I know some of you have been looking for a source for good checkering and I wanted to pass along an individual I have had great luck with. I have sent 4 stocks to Bob Oates this year and all of them turned out spectacular. He has very reasonable rates and quick turn around. I just sent him my stock with pictures of pattern I wanted and he did the rest. He also made some very helpful suggestions on how to modify the pattern to work better on a couple of my stocks. Keep in mind Im not a stockmaker, Im sure my stocks were not as symmetrical as they should be! He can be reached st 989-773-4314 or by email at [email protected]. See below for examples of my stocks-

Fantastic!

PM me aprox cost per rifle please. Thanks Kurt

Very nice! Ballpark price, (+/-) ?

Nice work.
Nice stocks.
👍

Does he do the forend cap and the final finish?

I would be interested in approximate cost also.

All of my jobs ran between $220-250. You can also go to Guns International under custom checkering in gunsmithing services and see some more examples of his work

What's the plan for those 4 nice stocks?

Tag

Very nice work

Thanks for the info, nice looking work!

Beautiful!

Thanks

Looks sharp

Thank you for the recommendation. Very nice work!

And by the way, beautiful wood you have there as well.

This!!

The two on the left are for my pre 64 and pre war model 70's, one of the other goes on a g33/40 and the mannlicher stock is for a Brno 21

Wow, look nice!

I sent him a Mod 70 stock yesterday. Once he gets it we will decide work to be done and price.

Wow! Thats nice work!

Tag...

Those are purdy!

Thanks for this post. No one would ever want my checkering - not even me. I could make a $1,000 stock look like $50.

Thanks for posting this !

Great looking stocks by the way.

I really like the mullered border on the nex to last pic. Parker guys would appreciate it.

I like 👍

Very nice work.

Very nice work and stocks. Thanks for sharing!!

Very nicely cut, he’ll get some business from me as well. Thanks for highlighting him.

He's done 2 for me in the last month. Excellent work and highly recommended.

Thank you for posting this and congrats on some really nice looking stocks.

Very nice checkering on those. Can’t wait to see the finished rifles.

Great cuts! Thanks for sharing.

This is exactly the info I needed. Thanks for sharing.

Wow. Very nice. Would love to see pics of the assembled rifles.

A lost art, that very few people still do.

Looks good! With a little luck I'll need his services in a week or so.

Just got a stock back from him. Fast turnaround, reasonable price & excellent work.
Probably should be charging more. I checkered a few stocks and it was a pain. Hard on the eyes & back and I never was very good at it. Sold my dembart setup and farmed out the checkering on the stocks I built after that. I would’ve charged twice what Bob charged me and it wouldn’t have been near as good. 🙄
Highly recommend him!

Nice work
Nice wood

Where is he located??

Those are crisp

Bob lives or lived in Michigan.
The work he did for me came out fabulous.
He slimmed a Ruger M-77 tanger stock down from clubby to svelte.

Tag

tag

Tag

Do you know if your stock has to be finished, or does he work on raw wood?

I don’t think he cares.