Well, Buckskin pretty much covered all the basic stuff. If you're serious about getting started, you really do need to find some place where you can shoot a few different bows, like a pro shop or archer club, even if you have to drive for a ways. The amount of information to process is overwhelming, so just reading stuff w/o a basis of personal experience can be really tough. Buckskin made some really good suggestions. For your first bow, I would also suggest something used. I was able to get a really great used bow for my first one and I really believe it made a lot of difference in my learning. Also, the simpler a set up you can get, the better. Like I said before, there's so much stuff to learn, that starting with a simple set up will be best for any hunting situation and will give you a good basis on which to build. For example, my first set up is very simple and is as follows:
mathews Q2 bow 60 lbs. draw, 29" draw length
Whisker Biscuit rest
Copper John 5 pin sight
4" stabilizer
Scott Mongoose release
Like most bows, it's pretty simple by itself, but you'll need a pro to set it correctly for you at first (don't worry, everybody does to start).
The rest is simply a round disc full of plastic bristles with a hole in it for the arrow. It has no moving parts, the arrow won't fall off, and is idiot-proof.
The sight simple adjusts for windage and 5 independent pins that move for elevation, so you can shoot multiple distances easily.
The stabilizer just makes it easier to hold the bow steady and absorbs some of the shock of the shot (kinda like recoil; really nice bows don't have much shock to begin with, but almost everybody uses a stabilizer anyway for balance).
The release simply has a pair of jaws that clip on the string, and a trigger to open them when shooting. It's by far the easiest and most popular for hunting and regular target shooting. There's lots of choices, but good ones start around $40-50.
Hope this helps some. Good luck!
