Remington 788 fans: Step out of the shadows

[Fast14riot]

Same with the 580 series.

 

[bobm]

My younger brother bought a 788 in .44 mag. in 1970-71 about. He still has it today and will not part with it. Every once and awhile he will shoot a Vermont white tail in his back yard with it. Legally of course. He says it is a hammer on those deer. It has only the open sights as equipped.

 

[GoWyo!]

Love 'em! I've got 2 6mm's. My son took his first buck antelope and buck whitetail with it last year. I've also got a LNNB .223. Yes, they all shoot very well. He has been competing in 4-H with his 581 for the past 6 years. He's won state in sporter class when in Jr. and Int. levels. I've got a 582 that is even more accurate! Then there is the 541-T... Yeah, I like the rear lugged rem's.

 

[timeout]

Got my 788 in probably 70 or 71. It was in 243 caliber. Think that I had a straight 6 power Leupold on it. I could shoot 5 shot groups, bullet holes touching at 100 yards with it and believe me, I didn't have a Seb Neo to shoot it from. I got a Winchester model 70 243 in a trade deal couple years later. Sharp looker but didn't shoot like the 788, so down the road it went. I was new to reloading then. The 788 started having some light primer strikes and fail to fires. I took it to a couple gunsmiths and they couldn't find the problem. I wound up trading the rifle off. Many years later I learned how to actually handload properly. A light went off in my feeble brain and I realized that I most likely had shoved the shoulders back too far when FL resizing my brass. So soon old, so late smart. I loved that 788. Wish I had it back!

 

[joshb]

Got my 788 in probably 70 or 71. It was in 243 caliber. Think that I had a straight 6 power Leupold on it. I could shoot 5 shot groups, bullet holes touching at 100 yards with it and believe me, I didn't have a Seb Neo to shoot it from. I got a Winchester model 70 243 in a trade deal couple years later. Sharp looker but didn't shoot like the 788, so down the road it went. I was new to reloading then. The 788 started having some light primer strikes and fail to fires. I took it to a couple gunsmiths and they couldn't find the problem. I wound up trading the rifle off. Many years later I learned how to actually handload properly. A light went off in my feeble brain and I realized that I most likely had shoved the shoulders back too far when FL resizing my brass. So soon old, so late smart. I loved that 788. Wish I had it back!

THERE ARE A BUNCH FOR SALE ON GUNBROKER. GO GET IT BACK!!!

 

[Boyd L.]

Somewhere around 1979 or '80 my father decided to splurge on a varmint rifle. The place he bought it was a country store that did a brisk ammo and gun sales business. I believe he purchased his 788 .222 Remington for the princely sum of $179. He splurged even more and put a 3x9 Bushnell Sportview scope on it. Me, being a "soon to be" college graduate and therefore knowing a bit about research methodology had vetted his choice(s) through the scholarly likes of Guns and Ammo and my personal favorite Shooting Times (I still miss Skeeter Skelton). Armed with empirical (dad never knew what that word meant) data, he proceeded to decimate the groundhog and crow populations on and near our dairy/tobacco farm. His load of choice was whatever 50-52 grain bullet he could find at one of the two or three shooting supply emporiums he frequented over 4198. All his bullet choices shot and killed equally well with minimal adjustment to that old Sportview. It was never bedded with more than portions of a business card inserted fore and aft of the recoil lug.
I used it to kill a groundhog (a head shot in my memory) at 175 loooonng steps with my rest being a sassafras fence post topped with a homemade sandbag.
Dad's gone, and though I haven't fired it in 10-15 years, it's still in the safe. Great rifle for a country boy to learn some things.

 

[timeout]

THERE ARE A BUNCH FOR SALE ON GUNBROKER. GO GET IT BACK!!!

Just looked there this morning. Going to take my time and try to find one in as nice of shape as the one I had. Never owned a 6 mm REM caliber. Although I have brass and dies for a 243, may look at buying a 6.

 

[Milo 2.0]

Somewhere around 1979 or '80 my father decided to splurge on a varmint rifle. The place he bought it was a country store that did a brisk ammo and gun sales business. I believe he purchased his 788 .222 Remington for the princely sum of $179. He splurged even more and put a 3x9 Bushnell Sportview scope on it. Me, being a "soon to be" college graduate and therefore knowing a bit about research methodology had vetted his choice(s) through the scholarly likes of Guns and Ammo and my personal favorite Shooting Times (I still miss Skeeter Skelton). Armed with empirical (dad never knew what that word meant) data, he proceeded to decimate the groundhog and crow populations on and near our dairy/tobacco farm. His load of choice was whatever 50-52 grain bullet he could find at one of the two or three shooting supply emporiums he frequented over 4198. All his bullet choices shot and killed equally well with minimal adjustment to that old Sportview. It was never bedded with more than portions of a business card inserted fore and aft of the recoil lug.
I used it to kill a groundhog (a head shot in my memory) at 175 loooonng steps with my rest being a sassafras fence post topped with a homemade sandbag.
Dad's gone, and though I haven't fired it in 10-15 years, it's still in the safe. Great rifle for a country boy to learn some things.

,
Aaggh the good old days, my first confirmed kill with my 788 22-250, Federal 55gr soft points from the local Cenex at 5.99 a box. I was driving down country loads in my ride, a 65 chevy pu, 283 V8, complete with am radio when we spotted a muskrat swimming toward us, I shut it down, hung the gun out the window and at 50 yards touched one off, instantaneously there were 3 connected parts tumbling 3 ft in the air above the water, split it right down the middle.
Then I have the time, the old man with me, a fox across a coulee, 150 yards, stopped, jumped out and took a shot, , no bullet splash, no clue what happened, it was a chip shot. A month later I get called on the carpet for a bullet hole in the right rear quarter panel of the pu, steel, nasty looking hole. Took a week of denial before it came to us he was with when it happened and he actually owned and retracted his, "you braindead little punk, don't shoot holes in the pickup".

 

[Boyd L.]

Just looked there this morning. Going to take my time and try to find one in as nice of shape as the one I had. Never owned a 6 mm REM caliber. Although I have brass and dies for a 243, may look at buying a 6.

I just can't help myself
After joshb posted about Gunbroker I had to look. I have always believed that short, fat little action would be a way into some serious 6mm accuracy. One ol' fat boy I used to shoot with used a short barreled .243 to make some shots at distance (to us, in our blissful ignorance). I've thrown so much good money after bad that now I'm thinking a .22-250-ish length 6mm might just be the bomb-dignity, leastways, that's what I'm telling myself.

In the interest of full-disclosure I have a 581, a 581-S, and a 580. Each has been rebarreled and restocked for Silhouette. It may be time I get down in the quagmire of messing with the centerfires too.

 

[Tommie]

I just can't help myself
After joshb posted about Gunbroker I had to look. I have always believed that short, fat little action would be a way into some serious 6mm accuracy. One ol' fat boy I used to shoot with used a short barreled .243 to make some shots at distance (to us, in our blissful ignorance). I've thrown so much good money after bad that now I'm thinking a .22-250-ish length 6mm might just be the bomb-dignity, leastways, that's what I'm telling myself.

I had the same idea back in the stone age (pre 6XC). Did a 6-250AI on one of my 788 actions. Trued the action, worked the trigger, installed a straight tube 1-11" PacNor barrel and pillar bedded a heavy BR style Richards NotMicrofit stock. Prairie dogs have a poor opinion of the gun.

 

[Dave Berg]

so we need a WTB ad, focused on guys who have but never use and hate the 788!! Starting bid, $100

Snert started it. Somehow several 788's wound up in my vault. A few of them are .222's. The first one is a very early walnut stock that I've never fired. The second is much newer but is believed to be unfired. There is a reserve.... a little more than snerts hundred bucks.

 

[timeout]

If you have any in same condition as the 222's, only in 243 or 6 mm REM, let's talk.

 

[7887mm08]

I own 7 0f the 9 calibers that the 788 was made in. Got my first (22-250) in 1996, my last (223) june 2017.
Missing the 30-30 & 44mag. Every one is a moa @100 yds. The 308 I struggled with, all others make me look GOOD!
The 7mm08 & 6mm flat out shoot. Ugly, heavy, yup but I love them. They will go to my son some day along with the rest of my collection. He
told me he will always keep the 788's but MIGHT get rid of some of the others! He knows because he has made or watched me make some great shots with them. Like I said, a 788 will make you look good.

 

[joshb]

Just looked there this morning. Going to take my time and try to find one in as nice of shape as the one I had. Never owned a 6 mm REM caliber. Although I have brass and dies for a 243, may look at buying a 6.

Good for you! Life is short. Get what you want when you can, short of breaking any laws. Please pardon my shouting.

 

[snert]

Snert started it. Somehow several 788's wound up in my vault. A few of them are .222's. The first one is a very early walnut stock that I've never fired. The second is much newer but is believed to be unfired. There is a reserve.... a little more than snerts hundred bucks.

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Keep the scopes, I have both. I am in, $150 you pick which one.......

 

[joshb]

Keep the scopes, I have both. I am in, $150 you pick which one.......

Lowballer I like the one with the Leupold! What ever Snert offers, I'll add $50! Wait, oh never mind. Snert would get me with that by offering $2000.

 

[Downhill]

The top one is a 22-250 in an early walnut Monte carlo. The carbine is a 243 with a Weaver K4 and a refinished birch stock (when this one is mentioned - game animals in North America tremble with fear). With 95gr SST'S it is an honest .625 moa rifle. The 22-250 struggles to hold 1.75 moa, barrel has been set back once. Going to re barrel her as a 6BR.

 

[bobm]

Got my 788 in probably 70 or 71. It was in 243 caliber. Think that I had a straight 6 power Leupold on it. I could shoot 5 shot groups, bullet holes touching at 100 yards with it and believe me, I didn't have a Seb Neo to shoot it from. I got a Winchester model 70 243 in a trade deal couple years later. Sharp looker but didn't shoot like the 788, so down the road it went. I was new to reloading then. The 788 started having some light primer strikes and fail to fires. I took it to a couple gunsmiths and they couldn't find the problem. I wound up trading the rifle off. Many years later I learned how to actually handload properly. A light went off in my feeble brain and I realized that I most likely had shoved the shoulders back too far when FL resizing my brass. So soon old, so late smart. I loved that 788. Wish I had it back!

Too bad the smiths let you down. Maybe not your loading to blame. I had the same problem about the time the action had lit up 6500 shots.(silhouette rifle) Nothing more than needing a new firing pin spring. The original was a 20 lb spring. I installed a new Wolff 26 lb. spring. No more ignition problems. Wolff #63826

 

[GoWyo!]

How many of you have put in an after market trigger vs modifying vs dealing with oem?

 

[bobm]

The .308 I had, now a 7-08, got a Timney installed. The original was not good enough for a competition gun. I did not try to tune the original trigger. My .222 still has the original and was clean and crisp out of the box, and still is.