Thank you everyone for the replies.
My buddy finally got back to me with the date code, the gun was made in 1954. I didn't know anything other than 99's had a date code, so didn't look when he showed me the gun.
In answer to GeneB's question early in the thread, the gun doesn't have a hooded front sight and didn't have a #175 peep sight. Also, thank you for taking the time and posting all the pictures.
I thought the poor quality of the checkering looked like factory, but my main question was, were the patterns something Savage would have done. I can't ever recall seeing cut checkering on a 340 that looked like it might be factory. I've seen a few with amateur checkering applied, and have checkered a few for customers myself. I based my quality assessment from the fact I have made, checkered, repaired, refinished, etc. stocks for over 50 years and worked in a rebluing shop for 25. Because of that, I've handled a lot of guns up close, with a critical eye, and Savage isn't the only factory to commonly have poor quality checkering on base grades of guns.
