TexasCHLforum.com

avid bow hunter here as well. like guns, you can spend alot or a little on a good bow setup. my best advice is to visit texasbowhunter.com, you can get alot of good info there.

+1 on texasbowhunter. I just sold my PSE and am picking up another PSE. I buy used from a friend who upgrades fairly often, but like Txfire409 said, it can be expensive.

You can find a good, decent starter PSE or Bear compound rig that costs less than $500.

I used to be a bow hunter until someone stole my bows and guns now I no longer hunt.

I bought mine from huntersfriend.com. Great place.

What you called a stabilizer is really a cable rod, and isn't totally necessary.. The stabilizer actually sticks off the frnt, and I would definitely have one on a setup.

The multi pin sights I have used allowedy to set it up for whatever distances you wanted.

or also commonly known as a "string stop". not totally necessary but did make a noticable reduction in noise and vibration on my bow.

I just recently purchased (for Christmas) a 70# PSE Brute X. The bow sells for $499 in a RTS package. I know thats more than what you wanted, but it's a fantastic bow. Do keep in mind, that when you're shopping for compound bows, even cheap arrows are expensive, and you'll need a release too. I think I paid roughly 70.00 for a dozen carbon arrows, and then $40.00 for a hard case, and then $40.00 for a release (athough those start about $20).

To stay fully within your $400 budget, you will probably want to look for a used bow, and then pay for a tune-up / setup on it.

also keep an eye out at Academy. I bought a Martin Cheetah fully rigged there on clearance for $229. Regular price was $400.

I have a Bear and Jennings compound bows I bought new years ago. They are a lot of fun to shoot. I really want a nice Bear recurve. It can get expensive. Arrows aren't cheap either, but get a good target thats not so hard on them for practice.