I'm thinking about refinishing the wood on my shotgun and everyone i have talked to say i have to sand the old finish off. This is fine except if i sand it it will ruin the checkering and i wood like to save the checkering. So is there any other way to take the old finish off without having to sand the stock.

I would check out http://www.midwayusa.com/

If anyone can help,it would be them...

i used a paint/stain remover when i did mine...it had alot of hard plasticy clearcloat on it and came off with the remover.....i had no checkering to deal with though........but the point in refinishing a stock is to sand down all the nicks and scratches right???? so either way your sanding it........the point of sanding is to smooth the wood and remove dings and nicks..or make them less visible..........then you would apply a new finish......not sure how to get around the checkering.......it would be hard and could mess up your sanding to sand upto it but stop...sanding over it would only smooth it out a little bit id think??i been wondering how to sand checkering myself........but i know that it needs sanded...or else i wouldnt be refinishing the stock

Depends on the finish. If it is any type of natural finish, paint and varnish remover will soften it enough to allow it to be wiped off. Use an old toothbrush in the checkering after applying the remover. It will remove the finish ithout damaging the checkering.
OTH, if it is a later synthetic finish, or an epoxy, mechanical removal (sanding, scraping) might be the only way to remove the existing finish. Best suggestion is to try different removers/solvents and see if any of them soften the finish.

get yourself a checkering handle and a 1, 2 and 3 tooth blade for the correct LPI checkering from brownells or midway... THEN... get blue masking tape... and cover your checkering... do 2 or so layers... get a razor blade and trace the outside groove between the checkering pattern and the rest of the stock to get rid of the excess tape overlay... go about sanding the rest of the stock... when yo uare ready to refinish remove the tape (that has acted as a mask to protect the checkering) and trace it gingerly with the checkering tool to get old finish off of the wood... take your time and be careful... then once you have it to your liking go ahead and refinish the stock.

Yep, but you better go slow and take your time when chasing the checkering lines.

There are also fine cut files that IMO does a better job at this type of thing than an actual checkering tool.

I have used a couple different strippers on the checkering areas it took off the finish and didn't effect the checkering at all. I think Zip Strip was one of them.