Looking for a new hunting bow

Hey guys,

I went for my first bow hunt a couple weeks ago and loved it, and want to get into it myself. I've had some experience with small compound bows when I was a bit younger shooting at foam targets, but nothing with hunting bows. I'm looking for a good medium-of-the-line bow ($500 and below). I'm not partial to brands, but need some input as I have no clue what is good and what is not. Also, what would I need in terms of draw weight, speed, axle to axle, etc. ? I'm about 5'10'', 185lbs... Thanks!

 

If you are like me, I prefer recurves. Go to Bob Lee Customs and there are several to choose from. I hunt with one of his take down recurves, with a fast flight string. Incredible and accurate.

 

hey - i am an avid bow hunter up here in canada and have been for years. you are about my size. i shoot 29 inch draw at 65 lbs. I have a few bows and my favorite brands are PSE, APA and Mathews. My APA Boa is deadly. It is a canadian brand not well known in the states but is well known in the bow world. Go find a reputable shop and they will size you up properly for free and get you started. I have had to help numerous guys in the bush completey retune there bows due to improper setup from the shop. If you start out wrong......you will hate bow hunting cuz you cant hit anything. Cheaper but good brands are Diamond(bowtech owned), fred bear, and martin. go talk to a reputable shop and good luck. if you were up here i would take you out for a shoot.

 

x2 and shoot it before you buy it, you will be glad you did.

 

Cool, I'll take a look at it... Thanks!

Awesome info, thanks!

 

Will do, we got a Bass Pro around here and a couple other bait&tackle shops that have archery ranges... I'll definitely give it a shot. Thanks!

 

i am a avid bow hunter. the first thing you need to do is go to a bow shop and get
your draw length. you need to make sure you get a bow that fits you perfect. if you buy something that is 1/2" off one way or the other, it is going to make a huge diffrence. what i would do is wait until after hunting season, and look on craigslist (local), or on ebay. if you buy a used bow, make sure it has alot of stuff that come with it. the accessories can cost a fortune, a good sight new will be in the 80 to 150 range. hell, my bow cost me more than my gun. i would just spend a few extra pennies and buy a good bow on ebay with everything on it. you can do that all day long for $500. Mathews, hoyt, bowtech, pse anre some of the higher end ones. i am on my third mathews bow, dxt and love it. smoked this buck with it this year.


where do you hunt at ? i hunt in halifax county & northampton county, nc. father just bought a small farm outside emporia, i will bowhunt there some next year. my wifes grandparents live in franklin, va.

 

Thanks for the info VTRAIN, appreciate it. I'm looking at the PSE Stinger bow and then gonna add some accessories on it... Going to a local bow shop and going to get fitted before I make any purchases. I hunt (not very often because of inexperience) in Windsor, which is only about 5-10 miles from Franklin... Emporia isn't that far from here either...

 

pse are supposed to be good bows, i have never shot one though. the only bows i ever owned were browning (first, bought to see if i liked bowhunting) and mathews.
the only reason i went with mathews is that at the time, 9 years ago, the shop here only carried hoyt and mathews. all the guys there recommended mathews, and shot them, so i just bought one, sq2. like 3 years later i bought an outback, and last year i bought a dxt. i can tell you there has been minimal diffrence b/w all of them over the years. diffrences, yes, but i would not say night and day. if you decide you want a mathews look for a switchback xt, drenilin, or dxt. you can get one on ebay, after the season for $500 with all the accessories. there are alot of people that sell their bows every year. i am not trying to talk you into a mathews, just giving you imput baised on my experience. i am not going to sit here and bash other brands, b/c if i have never shot one, that just makes no sense.

a great hunting sight, that i use is the trophy ridge mirco matrix. their sight pins are inline and are very, very easy to adjust and position on target. they started making a new sight this year, i have it in my closet, i can't remember what it is called. my wife gave it to me for a gift mid hunting season. i did not want to sight it in mid season, so i am still using my old one. i am going to sight the new one in in january, it is brighter and stronger. i want to have it ready b/c i am going black bear hunting with it in alberta the 3rd week of may 2010. i used to use a copper john but switched several years ago. i love the trophy ridge sight, truglo started making a inline sight last year also.

 

the PSE stinger is a great bow. One of my buddies has one as his second bow ( he uses it for 3D shoots). Any Mathews bows are top of the line. I have shot the new Mathews REEZEN and it is unbelievable. I could go on forever.

the trophy ridge sights are really good. spend at least 100 $ on a sight. If you go cheap you will want to upgrade really soon so do it right the first time. I shoot cobra sights and like them. tru-glow, copper john etc are all good.

To V train - we just got a big black bear 25 minutes from my house last month. I live in BC canada. where in alberta are you going for black bear???? i have hunted all over Alberta and BC. the bears are in herds here there is so many.( HA HA HA).

 

it is funny we have great bear hunting here in n.c. the problem is that it is impossiable to hunt them with a bow. they do not allow baiting. that is fine we don't have the large numbers of bears like you have. i hope that it stays that way for sometime the population here is really taking off. if you ever want to kill a huge black bear n.c. is the place to come. it is just not my style, you have to use dogs, or hunt over huge fields with a rifle. the bears here do not hibernate, we don't have cold winters. the section of the state along the costal region has bears killed in the 500 to 700lb and even 800 lb bears killed pretty regularly. there is nothing there but crop fields and swamps, very, very rual. the season is very short here also.

i am going to go to mckinnion and company, it is about 2.5 hours north east of edmington. it looks like it might be a hour or so east of the peace river area. i researched guides for like three months before i picked them.
they only take 32 bear hunters a year and have about 70 active bait sites. once a bear is killed on that site, it is not hunted again until the following year. it is in the spring only. here is their site:
http://www.huntmco.com/BEAR PHOTO GALLERY.htm

 

you will have a great time. I live in an area that has WAY too many bears and we get our limit every year within a few hunts. I am lucky the prime hunting areas are within one hour of me. i usually take one bear with my bow a year ( we have stands set up) and 2 with my 30/6. Good luck up north and try to stay warm. my brother lives in edmonton and it is - 30 degrees right now.

 

Well I picked up a PSE Stinger at Basspro today. Got the base model without all the accessories, planning to pick out my own stuff and add it on there... Any advice that I should know about a new bow?

 

make sure the people putting your bow together know what there doing. I was at cabelas a few weeks back, and saw sights on the bows backwards, upside down and missing screws.

My dad just bought a new xbow, and the damn thing nearly fell apart since the kid who put it together didnt loktite anything, and hand tightend down alot of the screws.

Learn to work on your own stuff..Makes it easier if you need work done, not to mention cheaper then paying the labor rate also.

Also, make sure you tune that bow. You spent alot of hard earned money on it, make it preform up to its expectiaions.

Dont worry about getting to fancy with your addons yet, either. When I bought my new bow, it was just what came in the "package deal." Give it a season or two, to make sure your going to be able to use it, then start upgrading. A new bowhunter dosent need a $250 sight, just to use it one season then decide its not for him.(trust me, I've seen it)..Lots of people on ebay/craigslist selling $1000 bows for half of what they paid for it, with $500 worth of addons because they "dont want it anymore"
The basic sights,quiver,strings and arrow rest has gotten me the nicest deer of my life so far, so you should be fine for now.

Did you just buy a bare bow, did it come with anything?

 

Gotcha, will do. Got it fitted today with the draw weight and the length, looked like the guy knew what he was doing, but I'll double check with the instructions later. Thanks WJFF.

 

post a pic of it

 

bare bones bow..enjoy building it.

Thats one thing I think I'm going to do once I get some spare cash...Cabelas usually has some good bows in the bargain cave...I was damn near tempted to pick up a truth2 just to build it

 

Thanks, should be interesting...

I was tempted to buy the package deal, but it was on backorder for about a month... So I figured I'd get the bare bones and build it up the way I wanted to the first time and not have to spare the difference...