All:

Looking through the safe tonight and I noticed my pre 64 M88 in 308 sitting there. Pulled it out and looked it over real well. What a rifle. I hunted w/ mine but still havent dropped anything with it...yet. Anybody use one of these??

RAS

I have a couple in 284, but I don't hunt with lever action rifles and I don't like the pistol grip geometry of the Winchester 88.

Jeff

While I don't have one, my FIL has one and it has been a primary since he was a young lad. It too is a .308 and I can only guess the game it has been responsible for.

Yup. Have a post-64 in .308 Win.

I had one for about 4 months. A range buddy sold it to me, I completely disassembled it, cleaned it up, repaired the stock, glassed it, and took it elk hunting. He bought it back soon after the hunt. Said it was a family heirloom. Didn't want to ruin a family.

I liked it alot. Shot about 1.5 MOA, carried well, and handled great.

Almost as good as a Savage 99......

Jeff,
Was it you that had one rebored to .338 Federal or is my mind going? I know someone posted about it.

George

I still have the one dad bought in 1961 when he bought me my .300 Savage. I have killed 5 or 6 deer and one elk with it. Nice rifles.

RAS - you have been a stranger for a while - that new baby doing okay?

As you know I have a couple of them, a .308 and a .284 - I hunt with both of them. They fit me fine; guess it pays to be built a little off kilter!

Bruce,

Good morning....

Yes, all is great. Big as a house now. I will send a PM.

RAS

I've owned 4 over the last 40 years or so. Always like them except for they all had the very worst trigger of any rifle I've ever owned.
One nice thing about them is if your lefthanded you can pop the safety and turn it around and put it back in for a lefthanded safety.
Doc

ditto on the trigger, however mine was worked by a gunsmith to break at about 3.5#'s it took the gun from 2 MOA to 3/4moa just by fixing the trigger.

I had both a pre and post 64 in 308, kept the better of the two (post) and had it rebored to a 338-08 (338 Federal) Good shooter, trigger's not all that bad once you get use to it.
Hold 1.5" @ 100yds with my reloads. Topped with a Leupold 2-7X.

yessir, I still hunt with mine. post 64 .308 with a FX4 on it.

I done kilt me some deer with it & even a bobcat once.

I've got a post '64 in 308 also. I've been meaning to get it hunt ready. Just havent got around to it. Maybe this spring she can kill something.

Joseph

I have one I bought in 64 or so. Carried in a scabbard a lot, Refinised the stock twice now.I accurized it myself and it will stil shoot 3/4 " even with the bad trigger.It's getting pretty loose in the action now and has a tendancy for the lever to fall down. I shot a lot of deer and quite afew elk with it until about 1970

I traded for one here with a really gorgeous piece of Maple for a stock with awsome checkering as well and already had a PAC-NOR bbl in 358 Winchester. Trigger has been worked over some and has a trigger shoe mounted as well but it is still mushy. Outside of that, a pretty cool hunting rifle. Mine is a truck/ATV gun for bumbling about in Bear country or Elk if in season as it can be put into battery very quickly with two clips full of ammo topped with 225gr Barnes TTSX's in my shirt or coat pockets. Cannot have ammo in the magazine of any rifle whilst in any sort of motorized conveyance here so the 88 in 358 fits a need quite well.

Should add that mine is scary accurate as well. Kicks a tad....

Burris Signature safari posi-lock 1.75-5x with German plex #4 reticle, PERFECT.

RAS, Glad to hear the update on the monster kid, good on ya!

Did you end up keeping the pre 64 model 70 30/06 you bought as part of the package deal we did last year or did you get it sold off?

safariman says that it "kicks a tad"; I agree. I had a .308 and I sold it because of the kick. The recoil combined with the bad trigger made it not very accurate for me. I never measured the stock, but the dimensions must be quite different from my Rem.

That sounds like a dandy package safariman. Would love to have mine in .358 and may make that happen some day. Mine wears a 2.5-7 Weaver Classic. I am also drawn to the German #4 and #1 reticles.

I have a post '64 in 308. I like the rifle and it is accurate. I put a vintage Weaver 4X on it. The trigger isn't bad and the stock fits me well. I have not carried it hunting yet.

just stopped by my local cabelas and they had a pre 64 88, the stock had been refinished and recoil pad added, with 4x weaver scope they wanted $369 for it, which I think is a pretty dang good deal.

Cummins - Sounds like a pretty good deal. Snap'er up!

Yeah man! There is money to be made on that one via gunshow or other gun sales websights.

I have a post 64 308. It's one I would never sell. It is accurate as hell with 180 Win Silver tips.

pretty funny, I made money on the last 88 I had, as I bought it for about the same money, although it was in more original condition and was a little nicer, I would but its not really a rifle that interests me, I try to buy right and sell for more one guns I do want or interested in.

I have done the winchester 88 path before. its a great gun if you like lever guns.

I have a pre-64 .308 and a post-64 .284. Haven't shot the .284 yet. I've taken a few deer with the .308. Trigger is fair but you get used to it. Shoots handloads to 1.5", plenty good enough for eastern whitetails. Cool guns, not too heavy, easy to load/unload, balance well.
Ron

Mine has a beautiful piece of wood on it - from the factory. It's a '57 in .308. With certain loads it'll shoot into an inch at 100 if I'm REALLY CAREFUL about the creepy trigger. Had it worked on with a little improvement. Have taken hogs, deer, elk, and moose with it - my sons have used it, too.

Other than the trigger is that the point of impact moves around a lot - the gun has to be frequently checked to see if it's held it's zero.

I saw a fella shoot a M88 in 308 at the local range once into very tight groups. Fella was even nice enough to offer me a go. I've heard that they were inaccurate but this particular rifle didn't get the memo! Heck you might even know the guy .

Awesome rifles. Had a pre-64 .308 up until about a week ago and sold it. Will probably wish I had it back someday. Had it out in the field a few times, but never shot it for groups.

I have the one I got from dad. his one and only rifle, a.308 from around 1957. He liked it a bunch. I prefer featherweight 99's myself.

I have killed a handful of deer, a porcupine at about 350 yards and one elk with it.Several other folks have used it for deer.

The trigger has never been as bad as some folks tell me theirs are.

It was always pretty accurate but that improved greatly after we glass bedded the recoil lug and a little pad around the barrel screws and floated the front of the barrel.

It has a Decelerator and peep sights we added. Has a scope now too.

Not a national treasure but a nice all around hunting rifle.

I would put an MPI Kevlar stock on it if I was going to use it much. It would lose about a pound and I would like it more.

I have one with a replacement Douglas barrel chambered in .358 Win with an MPI stock. Really handles nice with that stock.

Had 6 of 'em at one time. 243, 284, 308, & 358 all pre 64 and a 243, 284 post 64. Sold both 284s the 358 and the post 64 243.

Kept the 308 and 243 I bought back in the 60s, killed a few deer with the 308 but I don't hunt with it any more. Still nice guns.

I have had two. One a pre 64 and one a post 64. I kept the post 64. I bought it with the idea of converting it from a 308 to a 338-08 (that was before the 338 Fed came out)since it has a ring in the bore under the front sight. I made the mistake of shooting it first and fifteen years later it is still a 308.

People like to talk about the trigger pull on these things, but it is something you can get used to and you don't notice it much when hunting.