Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Savage Collectors M1899, M99 Checkering LPI

What was the checkering lpi of the pre-mil 99’s. Did it change over the years?

Assume you are referring to models that were checkered as a standard?

Yes Rick, standard factory checkering. Was different lpi checkering available on Special Order rifles?

I counted some. I can't see straight no more!

The first standard model with checking was the Model 250-3000 (I don't count the CD's) and I think the 1st versions were 12 lpi. 2nd versions were 10 lpi.

The next model was the G and was 9 or 10 lpi till after 1960.

Looked at a post-mil DL and F (gold trigger) I say they were 8 or 9 lpi and the lpi don't alway look to be the same on forearm and butt stock. Forearm being finer than the butt stock.

I'd be interested in hearing from someone that knows checkering.

As for early checkered rifles...probably 12 lpi or better. May have been a standard depending on the checkering pattern used. Or it might have just been whatever the craftsman liked to cut.

I think my 1st year birdeye maple is about 16 or more.

My counting is probably a little off but will give you an idea of the changes.

I'm pretty sure that the most common type of pre-mil checkering has 18 LPI. the post war F and R might bump up to 16 lpi, but I don't have enough examples to compare

OK.

I have a stupid question and I guess I have just never thought about it before. How were 99's checkered?

Was it all pounded out by hand or machine cut?

there's plenty of little mistakes on my samples for me to confidently say they were finished by hand well into the 50's. I suppose they might have been using power cutters, but patterns look like were done 1, 2,maybe 3 lines at a time. Maybe the panels were outlined on some template pantograph, the panel sizes seem very consistent (again, small sampling here). The only clear examples I've seen of machine precision (laser cut?) are the later DL stocks

I might not know how to measure checkering. Someone educate me, please. Looks like if I multiply by 2 I get close.

I’ve read that women did a lot of the hand checkering for firearm manufacturers during the first half of the 20th Century. Pretty sure I’ve seen pics too.

I’ve read that too Ted, but was waiting to hear it from others. I thought I read it specifically in relation to Savage?

Pick a set of lines and measure/count perpendicular to them.

Don't count on Savage checkering (or any other company's) to adhere closely to a standard. The LPI's will only be "nominal", not precisely 16 LPI, 18 LPI, 20 LPI, etc. Those factories typically made up their own cutters in the tool rooms or bought in bulk from suppliers, and modern precision multi-row cutters rarely if ever completely match the LPI's of 80-100 year old checkering. This I can tell you from a lot of hard earned experience. When freshening old checkering (and heck, a lot of new checkering for that matter) you simply can only do it one line at a time with a single point cutter, period. Trying to do it with multi-row cutters is just asking for trouble.

And yes, from what I've read in old American Rifleman magazines and books, the checkering was the province of middle-aged women who possessed the patience and attention span to sit hunched over a checkering cradle 8-10 hours a day. They worked in front of big windows for the natural light, and were paid piece work wages. The older more experienced and quicker you were, the more money you made.

The finest checkering I ever did was 28 LPI and I about went nuts, and swore "never again"!

I just counted a 1905 special order checkered rifle. I came up with 18 LPI. Looks like the same
LPI as a 99G and a 99T, (I didn't count these 2) except the checkering looks deeper on the special order rifle.

Lee