Best Beginner Compound Bow

best beginner compound bow

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The Legendary Bear Archery

If you’ve spent two minutes inside any archery shop or big box outdoors store, or if you’ve even flipped through the pages of a bowhunting magazine, you’re probably familiar with Bear Archery. Fred Bear was a major contributing factor in making bowhunting the life-changing, exhilarating sport that it is today. He spread the joy of the sport to hunters all over this country and beyond as he was building his business. His legacy still lives on within the quality and service of Bear Archery to this day. A great example of their service actually just fell right in my lap today, just a few hours before writing this article.

Service Above Profits

The short of it is that I’ve owned a Trophy Ridge Sync drop away rest for around 5 months now. Trophy Ridge is owned by Bear Archery, fyi. A mechanism within the Sync hasn’t been acting quite right, so I called them up and with no questions asked, was told to ship it back and they’d ship me a brand new one. The whole phone call took about 10 minutes. That’s service that is so hard to find these days with all the outsourcing and penny-pinching. And that service goes hand-in-hand with their quality. And that’s exactly why I’m naming the Bear Paradox RTH as the best beginner compound bow on the market. Sure, a business owner with extremely large pockets could start out with a $2,000 bow, set up and ready for an African big game hunt, but that’s not who this article is for. This is for the average guy or woman looking to get into bowhunting at an affordable price, while still having a quality bow. Sure, you could spend $150-$200 less on a no-name bow from a big box store, but in the end, you’d be right back on the market shopping for a nice mid-tier bow. That’s exactly what the Paradox is.

Bear Paradox RTH

bear paradox
Highlights
  • Axle-to-Axle: 32″
  • Brace Height: 6.25″
  • IBO Speed: 330 fps
  • Draw Length: 23.5″-30.5″
  • Draw Weight: 45-60 lbs. / 55-70 lbs.
  • Dexterity: Right Hand / Left Hand
  • Finish: Realtree Edge, True Timber Strata, Veil Whitetail

The Hunting Public’s Seal Of Approval

Aaron Warbritton of The Hunting Public gave a stellar review of the Bear Paradox after using it for a season, killing several animals with it. You can find his review on the Bear Archery website. With nearly 500,000 YouTube subscribers and 370,000 Instagram followers, The Hunting Public relies on quality gear to get the job done and give their viewers what they’re looking for. Every Fall, you’ll see The Hunting Public team members shooting a variety of Bear Archery bows, decked out in Trophy Ridge accessories. 

My Experience

The Paradox RTH (Ready-to-Hunt) has been a great bow, giving me a huge bang for my buck. It came completely set up and ready to step into the field, complete with all accessories needed. The only additional purchases I needed to make were my release, arrows, and field points. I went ahead and purchased broadheads as well because I was going to be hunting whitetails with it soon after. If you’re looking for a new release, check out some of the best here. After taking two bucks, two does, two turkeys, and a squirrel, I’d say the bow shoots pretty well! It’s a single-cam bow, which means it’s going to be slightly quieter than its dual-cam counterpart. That’s a huge feature when the wind is calm and you’re drawing back on a mature buck. Having only one cam also means less maintenance and less stringent tuning, as there aren’t any synchronization issues to deal with.  

The Bottom Line

All-in-all, the Bear Paradox has been an excellent bow and it would be a great bow for any new archer/bowhunter to start out on. At around $500, with all accessories installed, you simply can’t beat the price, especially with such a high-quality bow from a brand who lives up to their reputation for great service. If you’re in the market for a new bow or are purchasing one for a new archer/bowhunter, you can’t go wrong with the Paradox. 

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