mikeystew;
Good morning to you sir, I trust this damp cool morning finds you well.
I was reading your 788 thread with interest to see where it would wander and the responses thus far have actually been quite civilized, tame and fact filled - so a tip of the hat to the respondents for maintaining their decorum.
The first 788 I can ever recall handling or even looking at was the one my then new wife picked out of a rack at the gun shop just outside of Moosamin, SK - this was 34 years ago this fall. In those times the shop wasn't open during the day in hunting season, so we went down at night. When she asked how it kicked, the owner of the shop pulled two cartridges out of a box, pointed out the door across an empty field and said "Put a couple of them out there and see".
My how times have changed in the interim.
Anyway hers was/is a .308 carbine and with factory Remington 150gr Cor-Lokt would shoot 3 shots under 3/4" with boring regularity. Eventually I stocked it with a blank I picked up from Don Robinson in Kelowna and it's got a Timney trigger in it now - the original going into a project rifle I'll cover in a bit.
Her rifle;
As well as her's I've bedded and modified two more 788's, both .308's - one more carbine and one standard length, left handed action.
The bolt stop pin was broken on this one, so I put the trigger from her carbine into it and installed a new Timney.
To reiterate what's been said, they are a rear lug action that does flex some, so like a Savage 99 it's wise to stay a grain back from max if you want the brass to last.
The trigger is not adjustable, but if you change out the spring in it, a reasonable pull can be had - we add trigger shoes to ours too though and we think they help with consistency a wee tad.
It's not a bad idea to epoxy the scope bases down on them as there's only one rear screw holding and because they were an economy action the epoxy also takes up any differences in the radii of the base/action. I actually have been gluing down bases for 25 years now and unless someone asks me not to, a rifle coming through my shop gets that as a standard procedure. I should note I do not glue the retaining 6-48 screws in - we're just making sure the fit between the action and base is perfect and of course will stay that way until we heat it up - 375° - to remove it.
When I used to shoot a bit of hunter rifle class in local competitions in Oliver, there was a family that came down from Midway that had a 6mm and a 7-08 in 788 that we all lost a fair bit of money to.
Then too, the now late Forslund brothers would come down from Cherryville and pronounced my wife's rifle - "that ****ing gun. It shoots better than it has any right to Dwayne!"
Personally I believe the small ejection port as well as the relatively small slot for the single column magazine helped make for a stiffer than usual action. That combined with a reasonably quick lock time and good barrels made so many shoot well. Somebody must have cared about barrel quality then too though, you know?
While I'd likely not be inclined to spend a whole ton of money building a bench gun with one, they are an interesting enough platform to play with to see what they and you as a shooter can do. With my wife's little carbine, shooting 130gr HP Speers and 748, if you hit beyond ¼" of your point of aim it was your fault. Even after building a few custom projects - barrels along costing way, way more than we paid for the 788 - it's still a tie for most accurate arm in the safe.
That, as they say, isn't that bad.....
Good luck with your rifle whichever way you decide sir. Hopefully that was useful information for you or someone out there today and all the best to you as we go into the time change weekend.
Dwayne
