What years was the Martin Mamba made in the grey wood? Same as the regular Mamba or was anything different other than the wood color? Thanks in advance.

That's actually a Pdiddly or Larry Hatfield question, But I'm pretty sure the only difference was the wood color.

I wish I had mine back.

The Mamba with the grey laminated maple was first made in 1986 to at least 1996, as can be seen in the attached ad.

After that it was laminated tropical hardwoods...I think amazaque was one but Larry would know exactly.

As for the comment on the "regular Mamba"...there were a lot of models with Mamba in the name made in the 50's...it was both a model line and also a stand alone bow.

The oldest Howatt I have ( and one of the coolest) is a 1953 Mamba.

Here's an ad for the Mamba line from 1957.

An ad for the Mamba in 1953...

Here's the actual bow...

The decal on the 1953 Mamba...paper with finish over it.

I re-read your post and now understand you wanted a comparison of the laminated maple Mamba's to the later ones.

They had the same limb design...just the riser material differed.

Here is a Mamba I have that was made last decade.

They set a block of tropical hardwood in with the laminated maple.

Here's the strung bow's profile.

Wow those are so COOL!!!

Pdiddly that 53 model is sure a fine looking bow,who custom or other would you say makes one similar to it. That has to be a great performing bow ,love those curves.

Shifty...not sure who could make one like that.

All I know is it's a rare bird...not seen another like it.

It does send an arrow downrange with authority!

I have a special affinity to it as it was made the year I was born.

Here's a couple more pics of the 1953... the belly of the riser...the black material is tapered into the white glass and replaces it at the tips.

Here are the tips...this pic was taken by crookedstix who had this for a little while but it was too short for his gargantuan draw length!

Peter, the Mamba with the block of tropical hardwood in with the laminated grey maple is STUNNING! Beautiful!!

The all grey one was the one that shot the flaming arrow at Barcelona. The model with the Bubinga insert was a total flop. People didn't buy the hunter or mamba, until we changed the wood, in enough numbers to make a profit.

Thanks Larry...do you mean they didn't buy the laminated maple models or the laminated maple with the bubinga combinations? I think you mean the latter.

DarrinG While the Mamba with the bubinga insert looks great it was, as Larry stated, a bad idea and it wasn't his idea.

It was not good as the laminated wood had a different rate of shrinkage than the bubinga. That bow had a crack in the riser (reported by the seller) when I got it along with a 1996 Super Diablo.

I glued it with Loctite and that fixed it just fine but that type of inevitable defect was not good for the reputation of a firm like Howatt, whose name was synonymous with quality.

That story of the Mamba being the bow that shot the flaming arrow is a great one.

As I recall it was the only bow with enough oomph to reach the cauldron.

Here's the story from Larry...

" the reason he shot that bow was that with the one hoyt supplied, he said they had to hold up in the sky to make the shot. when someone brought the mamba to where he and the other archers trying to be selected to make the shot were, they found that they could hold the tip on an banner in the arena and make the shot. Easton could not force them to use his bow so the mamba was used. I had some communication with him later and he was kind enough to sign some pictures of him and of the shot for martins and me. the bow is in the international Olympic museum in Lausanne, Switzerland."

A bit more to give Easton recognition:

" That bow was brought to the stadium by an archer, taken from stock of a Martin dealer in Barcelona. When they shot the dummy arrows, they found they could use a banner in the stadium for a rigid constant aiming point. That's why it got used. Easton spent a lot of money and time getting that to happen and perfecting the arrow. Don't want to lose sight of that. Without their efforts, nothing like that would have happened."

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