than fingers.  Kept oiled and in good working order they will last for a long time.  It is usually wise to carry a spare release in you possibles bag during hunting.  The most used type of release is ones that have triggers and can be adjusted or pull weight.  Releasesareusually never used on Traditional bows.

                                                                     Traditional or Compund Bow

Traditional bows have an aesthetic appeal and a gracefulness.  Traditional bows are considered long bows and recurve bows.  they are 60 inches or more in length.  These bows are great for snap shooting like hunting birds. with traditional bows you hold the full draw weight when shooting and you sight with your eye only.  This is archery at it"s simplest form.  There is basically very little tuning, but a great deal less to go wrong while hunting.

Compound bows when they first entered the market launched an arrow the same speed as a recurve bow.  The biggest difference in the compound bow is the let-off.  Onced the cams have turned over you are only holding a partialamount of the draw weight.  An example is if you have a bow with 50% let-off and your draw weight is 60pounds, you are only holding 30 pounds of the draw weight.  This gives a hunter an advantage of holding string longer waiting for his shot.  Be advised that Pope and Young will not recognize a throphy from a bow with more than 60% let off.

 

When selecting a bow, try out as many bows as possible!  Find the one that feels right for you.  Confidence in your equipment  makes a big difference in your accuracy, comfort, and enjoyment of archery.

                                                                                                                                          Gray Ghost