Posted this on another site and got some good info and am wanting to post here also. Would like pros/cons on building rifle on Rem788 action

Kian

As I see it the seriously limiting factor of building on a 788 action is the trigger. At one point canjar made a trigger for it, but rercently unless you are into some serious voodoo the factory trigger you are stuck with. And this is not a good thing.

What Information did you get about this action on the other boards?

Kian,

The good news: The factory trigger can be worked over. The bad news: The 788 is obsolete. It worked okay as it came from the factory but there are a ton of actions out there much more deserving of the money you will throw away attempting to make this into a custom rifle. I would leave it in it's stock condition...

Malm

The 788's are all junk.. let me give you my address, and you can send to my ffl, and we'll dispose of it...

In all honesty, the 788 has the fastest MECHAINICAL lock time of any rifle, ever, period. If you have a 308ish round, i would strongly suggest either a 708 or a 358. These will deliver a short, fast rifle, in the factory stock. I did one in 708 for a friend's son, with a lefty thumbhole RMF lam stock.. it shoots in the 3's with the kid, in the 2s when I am having a good day.

If it's a 35 rem, LEAVE IT ALONE, it is as perfect as a clip gun can be, and not be made in germany.

several smith's can do the trigger, but I shoot great with it...

the rear lugs, if you hear NOISE about them being weak, is fully theoretical, in this case, as you can't get a heavy enough bullet, under normal circumstance, to have a BOLT THRUST issue.

what's the caliber it's starting in?

jeffe

Hi Encore,

I have a custom 788 switch barrel and wouldn't think twice about having another one built. They are awsome. Mine has a McMillian Varmint stock with two barrels. A gunsmith on this web site, John Ricks @ home.earthlink.net/~rifles/, built it and I have nothing but praise about how it shoots. The only problem about having a switch barrel is all I have to do now is but new barrels. I don't need to build another gun. I have five 788's and was thinking about maybe having another switch barrel built with a different stock? I have a custom Remington 700, Endfiels P-14, Winchester Model 70, and a Remington 788. I like then all but I like the 788 the best. It's nice to see just how much you can do to a 788. A couple of guys who shoot 500 meter and 1000 yard benchrest have had guns built on the 788 action.

If you don't want your's? I can always make room in my safe for another 788. Even if I have to get rid of some to make room. Of all the 788's that I've had. The only problem I've ran into is finding parts, scope bases, and stocks for them. 788's are getting harder to find. Some how poeple are finding out how great they shoot. Every time I see one, I try to buy it. You should see the looks on peoples faces when they see just how much you can do to the 788.

If you need to find a source for parts or stocks, e-mail me and I'll see what I can do.

I walked in a small shop yesterday, the first thing I noticed ,on the trade-in rack was a 788.

Big let-down, IT IS A .44 MAG!!
I just don't need another .44mag rifle.
A real shame too, it is in excellent condition.

WAIT A MINUTE! Could I take this thing and screw on a .25 caliber barrel and chamber for the.25-20?

OUCH! I feel the pain in my wallet already!

[ 02-23-2003, 21:00: Message edited by: TERRY8mm ]

I once built a kind of an econo BR rifle on a 788. This was in or around 1979. I know I was shooting the only one in Canada at the time (in BR competition). In some respects the work done on this rifle and the action were well thought out. Some aspects were more in keeping with the "econorifle" theme.
The action was a 308 action on which the handle had broken off (common). As a consequence I was able to pick the rifle up for around 50 dollars. I had wanted to try a 788 action so here was my chance.
On the plus side the 788 featured a fairly rigid receiver and was of a concentric design. The lugs were arranged so that they formed a tripod effect which should be good for symetric load transference ( that sounds pretty impressive doesn't it?). Naturally not all of the lugs contacted. As well, the bolt was not a real good fit in the receiver and could be tipped from side to side. The threads in the receiver were definitely offset so recutting would be in order.
When I set the receiver up to rethread I decided to bore the threads right out and rethread to 1 1/16x18tpi. At the same time I cut the inner shoulder back about .055". My thought here was that I would be able to counterbore the barrel closely to support the head of the bolt and eliminate the wobble that existed in the stock setup. After cutting the new threads I made a stub to check dimensions and to support the bolt head while I lapped the lugs into full contact.
The first barrel was a Shilen 22 cal barrel chambered for the 219 Donaldson wasp. My intention was to use Winchester 225 brass which would fit the bolt face and headspace on the shoulder. The barrel was fitted without the recoil lug since the rifle would be a glue in.
With the barrel and receiver taken care of I turned my attention to the trigger and devised a method for installing adjustments in the stock trigger. I also moved the pivot point on the trigger up and slightly to the rear. Moving it up increased the mechanical advantage on the trigger piece while moving it back put the pivot point more nearly under the contact point between trigger and sear. This would reduce the amount of force necessary to get the trigger to break. I removed the safety parts and extended the bolt stop so that it would protrude beneath the stock for access. I ended up with a trigger pull of about 8 oz.
For the stock I really went cheap and used an old 40x stock I had. The action was bedded in acraglas with the tang free floated. Then it was glued in with Devcon steel. A 24x Leupold completed the outfit. Unfotunately it was about 3oz over the LV weight limit so I cut the pistol grip off and lightend the stock asmuch as possible to make weight. It did.
The 219 had a reputation of being a pain in the neck to form brass for and I learned this reputation was somewhat deserved. When all was said and done though I had 50 pieces of decent brass. Accuracy was decent but not as good as I had hoped. I was able to shoot aggregates in the high 3s. I managed to win a couple of trophies with it when the wind was blowing just because I was luckier in the wind than my competitors.
The next year I rebarreled to 6PPC and the rifle worked well enough to be competitive especially at 200 yd. It always shot a little vertical at 100, perhaps a little of the compensation effect one saw with Lee Enfields. Some silocone at the forend tip settled it down a bit and it worked pretty well. I could shoot aggregates in the high 2s and groups in the .160 range were common enough to not be a surprise.
I sold this rifle to a friend in Calgary. He liked that it's homely appearance belied the capability. Also he was kind of a 788 fan.
In the end I would have to say there are easier ways to build a competitive rifle. A 700 action is a better foundation for sure.
Some of the perceived shortcomings of the rear locking, multi lugged 788 are real. There is some case stretching although it was not a major problem Just that cases would begin to tighten up after about 5 firings. This made the other shortcoming more apparent. This is related to the reduced closing ramp available on 3lug actions or any action with short bolt lift. When a case got toght it was more difficult to close the bolt on it that it would have been on a 700 for instance.
This was an econorifle only because I did my own work. If I had to do it for someone else thewy would be as well off to start with a Nesika action! Regards, Bill.

Have you guys ever had problems with the silver-soldered bolt handle coming loose?

Thanks,

Reed

Well, Bill answered my question somewhat. I'm just saying that this seems to be a known flaw.

Reed

Encore260, I would like to offer a couple thoughts on the 788 remington. If you plan a target or varmit rifle it is a good choice due to the inherent accuracy the gun always seems to have. If it is meant as a hard core hunting rifle, it has a couple drawbacks in my opinion.

I packed one several years before I got tired of always finding the safety clicked off or the bolt partially open while walking. If you hunt flat country out of a stand, these things may not matter. Hard, steep or brushy country is another matter due to the easy moving safety and the non-lockable bolt. Just my experience noted here, no intent to hurt anybody's feelings. Have fun in your choice.

New adjustable triggers will be available from Timney in May, they tell me. 788's make great shooting rifles. They can be chambered in any of the 308 family of cartridges, and with a little magazine work, all the X 57 cartridges should work too. Unless you are starting with the short 788 (222, 223, 222 Mag) in which case you're kind of stuck with those case sizes. They also have a LH 788, which although still RH ejection, at least puts the bolt on the proper side for southpaws. - Dan