Just bought a 788 Rem in .223 that seems as close to new as I've seen lately but, before I start loading for it, I was wondering if anyone out there knows what the barrel twist rate is so that I may try to work up my loads accordingly.

I'm pretty sure it would be 1:12...

Try 28 grains of W748 with a 40 grain bullet... That works well in most .223's with this twist.

Let us know how it goes.

Dan Newberry
green 788

What Dan said. - Dan

Both my .223 788's eat a steady diet of H-335 and shoot 55grn. bullets the best,followed by 50's.One has been punched out to ACK.Imp. and still targets well with the same powder.IMR 4198 is also on par.

Cazador,
you might as well learn how to check the twist rate of a bbl. It is rather easy to do. Start a bore brush in your bbl. Mark your cleaning rod so that you can tell where you started and when you have made one full revolution with the cleaning rod. Mark the spot on your cleaning rod after you get one full revolution. measure the distance from your first mark to the second mark. If the distance is ten inches then the twist rate would be 1 in 10 twist. 14 inch distance would be 1 in 14 twist and so on.

I hope this has helped you to figure twist rate on your own now. Are we smiling now? Yes on this end there is a smile because I was able to share some of my knowledge with you.

I want to thank you gentelmen for your response. I'll be trying your loads and to see how they work in my rifle and also thanks for the tip on how to determine barrel twist, it seems to be a logical approach so I'll give it a try.