There are really so many good affordable bows and GREAT elite bows out there these days that it's hard to go wrong. It's mostly important that you test shoot a wide range of bows to determine what feels best for you, and do your research to decide what specifications in a bow are important to you.

For example, these days I only shoot binary, twin, or dual cam bows. I believe in the technology enough that level knock travel and blistering speed is important to me. I want a hard cam, heavy draw, and a lot of speed. I don't mind a short valley. I like grips that lock into my hand (not a round grip guy). I'm an above average bowhunter for accuracy, so I want a bow that will deliver enough energy downrange, i.e. a fast bow with heavy draw.

For me, it came up to a Bowtech Destroyer 350 as the "ideal" bow for me.

In terms of bows to look at, the Diamond Outlaw is a fantastic budget friendly bow. I sold a pot of them over the last few years working part time at a local shop, and I'm looking for a used one myself for a bowfishing rig.

Bowtech Destroyer has been discontinued, but they have a limited edition out. The Insanity CPX is a great bow, but I liked the Destroyer better. The Bowtechs are drag racers of archery though. Short valleys, hard backwalls, HARD cams, smooth draws, and blistering speed. They aren't for everybody. Drawing my Destroyer at 65lbs feels like drawing my Mathews Monster at 72lbs. If you have a creeping problem, then don't shoot a Bowtech with a thumb release, the bow will pull it out of your hand at some point.

Diamond, made by bowtech, are great single cam bows. As I mentioned, the Outlaw is fantastic, and I set up a Fugitive for a guy that really performed well.

The Mathews Monster Chill is next on my list of bows to buy. The Creed is a great single cam version of the Chill (ok, so it happened the other way around, but only dual cam bows matter). The "z series" are tried and true, very hard to go wrong with a Mathews single cam bow, and their dual cam Mcpherson/Monster series bows are top notch. The Heli-M is a fantastic little bow, but for $1200, the performance isn't there. It just feels like a lightweight Mathews, and isn't that fast.

The Bear bows are probably the quietest bows out of the lot, but they're ugly as sin, and don't quite have the performance as some others in their class. They are VERY smooth drawing in general.

Hoyt's are amazing bows, and I think, other than looks, they are the ones that really got the carbon bow right on the first try. The Cam & 1/2 Hoyt's is a great system, more efficient than a single cam, but not as aggressive as a pure binary/dual/twin.

PSE has really upped their game in recent years, but for what it's worth, it's kinda like the new luxury Fiat's. I could care less. They didn't jump to the front of the pack, they just caught up with everyone else.

So again, hard to go wrong with any of the mainstream bows out there. Personally, I'll shoot Bowtechs and Mathews Monsters for a long time coming.