I have several M788s, going back to the late 70s. All are very accurate and still work fine. Only issue has been a broken bolt stop pin in the original one bought new (22-250). My fault, learned not to let the bolt "slam" back against that little pin so often.
Have seen some of them at ridiculous prices over the past few years, but found one in 243 and in pretty nice shape, for $300 last year. All it really needed was a new stock, Midway had a Ramline on sale for $69, problem solved.
Even had a new spare mag for it on hand. Picked up a brand new 308 mag from an ol' boy's shop a few years back, for someone that needed one. By the time I got the mag, he'd already found one so I kept it. Still in the original blister pack, $20.
As for stretched cases, none of my loads were ever near max, so case life has been fine.
