What are "cams?"

[TxBoy]

I've been looking into purchasing my first bow. I've seen in many catalogs and websites that some bows have one cam on up to 10 cams. May someone please shed some light on what cams are. What is best, the higher the number or lower?

Any relevant details would be greatly appreciated.

[m.t.hands]

cams are the egg shaped wheel(s) on the bow, i have never heard of anything with 10 cams unless if its something onieda made, most people perfer single cams, a bow with a radical eliptical (eggshaped) wheel on the bottom and a regular round wheel on top, mainly because of tuning/timing, some still prefer a dual cam, top and bottom wheel that are eleptical, i would stick with a single cam for my first bow if i were you.

best of luck, go to a pro shop and get a setup, it will save you a lot of headaches

[Bigpapascout]

some of the older bows had a 4 cam system but all of those bow models are obsolete.
the are 2 popular designs the single cam and a dual cam dual cam uses 2 eccentric hubs at the end of each limb which the string and power herness is wrapped aroundin order to give the bow its power

a single cam is one cam with an idler wheel at the top end of the bow.