Being new to bowhunting myself purchasing my bow at Bass Pro helped a ton! The Parker I purchased came sighted in and ready to go. I had to do a little adjusting since everyone shoots differently but they helped me there at their in-store range. Even if you cant afford to purchase a bow there you should at least go there and have them measure your draw and ask their opinion.
ORIGINAL: Paul L Mohr
Ok, I looked at cabela's web site. If you are intent on getting a bow this way, this is what I would do. I would get the Reflex Excursion bow package for $319 dollars. This bow offers a fair amount of the newer technology for a good price. Or get the same bow, but bare. Then get an inexpensive 3 pin sight like say the true glow for around 30 bucks, you might find them cheaper at walmart or something. Then get a decent inexpensive rest, like a quicktune or GFK prong for around 25 bucks. And top it off with a Kwikee quiver that detaches from your bow for 17 bucks. You could play with the items a bit and stay between 320 and 350 dollars. But this way you could a better rest or sights or something other than what came with the bow.
Then go to say dunhams or dicks or something, or even a local archery shop and get some pre finnnished aluminum arrows like Yukons, Nomads, Maxums, or even some original gamegetters. These are pretty decent arrows for the price and usually come with uni bushings already installed. Might cost you 40 or 50 bucks a dozen. However a shop may be able to build you up six or so for around 30 or 35 bucks. Then pick yourself up a inexpensive release by cobra or truefire, say another 25 or 30 bucks.
This would put you over the 350 mark by the time you were done, but not much, and it would be a pretty good set up.
The Excursion bow is pretty simular to the Hoyt Magnatec bows from a few years ago. These were excellent bows for the money, and still are. Reflex is made by Hoyt, so you would still be getting the tec risor, a good cam system, and quality strings. This isn't the fastest bow you could get by far, but it isn't bad for the money either at a 295 IBO. It also has pretty decent geometry from what I can tell. It doesn't look to have a lot of reflex to it, maybe an inch. It has a very generous brace height at over 8 inches (probably has something to do with IBO speed being under 300 fps) and it has a decent Axle to Axle at 34 1/2 inches. It should be a pretty forgiving bow to shoot.
Not to mention with that risor and those cams it should be a pretty smooth drawing bow with not much noise or vibration. Later on down the road get some Limb savers and a good stabilzer and it will be even better.
The hard part will be finding someone to set it up and tune it for you if you don't know how. I would check out some local shops to see how close they can come to that over all. The extra money is always worth the extra support, especially if you are new to the sport.
And the key here is knowing the bow is the proper draw length and a weight you can shoot comfortably. I don't really suggest getting a bow sight unseen without shooting it first. Or shooting it set up to fit you. It could mean the difference between truly enjoying this sport, or hating it because you have nothing but problems and cannot shoot well.
Good luck,
Paul