I have seen stocks with 2 points (Diamonds) of engraving at the front of the wrist and others with 3 points at the front of the wrist.

It seems like the two point stocks are on earlier guns and 3 points on later.

How correct is my observation and any idea of what year the transition between the two engraving patterns occurred?

Many thanks

I think I know what you mean by points. I don't know if there's a more informal terminology or not.

To my knowledge, within the NID line the points are not indicative of a particular interval of time. Field grade guns got three points, but then the next grade up, 2, got only two points but also got scallops and more lines per inch. Beyond that the guns got multi-paneled patterns, fleur de leis, more scallops, more lip and so forth.

There were four different styles of NID Field Grade Guns. As originally introduced in 1926 they looked like this --



A year or two in they added the stars to the Field Grade receivers --



For 1935, they dropped the cocking indicators, went to border engraving on the receiver and went to a fuller stock with the nicest amount of checkering to grace a Field Grade gun --



After WW-II they dropped the border engraving on the receivers and reverted to the earlier style (cheaper) checkering --

Thanks for both responses and pics.

I think I5E stumbled in the answer for my question.

The reason I am asking is that I came by a really nice NID 2E 12 ga with everything in really nice condition except for a really bad attempt at carving a replacement buttstock. FA is original and in exc condition.

After purchasing the gun I bought a 3 point stock off a later field NID and the condition, color and checkering would be a great match for my 2E forearm. The buttstock need s little fitting but close as it is.

So it seems it is grade specific more than date specific and a real nice 2 point would be the most appropriate for my gun?

Thanks again for the input.

From some time during the Crass era to WW-II Ithaca's No. 2 grip checkering was essentially the same. From 1926 --



From 1941 --



The few No. 2Es made after WW-II got a sparser patch of checkering --

Gotta' love a man with pictures!

I was working off my '37 Field Grade NID and a 1940 catalog.

all lovely guns...what a treat to see them...