Good Day,
Being tempted by friend selling his 1969 vintage model 88 in .308 Having been dabbling in Savage 99s the last several years, I find that I might like to try one of the 88s on for size. Looking for any good, bad and ugly comments with respect to this rifle. Yeah, the pressed checkering, I know.
Thanks
Smiley

The Win 88 has a lot going for it, being one of the earliest strong lever guns that could handle higher pressures like that generated by the .308 Win.
I've owned a few in 308 and never really warmed up to the stock design and recoil which can be quite punchy from the bench. I did have fun shooting a bunch of mid-winter cottontails with reduced power loads though! The triggers are also difficult to refine, but if you've spent time with the Sav 99, you are familiar with that issue.

I don't care for the ergs of the pistol grip, too straight for my taste.

Ironically, the same stock ergs work fine for me on the Model 100s because i don't have to manually cycle the action.

The trigger travels with the lever, like the BLR and the Mossberg 472/479, so there isn't anything that you can do to it to improve the trigger that I'm aware of.

Winchester sold 248,000 M88’s in 19 years

I'd say go for it! It's always nice to have a variety of rifles to compare. I have an 88 carbine as well as a couple 99s, I prefer the handling of the 88.