Also make sure that you know what your draw length is. You can determine it yourself. Just stand normally, arms outstretched at your sides. Ask someone to measure if from one tip of the middle finger to the tip of the other middle finger. Divide that by 2.5.
It is very important to get your draw length correct, as this influence your accuracy. To short a draw length, your sight pins will jerk left and right over the target, too long a draw length, your sight pins will move slowly but all over the target, and you will struggle with control of the bow.
Below is an indication of what a potential draw length might be for you:
Draw length and poundage
Some archers think that they are He-Man or Hulk, when they want to buy a bow. They think that they are invincible and that they can draw a 90 bow in the shop.
It is possible to pull the 90 pound, but one need to remember that one needs to look at one’s form when shooting. It is absolutely of no value to shoot high poundage bows these days. The reason for this is that bow technology has come so far in the last 10 years, a 70 pound bow now can outperform a 90 pound bow of 7 years ago. Cam design (the wheels on the bow) has changed so much that the new bows are faster, but also much more efficient in converting the energy from the limbs into the speed of the arrow.
By shooting a 60-70 pound bow your form will be much more correct, you will be able to hold the bow stiller and thus your quest for that perfect shot is much closer. Just realize that most ladies shoot 40lb bows and they are shooting X’s time after time (mostly because they don’t have an ego to say how many pounds they are shooting).
Most bows these days are shooting very fast. However, when you are starting out, just remember that a bow that can shoot 350fps, is a very aggressive bow and needs your form to be 100% correct. If your form is not correct, you will not hit your intended target. Most bows these days are around the 330fps mark, and that is plenty of speed to hunt anything
Why is draw length also important? Because compound bows have modules on the cams that you need to have for your correct draw length. So by knowing what your draw length is, you can get the correct module. You also need to know this for your arrows, to long an arrow is not efficient enough, to short an arrow and it might fall off the rest when you pull your bow, leading to serious injury.