DanInAlaska:
Thank you for asking the question that started this thread.
I last did anything semi-serious with a bow in 1968 or 1969 as a member of The Tuttle Creek Bowmen in Manhattan, Kansas when I was a grad student at Kansas State University. I used a $12 mail-order fiberglass recurve from Herter's and two dozen wood arrows from the same vendor. I don't have binocular vision, so I certainly didn't distinguish myself as an archer. But I had a lot of fun for a price that even a chronically "broke" grad student could afford.
From time to time I have thought about going back into archery, but the cost of current equipment and its apparent complexity have dissuaded me. But thanks to this thread, I now have some ideas on how to gather and evaluate further information. Even a retiree on a fixed income might be able to get into this game.
Thanks to a search after reading the thread on the Timberline No Peep, I discovered Robert "Bob" Ragsdale and his many Q&A essays. Ragsdale's essays can be accessed through the "Community" box of links at Bowhunting.net.
So thanks to one and all who made so much information available to me!
