So I just picked up this stock for a Remington 700 CDL long action. Brand new, Maple with fiddleback all the way up to the black ebony tip. The flash hides some detail of the fiddleback but It's the best I can do.

How would the more experienced guys with wood rate this, lower than A, A, AA, AAA?

Now I just have to find a 700 to put into the stock.

Pretty and I would rate it AA.

Damn, that’s really sexy!!

A+^8(3-5.6678439x27) x 3.54

That's my best guess.

I like it.

Wish it was mine. My 30-06 mountain rifle would find itself in it.

Nice wood but that blackened checkering kills it. Why do they do that?

Worse than the black checkering are the ribbons that run through the middle of the panels. Otherwise, a gorgeous piece of wood.

I concur, I'm not breathless about the blackened checkering either but I couldn't resist that fiddleback piece of wood, I try to look at the fiddleback and not the checkering.

So how would you rate the wood?

I agree with Elkhunternm, I was thinking AA before I put this thread up.

Can't see it well enough to make a call. If it were mine I would strip it and finish it dark like Thomas Shellhamer did. A treatment with Aquavit would really make the fiddle back pop and increase chatoyance. This would also get rid of the black checkering. But some think this is abuse of good Maple.

If you like them light colored the checkering can be re-cut and eliminate the black if it is only a surface stain.

It is AA or close to AAA if the fiddlle back is 100%.

If you're interested in selling it let me know.

I'm not interested in selling it but there's a guy on Fleabay selling them, that's where I got this one. He has 2 more on now, just look at the pictures carefully as some don't have a lot of fiddleback.

Just search for "remington 700 stock", the sellers name is trapace.

Maple sure can be pretty.

I have a 11-87 that came with a maple stock that looks about like that.

Personally, i like darker maple like you see on a lot of old style flintlocks. Not sure what they treat it with, but it sure does look nice.