Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Rem. 788 ???

I am a big fan of the 788 a much for sentimental reasons as anything. My 222 was my first really accurate varmint zapper. Some here may not have had firsthand experience with the state of rifle and ammunition performance in the late sixties. A true moa, untuned factory rifle was rare, especially shooting factory ammo. My 788 did this easily with Norma factory stuff. There was a guy in town with a Sako .222, but people thought he was nuts, spending that kind of money to shoot woodchucks. The 788 was affordable and would shoot rings around anything else in that price range. Nothing was safe. Of course, my own sense of rifle aesthetics was pretty undeveloped at the time. That 788 opened the door to a whole new world for me. I wouldn't give one a second glance today. Well, maybe if I came across a .30-30 at a reasonable price... As many here have said, I'd probably go with a Ruger American Rifle if I wanted a new economy rifle. I think, though, that my days of economy rifles are past.

788 in .223 drove every factory and handload under an inch.

I have 2. One is a .22-250 I bought new in 1974. I installed a Canjar single-set trigger. Shot some 1/2" groups, and always under MOA. I've shot a lot of groundhogs over the years. A couple years ago, I bought a .308 that was not priced outrageously. The .308 was a project to get it to shoot well. Glass bedded it, re-crowned the muzzle, and found out about the rear action screw bottoming out before it got tension. Shimmed under the rear of the bottom metal. So now it's usable, but not the shooter my other one is.

Sorry, Jerry. I hadn't looked at this thread in a while. The stock was ordered from Boyd's. There are things I do not like about the stock, but all in all I am happy with it. One thing I REALLY like is that it was a drop-in fit, and no bedding was necessary. The rifle shoots 5-shot groups in the .4s on average, and will sometimes do a bit better.