Anyone know much about them? Checked one out today at a pawn shop. Grip felt amazing. Riser wood and finish looks vintage but I know it's not. Any way to date these? I could probably get it for 150 out the door. I know nothing about howat or Martin

There one of the most underrated bows out there I love mine. I bought it for a backup bow and every time I get it out I think this is all the hunting bow one would need.

Ask sawtooth (original) he kills lots with his x200

Very good bow had one and wish I didn't sell it.

Very good bow

Great bow for the money.

I had one I regret letting go also. I had the year they were an olive green stain. Flat black glass. Very nice bow.

A fellow at the Southern Plains 3-D had one in our group and it was a really great bow. If I shopping for more bows, it might be something I would be very interested in.

Great bow for any money. There aren't many that shoot better ragrdless of who made them, or how much they cost.

My favorite was the green as well. Almost as fast as a dream catcher and more stable

Love my 2013

Yep of you can get it for 150 and it's clean I would pick it up. I have had a couple . One I had had a great grip on it. While another one I had had a big fat grip. But they are great shooters.

Thanks for all the info...I'm going to go back tomorrow and see if they will let me string it to make sure it's straight. I think for 150 bucks it would just be fun to play with. Anyone have any info on dating them?

I think Larry Hatfield said something good about the X-200. It is one of the few bows he still has. Black tips in 2008 became fast flite capable.

That is good to know about the tips, Jim. I think that my tips look like wood overlays but I will check. My old X-200 still looks new and has tens of thousands of shots through it. I used to put a hundred to a hundred and fifty shots a day through that bow. It has proven to be a real work horse. It is not fancy nor is it ugly. I didn't have to pay much for it either. I consider it to be one of my bargain bows.

I had one and really liked how it shot. The grip was just too big for my hand was the only reason I no longer have it. If the grip was smaller I would have never traded mine. The X200 is the most under-rated bow out there.

shot one late 80's through late 90's sorry I sold it...

Howatts!-as good as it gets. imvho

Mine is before there were FF approved but I got a string with padded loops and have had no issues. String is D97

Well I picked it up today for $150 I think I did alright it's a pretty clean bow

Yes, I had 2. Wish I had them both back.

I have one from the early 1990’s and don’t shoot it enough. Might have to get it out for a FS this week. A really good underestimated bow IMHO. Lance

Here it is...needs cleaned up a bit. Luckily I had me a bright string laying around

Stacks a bit at my near 30in draw but it rips an arrow pretty well! The grip is what sold me tho. Skinny but has curves in the right places to hold my hand

Very nice wood.

I'm cleaning her up now and the wood grain is popping wait until you see when I'm done!!!

Beautiful!

Post a picture of the specs and both sides of the tips...I will see if I can date it.

Purrdy bow, they are better shooters than a lot of expensive bows.

I'm get some pics of the specs some time

That was a pretty run of them, whatever that wood was. I had one a lot like it, as you can see,

Ooopsie...let's try the picture...

Yep this one cleaned up great! Im realizing tho that it's too heavy for my bad shoulders..:I wish it was about 5# lighter

Looks like Guibortia Arnoldiana, or Mutenye. We used it for quite a while but went back to Guibortia Ehie because it was heavier and had better overall qualities. It was pretty but had a lot of degrade and loss. Sort of a poor man's rosewood.

Here's a pic if the serial numbers before I cleaned her up. It has the brown overlays on the tips as well

Glad Larry happened by as I am not sure when they transitioned from the X-100 to the X-200.

I suspect it is a 1996.

That is Debra Paddock's writing. 1996 would be correct.

Thanks for confirming Larry...her script style was very good...always liked it.

All of the bows Howatt made with the plain risers like the Cavalier, Coronado, Balboa, the X-100 and X-200 were a great value and performed really well.

Larry,

That's great to have the name(s) for that wood--never heard of mutenye until now. I think Bear may have also used it, or one very similar to it, on some of their short 56" Grizzlies. Visually it's almost like a cross between walnut and rosewood, with those dark veins in it. Always liked the look of it.

Whoops...check that; I just took a look at some pix of a 56" Grizz that I had...guess they were tigerwood. My bad.

Thanks for the information! It's in beautiful shape and cleaned up wonderfully

I don't think you're far off with your first observation Kerry...the wood in the 1968-69 Grizzly's was different but it was not tiger wood...I has a couple and I could not figure out what they used. So it could be the wood Larry referenced.

There have been a great variety of woods used in bows with the "Shedua" moniker, not all of them were good material for that use. Browning ordered shedua and got a wood that was pure junk. We phoned them and wised them up because they were using it on first generation compounds that were breaking in cartons all over the U.S. The original wood called "shedua was a wood called hyeduana that Constantine discovered in Africa. Dealers started calling any brown wood by that name no matter the properties. That's why I always ordered by botanical name and learned how to tell if it true to the species with a few small quick tests. I have turned down many containers of wood that were misrepresented. Mutenya is AKA shedua, as is ovangkol. Guibortia Ehie wins the award for the most commonly-used aliases, with no single name being predominant. When used in guitars, it’s most commonly referred to as Ovangkol. Most other woodworkers favor either Shedua or Amazique, while veneer is sometimes sold under the name Mozambique. All refer to the same wood species: Guibourtia ehie.

I have a 25# X-200 that I got for getting back into shooting after 5 months of not shooting, before and after surgery. It took a little while to get the hand of it since it was so light, and every little error showed up in bad shots. But once I did, that bow became as good a shooter for me as my other bows, shooting it from 30 yards like heavier bows. Every now and then I think of selling it. But I can't bring myself to do it.

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