Recently bought a Howatt Hunter with a gorgeous riser. Looks to be rosewood and shedua with a straight center stripe. Serial # is HHT5866. Heavily sculpted riser as opposed to the riser shape that is more common. Thanks for any help with this.

pictures would help a bunch.

Pictures should be up soon. Hopefully they will help with dating the bow for me.

Here is Tom's Howatt.

Thanks for getting the pictures up, Shawn.

You are welcome. Looks just like the one I had. Nice shooting bows!

Wow! What a beauty! These old Howatts rock!  

I am in the process of refinishing this bow as the original finish was not great. These photos are after 3 coats of tung oil with 3 to go. The grain of the riser was too nice not to bring out a little more. It is a hard shooter and 48#@28 drawn to 29.5" it will have time in the woods this fall. Can't wait as I like to hunt with "classic" bows.

Very sharp.

I have heard that the straight lam was 64 to late 60s? Could be a 1965 with the sn starting with a 5.
Great bows. My favorite.

Harry, that is what I'm thinking as well-mid 60's. Doesn't really matter but rather just curious about it. Always like to get a feel about the history of when specific bows are made.

Tom, I think the first 5 is the year of mfg. 1965 and the remaining digits are the number of bows made to date in the year for that model.

Thanks Shawn, believe you're right. Always good to hold a nice bow and have some idea when it was made. It does have a really fine combo of woods and the shaping of the riser just fits my hand.

Recently heard from a Howatt collector who believes the bow is a '68 made by bowyer #5. He said the earlier bows had the horseman logo (cavalier) and even if it is a '68 it is still an outstanding example of an early Hunter.

Tom, I believe Howatt ended the first digit bowyer number ID method around 1962, so pretty sure your bow is a '65...and that's a beauty.

Lon's post x2.  

Howatt began marking bows with "AMO length" around 1966.  The markings, decals, wood and riser shape on this bow are consistent with the 1965 Hunters.

Beautiful, great shooting bows.

Good shooting bow except it seems to stack at my 29.5" draw. Thought with the longer AMO it would be smooth enough to shoot comfortably. As much as it looks good may have to move it along. Can't see it just sitting there looking beautiful-meant to be shot.

Tom I draw as much as 31 inches depending on bow weight so I know a thing or two about stack...the fact is stack is only an issue when you are shooting a bow that is right at your limit for draw weight you can handle...of course shooting a bow that is right at the weight you can handle today is a great way, maybe the best way, to be able to handle more weight in the future...do not give up on that bow just yet

DDave

Dave,
You might be right about being right at my max draw weight-at least comfortably. Most of my bows are now in the 45-50# range where I can shoot all day. I have found sitting in colder weather-relative term-I have dropped draw weight in order to get to full draw. I have high foc arrows to help with my penetration on deer sized critters. A few arrows and anything in the 55-60# is okay. Unfortunately, not as young or strong as I used to be. Thanks for the input though.