Where did fish scale checkering originate and why?Is it really a better looking pattern?Traditional in Europe only?what is a good price for standard checkering on pistol grip area and forearm,nothing fancy?Something along the lines of the current model 70 win.Do the factorys stamp in stead of hand checker there stocks?What factory does the best job and what standard rifle has the best,win.featherweight?Ruger express?How many patterns of checkering are there and where can one find a book or web site that shows different ones?Thanks in advance.

one thing i thought about,seems like checkering hasnt really changed much thru the years,Fish scales are ok,but i think bird feathers or turkey feathers would be a hoot to do up,and snakes would be wild,i really like the oak leaves and acorns on anything and i think weatherly has done that one on the lasermark years ago.Maybe in the future folks will have all kind of stuff done up in fancy checkering that we will say wow why didnt i think of that!Naw,we are happy the way things are now and would never go for any of that future stuff!next thing you know the stocks will be made out of plastic!Or rubber!Hey we could even have them in colors like the archery guys did there compound bows,Red,blue,Green,Black,grey?I think i saw a model 94 with a tupperware stock.Hey the future is here now,i must have missed it sneeking up,i must have been hunting at the time with my walnut stocked rifle!Even pistols are plastic,or at least they look like it.oh well time will tell,by the way what ever happened to that rifle that had to have a battery to make it go boom?Electrnox or some stuff name.........I think it had a key to turn it on,looked like the key to the car in the driveway...........Laser sights,were will it all end,caseless ammo?Hey,Maybe these are the good ol days!!!! Cheers!

Caseless ammo has been around since before "cased" ammo. Heck, saw I somewhere on the internet how to make blackpowder loads with rolling papers! <at the range> Bob, what you shootin in that thing? "Aww, only my zig zag .54 cal" Too funny.

Remote control bullets are the wave of the future. I love my R/C stuff... BTW the REM rifle that was "electrifying" was called the Etronx I believe.

Hey gixxer,Thats it,thats the rifle remington made it,man i thought that was a wild idea,right when you get ready to shoot,your battery will die and you will be crying about the bigone that gotta away!I forgot one favorite checkering pattern-Basketweave-you love it or hate it!My favorite checkering pattern is the one winchester did on there old 94 rifles that had the spade on it.Antler/bone single action revolver grips allways seemed to have plenty of grip area without any checkering pattern,but the S&W wood grips have checkering.I must confess that i like the looks of A-Square rifles and i dont think they come with checkering of any kind.I wonder if those rifles are currently produced anymore?

http://www.a-squarecompany.com/

Still alive and well I take it. Yes, all of the coil chek stocks I have seen are not checkered, and to tell you the truth I have read some folks posts about the shape of the coil chek stock, and they wouldn't even use it as a club to beat a burglar in the event that another working firearm was not available(that was no insinuation that A square rifles do not function properly).

That stock is more for functionality moreso than looks. That does not bother me, the only stocks I dislike are laminated stocks in psychadelic blue or some other color NEVER meant to go on a funting rifle, and thumbhole stocks. I do like the fact that you get 3 mercury reducers in the stock right off the bat. I have seen a 470 capstick on gunbroker for about 4g, that's about it as far as used guns go.

Let me know when you call them what kind of prices they are wanting for their rifles these days, there is not pricing on the website.

You know, a Hannibal rifle in 500 A2 sounds pretty cool...

Gixxer,I think i saw a few used ones for around 2500$ on gunsamerica,i think they were 416caliber.If i was going to spend over $3000 on any rifle i would either get a dakota or a double rifle of somekind/no question on that.Or a nice double shotgun!I have never handled one of the A-square rifles so i cant speak from experiance,but they just look like a no nonsince
hunting style rifle and heavy enough to take a battering and come out on top-heavy duty i call it.You could take there stock and break other stocks into,that would come in very handy if your rifle got stepped on in a hand to hoof combat situation or whatever recoil turns you on in the heavy hitters........Are there actions all old enfields or something redone up and is that a action that folks do custom rifles on?I guess those actions are so heavy duty you can shoot the really big bores thru it............

I believe all of their rifles are built on Enfield actions.

But back to your original question, I have not looked lately into getting stocks checkered. If I had one done on a custom rifle, I would get the tightest checkering possible, like the old school double rifles, tight and from the bottom all the way to the top of the pisol grip.

If I was just buying a Boyd's stock or cheapie laminate, I would learn to do it myself. Midway and Brownells sells a bunch of tools to do it for a fair price. Ray Atkinson uses Hot Stuff instant glue to get his checkering to stay together while he is checkering his stocks, that is a badass idea.

http://www.nragunsmithing.com/

If you really wanted to learn, check out that website. Those colleges offer 1 week courses for that kind of stuff. I was actually thinking about taking a week of from work to go to one of those classes. The price is pretty cheap, anywhere from $100 to $300 or something like that.

That was a neat site,never found it before on my searchs,looked like papa capstick on the front page holding one of the rifles!Thanks for the great info!

Yea the school looks interesting,I had some fellows walk over and talk to me at the gunrange one time and they had all these neat old guns they had built them selves out of mauser rifles and had stocked and checkered them there selves also.They couldnt believe that i hadnt tried to build a rifle myself as many years as i have shot rifles.I fired a couple of there guns and they were accurate.I figured maybe one day the bug would catch me,well i have been studing more and more about building rifles the past year.i guess its a stage rifleshooters go thru.I find myself more interested in craftsman ship and fit and checkering and stuff like that.actually checkering looks like it would be the easiest thing to do but i maybe wrong?My problem is i don know anyone that has already been thru all this stuff to ask questions about anything.You guys on AR have been thru it all!!!!VIVA AR!!!

Blackbear, did you see the checkering on this thread done by Les Brooks? https://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/9411043/m/215107222

Yes ,Thats what gave me the fever!That is the coolest i have seen,would love to do a little rifle up like that for my wife,she would flip over thatone!It looks like a work of art to me!!!Oh yea,by the way your ebony end cap looks fantastic!That is very good taste in my opinion!Lots of cool ideas out there,makes me want one of each sorta like a bag of tater chips!i hope custom rifles dont consume me like custom knifes have,I dont even look at factory knifes and havent in years!I have noticed all the really pretty stuff has been very expensive!!Iam leaning towards hunting rifle that looks nice but not so nice i would be afraid to take it hunting alittle.I got a picture of papa cactus jack walking down a mountain carrying a rams head/cape in one hand and a custom rifle/looks like a supergrade winchester pre 64,in the other,makes me want a nice rifle like that,very pretty and still a hunter!The pic is on the cover of a outdoor life magazine a couple years back i think.A fellow would have to make his on winchester stock to get it like he wanted,most have been cutup/scratched,refinished and go for more than there worth.Hard to get a new stock for rifle thats over forty years young........cheers