I've been discovering recently how much I dislike any checkering or knurling on bolt handle knobs. I have several Remington 700s; some of them have plain bolt handle knobs and some have checkered ones. I also have several Ruger77s and those all have plain bolt handle knobs.

The plain smooth knobs move smoothly in the palm of my hand as I work the bolt. The checkered ones do not. I therefore dislike the checkered or knurled ones.

I never paid attention to this before, but I will from now on. Although it is seemingly a small thing, whether or not a bolt handle knob is plain or checkered may well be a buy/no-buy decider for me. (I don't like butter-knife handles either.)

I too prefer smooth bolt handles, no holes either, straight shank like original Oberndorf Mausers on open sight rifles or pre-64 M-70 style for scoped rifles.

Me too....smooth is good.

Smooth for me...

The checkered handle seems to want to "checker" everything it comes in contact with...

Another annoying thing: The Levi's Rivet!
Buggered my finish in nothing flat when I slung the rifle.

I love a whinge session.
Checkered bolt knobs look awful to me, never liked fore-end tips, or wood checkering on lever actions. Don't mind engine turned bolts though.
John L.

I agree. I use mostly pre-64 M70's, but I bought a newer one to use as a practice rifle. The checkered knob grated my fingers in rapid fire, so I took a small ball peen hammer to it and smoothed it out. Much better!

a dysfunctional cosmetic fillip which

lets custom smiths pick up a few more bucks.

I have several engraved/checkered bolt handles.

I haven't noticed any friction or roughness on follow-up shots.

They look nice.

Garrett

For those who operate bolts with thumb and forefinger the checkering may help. For those like myself who use the palm of the hand , smooth is the way to go. My M98 has a nice round 5/8" smooth bolt.

I am AC/DC on this issue. Checkering if not overdone and rough, is nice on a wet weaather gun. Most isn't done for function, and a lot of it needs to be worn or have the sharp edges taken off, but it is useful when working a fast second shot in duck weather.

I have never been a big fan of the Remington bolt, so I think this is a poor example of nice checkering.

On a high recoiling rifle I would prefer to leave it off, just something else to be careful of unless you want to loose a little skin.

I do like a checkered handle, with a metal grip cap, and a very conservative amount of engraving on the right rifle, it adds to the "whole" so to speak.

I actually dislike engraving more, if it is done in small amounts as accents, in a conservative manner it adds. I don't like excessive engraving where the whole gun is done up, especially on bolt rifles. I do like what is done on double rifles and shotguns, and older single shots, usually in a English scroll. If done well it adds to these guns, but if a lot of poorly done animal scenes with gold inlay is just plain tacky.

An example of engraving I never liked is most of the stuff that Winchester has done over the years, I never liked there style. If you take an old Winchester from the turn of last century and compare it to a Marlin most times I think marlin had much more attractive engraving, which complemented the rifle, many examples of the Winchester engraving just looked gaudy in my mind.

Back on topic, I like smooth handles also and there is nothing wrong with nice smooth round knob. I guess in my mind its more about execution, and taste and if it depends on the rifle which side of the fence I want to sit on.