One of the top things that jumps out at me is the fondness of so many for the Remington model 788-a defunct rifle that hasn't been made for a number of years and wasn't top-of-the-line when it was. Bargain basement gun that many really liked whether it was in original trim or the modified one that was along the lines of the already-defunct 660 Mohawk. I expect it was the accuracy. I had one in 308. It was a great gun that I took my first deer with, a good-sized Whitetail buck whose rack is still in my garage. Killed it with my own handloads of 150 grain Nosler's at probably 2900 fps.
I had two of them,...both right hand. One .308 carbine and one 30-30 rifle. I just liked their lines, their accuracy, their trigger, and their no nonsense, all business construction.
I *don't* like their brazed on bolt handle. But it holds up well enough if you make allowances for it.
It doesn't take much to break one off, however. I broke one off with the heel of my hand when I was experimenting with how deep to seat a 180 grain cast bullet in the 30-30 788 I had.
I had seated the bullet a bit long and the nose stuck in the throat of the barrel,...not all that tight. I was thumping on the bolt handle with the heel of my hand to pull the bullet out of the throat and the bolt handle popped right off.
It didn't take much. You would think that the bolt would pull the case off the bullet long before the bolt handle would break off. Especially since a slippery cast bullet doesn't fit all that tightly into the neck of a 30-30 case. But it didn't. The bullet stayed in the case and the bolt handle fell on the floor.
I TIG welded the bolt handle back onto the bolt,..like the factory should have done.
