Prince of Wales or pistol grip on a shotgun? What’s the difference?

Chequering on a Beretta Silver Pigeon

Chequering on shotguns

• Chequering is defined by the number of lines per inch, and tools are available for cutting a wide range, generally from 16 to 32.
• The most popular patterns tend to fall in the 22 to 28 range, which seems to give the best grip on a shotgun.
• The fewer the lines the deeper the pattern has to be, otherwise you would get diamonds with very blunt points which would offer a very poor grip.
• For a very elegant pattern, the very coarse and very fine patterns are best avoided.
• Very coarse just looks crude, while very fine can hide the fine grain of the wood.
• Chequering is of little use when it gets filled in with a mixture of sweat and dust, so keep it clean by brushing along the lines with something like a toothbrush – not a wire brush.