go to your shop shoot a lot of bows but don't buy on your first trip. Come home sign up for the forum at archerytalk.com and look at the prices on the bows in there classified ads. They have gently used price at 50% MSRP. I just bought my HCA Iron Mace on there and I am very happy with it so far. If you are on a budget I would think it would be smarter to get a used high quality bow than a brand new cheap bow that you are going to want to upgrade to the high end bows.