Wow lots of great feedback, thanks to everyone who replied. Being entirely new to the sport and after reading what everyone had to say, I'm going to go with aluminum for starters. It definitely sounds like carbons have a lot of great advatages and maybe when I'm a little more experienced I'll change up, but for my first season I'm going to give the tried and true technology that's been around longer than I have a go.

Thanks again, I appreciate the advice and have to say as far as online communities go people seem exceptionally polite and helpful here. Makes me feel even better about choosing to start hunting.