Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles Picked up a Remington 788

at a gunshop in Oneonta when I went up to visit Qtips cousin last week upstate NY.

Probably would have passed on it but it was chambered in 6mm Remington, a favorite of mine.
Date code of "XR" puts the date of manufacture at December 1968.

Gun was in decent shape but needed a good cleaning up.
Bluing was worn away at the muzzle and the bolt was more bare steel than blue but some Oxpho Blue took care of that.
Stock wasn't nicked up or banged up at all, surprised me seeing how the gun was well used.

I don't think the barrel was cleaned since 1968, dirtiest bore I ever saw. after 4 passes of 30 strokes each with Kroil and JB Bore Paste the bore looked clean with the bore scope. So I ran a wet patch after that with Montana Extreme Copper Killer and let it sit in the bore for a half hour. Ran a dry patch through and it came out light blue. Same thing for 4 more passes. Then a nylon bore brush soaked in the copper killer for 20 strokes followed by a wet patch and after 30 minutes the dry patch came out white.

Some cheap base/ring combo only labeled "Japan" that went right into the garbage and a Bushnell Banner 3X9 gloss scope with fine crosshair that I'll use on a .22.
Found Weaver bases for it at Midway, they'll be here next week along with swivel studs, and I have low rings in gloss, now just have to find an old school gloss scope for it.

788's are cool old guns. Don't see as many of them as you once did, guess people figured out how good they shoot and are not parting with them

Nice!!!
The 6mm Versions are hard to come by.
Don’t lose the magazine. They are even harder to find in 6mm.

The one I owned in that caliber was extremely accurate.

Losee's

Yep.

Love my 6mm and all the other calibers too!

Great shooting old rifles. The 6mm Remington is a fine deer round. I know two guys who use theirs on elk.

My dad loved those things. In a fit of sentimentality, I went on a buying spree. A .223, 243, and 308 later I figured out they weren't my thing.

They went down the road as fast as they came.

A steel Weaver Micro-Trac seems just right for a 788.

I like 788's, built one into a silhouette rifle a long time ago. The 6mm Rem is uncommon.

I looked at that rifle a month ago! Probably should have bought it, but I'm looking for a 788 in 222 REM. I have a 6MM REM M742 that's marked 6MM REM MAG with X's over the MAG. Tim McCormick at the Remington custom shop said the first ones were marked this way after they decided to drop the MAG from the cartridge name.

You are not alone.


Jerry

I wanted one really bad back in the early 70's. There was one at a local gun shop chambered in 30-30 and I must have stood and stared at it for hours. Every time we went to town I would stop and stare. I bet the owner of the store got tired of wiping the drool up off the show case after I would leave.....

Purchased one in 223 about a year ago. Accuracy is simply outstanding. As mentioned previously magazines in certain calibers are pricey and hard to come by.

Ho hum....

I've bit a few times, including several 6mm's, but each time I've arrived at the conclusion that they are highly over rated as a complete package. Cheaply made still remains cheap over time.

None in my stable for the past 10+ years.

Pretty much where I landed as well.....

I see a 30-30 in a local shop a couple weeks ago, by the looks it has been hunted with by a entire family but still fully functional. Blueing wasn't real bad and the stock had quite a few bumps. It was priced at $700, 1st 30-30 I've seen so don't really know the worth of one, is it worth the $700? Doesn't appear to have ever been scoped. Has the mag with it also. Another thing I noticed is that it was way lighter in weight than my 223 788

Amoskeag upcoming auction #132 has a few 788’s for sale.

I would not pay that for the condition you described unless there is some collectors value I am not aware of. Seems like the one I was in love with was about $230-240 range best as I can remember. For a country kid, it might as well have $100,000. I bought a Winchester 94 30-30 as they were less than $100 buck on sale right before deer season.

I have a 308 Carbine.
There was a .30-30 on the table at a local show last Sunday priced at $450.00.