The Remington 788

My father and all his hunting buddies growing up had .222 Rem M788s for Jack rabbits and foxes and now for coyote. A few guys have .22 250 and .243 as well. All shoot great, Still use them now every weekend. I have a .243 myself.
 
A friend of mine in Moose Jaw really coveted my 222 wanted it badly. No way I am going to sell mine. Thankfully another hunter was thinning his herd. Turned out his 788 in .222 Remington was very first year of production with walnut stock and I believe white line spacer on the butt plate. Not one scratch!
My friend scored bigtime with virtually no effort. AFAIK he still owns it.
 
A walnut 788 is a great score. These aren’t terrible looking entry level rifles, refinishing the yellow birch stock often works out really well.

Internet pic
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My first 788 was a used 22-250, the old Nosler 52 grain match solid base bullets and 4320 powder, and a pile of ground squirrels(gophers) got some serious hang time from that combo.

Then I found a used left hand 788 in 6mm, it became my first semi custom build, I had a gunsmith in Edmonton who resembled Hager the Horrible(cartoon) fit a take off Alpine 4 groove barrel, flute the action, and flatten the bolt handle like an A-Bolt. All chambered in .284 Win. I fitted a MPI fibreglass stock and scoped with a 3-9 compact Leupold I ended up with a 7-1/2 pound(loads w 3 rnds, and sling) sheep rifle. I’m on my second barrel now which is a Gailliard @ 24”.
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I’ve also had built off another Left Hand 788, 6mm, a dedicated long bomber for deer in .260 REM. This one has a 26” Jury barrel in a #5 contour, and a custom laminate stock made here in Alberta.
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And it just plain shoots:
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I had two 788's. A .308 carbine, and when Remington announced they would be discontinued in about 1984, I bought a .223. Shot my first tiny group with the .223 in light falling snow. 50 grain Hornady SX and one of the 4895's. That got me hooked on accuracy for life. That .223 lifted a lot of gophers in southern Alberta.

The .308 had an issue where an ejected case would hit the windage turret and fall back in the port. Traded it off on a Remington 700 ADL .308. The 700 could handle about 1.5 grains more powder than the 788 with its springy rear locking lugs. Wish I still had all three.
 
Got one in.308.Shoots great but had the dreaded bolt stop break. Even had it fall out of my Jeep CJ6 when I hit a sharp corner on some bad wash boarded logging rd. Put a scratch or two on it. Cried until I took it to the range to verify point of impact. Still shot under 1 inch at point of aim. Dried up my tears,the clouds went away and a big sigh of relief.
And yes I made sure that it couldn't escape out of the CJ6 again. :)
 
Interesting drawing.
I think I would be inclined to use 6-48 screws for finer adjustments.

Apart from broken off bolt handles and broken bolt stops, I have also seen the little lug to which the trigger mechanism is mounted detached from the bottom of the receiver.
 
Good Day all: I Have done this modification on 1 788 and 2 581's. i would suggest a #6x40 or 6x48 instead of the 6-32. The potmetal is thin, the more threads in the metal the better. All of the triggers i've made this modification to, with the addition of a lighter spring a went comfortably down to 1.5 lbs.

Thanks Z
 
This fine rifle comes to the fro every now and again. However the intimate trigger knowledge and these old catalog pics hoist this thread to the best ever!
I own two both mysteriously built in 1978, the actions.
A .308 LH and the .222 in RH.
Peculiar I just discovered this same year of production mere minutes ago.
I did own a RH version in .308 for a few years but Silverback discovered this leftie in about 1996. So I sold it to purchase this one. Left eye dominance here.
I lucked out the leftie has some kind of better wood versus the normal birch. Exactly what my .222 wears.

Thank you folks.
 
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It's not very eye appealing but I resolved the rattly magazine by putting one inch guntape in a U pattern across the front & sides of the magazine. Probably about a three inch strip.
Rattle eliminated. Had to do it for the 308 however not an issue with the 222 strangely enough.
 
They are a cool, nostalgic piece of history but I question if a person would be better off buying a new economy rife for less money than a 40 year old 788 that may have been loaded hot with a bolt handle that may fall off, with a creepy trigger, a rattling mag, awkward plane stalk, that you can’t buy parts for anymore.
 
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