Howdy all,

Little history question for you all. I've read the archives about 788 bolts fragility with regards to gorillas with hammers. I've got a 6mm and just bought an as new .223. I was curious about the .223 as the bolt handle, "droops a little" inward and towards the rear. I initially thought all 788 bolthandles were straight out from the body. My six is. Anyway, the .223 is immaculate, didn't look welded or heated or beat upon. I found a 223 bolt on GB that has the same "curve", but then I also found a .222 on GB with the straight bolt.

Does anyone know about this change? Mine is the later model with the inletted floorplate.

Thanks.

Don't know about any change, but I just had one in the shop that the owner knocked the handle off. It appears that the root of the bolt handle was copper brazed to the bolt body. I could not duplicate the brazed joint as I think it takes extreme heat to do. I soldered it back on with Force 44 but told the guy I won't guarantee it. Where did you find the extra bolt; we may need it?

For some reason Remington was not bright enough to connect the .223 (a military round with plenty of cheap brass available) to the 788 (an economy rifle) until late in the 788's production life.

There were a few changes to the 788s near the last several years of production. One of the changes was a flush inletted trigger guard strap and another was the slightly curved bolt handle.

The early 788"s used 5/8" x 24 threads on the plug. They also had the staight handles.

Later on in they reduced the thread of the plug to 9/16" x 24 TPI, the first ones of those still had staight handles.

When they upgraded the styling of the rifle, they bent the end of the bolt handle, and reshaped the stock, and inleted the magazine bow, and plate. This is also when the Carbines came out.

Yes the factory bolt handles were a copper braze.

The best Silver Solder we have found and have used for YEARS, is now currently made by Harris, it is called Safety-Sliv 45. It has close to a 90,000 psi shear strength at a .002 thickness. I has a meduim temp flow ( 1100 DF ) and the reheat temp is only about 50 degrees higher than the first melt.
Once things are preped properly, you can rejoin the handle and back off, with the heat colors just starting to get close, but not touching the rear locking lugs.
Of course I have a fixture to hold the bolt body and handle in proper alingement, so it is acting as a heat sink.

One word to the wise on the threads, the left hand guns used left hand threads on the plugs, so be prepared to have the correct on hand to chase any threads. Try finding the 5/8 x 24 and 9/16 x 24 Left Hand bottoming taps.

James Wisner
Custom Metalsmith
Wisner's Inc

Hi all, thanks for the replies, I knew I was in the right place to ask.

Jim, the bolt is on Gunbroker. Still active.

I've had several people ask to buy this rifle from me since I've been showing it off. As popular as these are, you'd think RP could start up again and make them a moderately priced rifle in place of their disposables and imports. There will always be a market for the 700s and model 7's.

James, are you still repairing or producing 788 bolts? I may need your services some day.

Thanks again Guys.

Gary

James brazed the bolt handle back together on my left handed 788 at least 10 years ago. (I think he said it was the first lefty that he did).

It's still shooting but at 10,000+ rounds the throat's pretty much gone.

Sarco sold 788 bolt handle blanks several years ago I bought a dozen or so they were too short to use on mauser bolts they were not threaded

Hey Jim,

That GB auction is over 200.00 bux for that 223 bolt.

James, are you sure you don't want to fire up the tooling?

I've TIG welded 788 handles for decades.
Threads match & no chasing required.

TIG Pulse/Purge process ensures bolt/lug & handle temper is not compromised.

Dan.

You must be really LUCKY.

A good 10 % of the bolts we would have come in for repair was missing the handle and a small chunk of bolt body that broke off with the handle.
Another 10 % had previous repairs that we had to fix as well.
The rest of them was a breeze with the proper set up and fixture.

Thankfully I do not miss those days, am simply too busy making parts now.

Jim Wisner