The Remington 788

Buckmastr

Buckmastr

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Never having one before I jumped on an online consignment deal before Christmas. A nice left handed 788 in 308 Winchester, scoped, two magazines and some ammo. Perfect.
It arrived and I cleaned it. Something was off. The barrel was bulged an inch back from the muzzle especially obvious with a cleaning rod and patch. I contacted the consignor, they offered a full refund which was nice. Instead I decided to take some money back and go looking for a take off barrel. Or cut it down. A couple hours after my WTB 788 308 barrel hit the EE, I had one for a fair price. Thanks Nelson. It arrived quickly and my gun smith screwed it on last week.
It has a decent beech or birch (?) stock, this one had a recoil pad fit nicely. A 5lb trigger with a thin shoe, a single stack detachable magazine and a bolt with rear locking lugs. 22" barrel. Left hand bolt handle, right hand eject.
After all that I shot it at the gun club this afternoon. Factory Remington ammo. It didn't seem to matter. This is a half inch gun with factory ammo. Are all 788's like this? Tell me about yours!








 
Yes they are all shooters 30-30 and .44 mag as well.A 700 barrel can also be fitted if needed.With a bit of work.
 
I built one up for my wife after we were married - her first hunt - couldn't find a 243 Win carbine version, so sawed off the barrel at 19", shortened the length of pull and slimmed down the wrist area to fit her hands, then glass bedded it solidly from rear tang to front of the fore-arm (except for front, sides and bottom of the recoil lug). In spite of all my determined, but not really skilful attention, the thing has shot multiple 3 and 5 shot groups at 100 yards from 5/8" to about 3/4", with 85 grain Speer SPBT bullets. Our son used it to take his first white tail, in time, and then our daughter got her first deer with it as well, but it had a 308 Win barrel on it by then. Just great little rifles! A little bit tinker-toy for the trigger - gotta be careful when snugging those into place. Only a single hole in the rear #76 Weaver scope base, but has turned out just fine on the three or four that I have set up with those.
 
Yup they shoot...be aware the bolt handles are soft soldered on....at least the 700s use silver solder....
 
For a couple of years I was down to two rifles during extra cash sparse years. Two 788s. A 308 and a 222. A Vari X III 3.5-10x40 on the 308 and a fixed M8 6x42 on the varmint rifle.
In the off season I plopped numerous jackrabbits and a few chicken eating coyotes/foxes. A few gopher shoots in the heat of summer.
The 222 trigger time just warmed me up for November rifle season South Saskatchewan.
In eleven years that 308 with mostly 150 Silvertip or Core Lokt factory ammo I took thirty whitetails easily.
Put some decent glass on your 788 and sir you will not be disappointed.
(Don't hotrod your handloads as the bolt handle is only soldered to the bolt body)
 
I was with my father over 40 years ago when he bought a 22-250. Remember it well as it was one of my first times in a real gun store at about 10 years old. Grew up shooting the gun at jack rabbits mostly. Was sold, but I bought it back off a good buddy about 4 years ago. Gun has seen some use over the years but will still shoot 1" groups as long as you want to sit and do it.
Had a 243 years back that got sold and I regret it every time I think about it. Yes they shoot and well over time it seems.
 
I have owned several over the years. All were very accurate. A 22-250, a 6mm Remington, a 7-08 Remington and 2 - 308's
Additionally, I bought my daughter a LH version in 6mm Remington. It shot practically everything we put through it sub moa,
and the 75 grain Speer HP shot group after group close to .5 moa [IIRC, the load was with Higginson's 47N] Dave.
 


My first Hunting rifle was a 788 carbine chambered in 243, Shot my first deer with it.
Super accurate rifle with Federal Fusion, not bad with most other ammo.

It had an old 80’s 4x Tasco scope on it, and would still print groups under 3/4”. No bedding, no free floated barrel, shot to the same POA every time.

Good rifles IMO.
 
As previously mentioned,& once incorrectly-
The 788 bolt handles are induction silver brazed to the bolt body as are all Remington 2 lug bolt handles.
A location stud locates the handle that has fine threads on it to match the firing pin shroud threads.

Re-silver brazing a bolt handle back onto a 788 bolt body will test the 'smiths abilities.
"Tis the reason that I precision TIG weld the bolt handle back onto 788 bolt bodies.

Take heed to the multi mid body bolt lugs.
The multitude of lugs are along for the ride as only 3 of the lugs do ALL of the work.

Enjoy
Fine shooting rifles the 788's are!!
 
Have a .5 moa in 22-250, put a Timney trigger in and added a EGW rail. I keep wanting to glass bed it but it shoots so well I leave it alone. 52gr Hornady HP target bullets for long range coyotes. The two upgrades were worth every penny:)
 
First "high power" I purchased when I was a kid in the '70's. .222 rem with a Redfield 6x fixed scope. What a laser. Shot the heck out of it. G'hogs, crows and foxes changed their behaviour! Had it about 10 yrs. Pawned it to a friend for a shotgun I never really liked. Could never get it back.
 
dead meat said:
Wore out several 788 rifle barrels in 22-250, great little guns. Never did find a 308 i liked though, the 6mm Rem was my choice for deer.
Click to expand...

My 308 788's always went away. I preferred the 6mm Rem as well (still have two). That is what got rechambered to 6mm-284 incidentally. Just dug my 7mm-08 carbine out yesterday after reading through this. Cleaned it up, checked the Canjar trigger, still breaks like glass. Was my hunting companion for many years. Great rifles for practical hunters. My 22-250 and 22-243 Middlestead versions accounted for a lot of coyotes back in the 70's and 80's. - dan
 
I've had a 788 for about 25 yrs. It's in 7mm-08 with a factory 18 1/2" barrel. It came with a very beat up wood stock which I replaced with a Ramline drop-in synthetic back in the day. It shoots really well as is, so I haven't done anything more with it than enjoy it the way it is.

2Rem788TWC.jpg

OP, looks like the bulged barrel on your rifle was long enough you could've just had it shortened & recrowned. The 788's shoot just as well with the shorter barrels, too. :cool:

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NAA.
 

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Nice rifles guys. Thanks for sharing them.

The option to cut off the bulge and recrown was there but finding another barrel was lucky and I went that way.

Re the triggers, apparently you can tap a sear engagement and pull weight screw into the trigger housing and make them adjustable like a walker type trigger. I’ll probably just leave this one as is as I can’t see myself shooting a left hand gun that often. I have a line on another one, a right hand 222 Rem. Might be nice to keep this one company.
 
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