788 paranoia

[wreckhog]

Picked up a 788 and am OCD on the bolt handle eventually breaking. What is the downside and cost to having it TIG welded before it breaks?

[Frank46]

I've heard of rem 700 bolt handles coming unglued but never a 788. rem stopped making them as they were more accurate than the 700 and cutting into the 700's sales. Frank

[gunnut69]

The 788 is a favorite of mine. Over the years I've had several and all shoot better than I can hold. My first checkering job was a 788 in 243, which was also my first new rifle purchase. the sycamore stock was a learning experience but it came out wonderfully. Re-finished the rifle with thinned epoxy glue..and checkered it 20 lines to the inch.. with a DemBart kit. Full length bedded and a nice 3/4 pad and it fitted me perfectly. I killed a wounded deer running in a sprout patch with a neck shot! The bolt handle fell off with no warning..and was sent back to Remington who fixed the problem posthaste.. Doubt they would now though. The rarest I ever owned was a 1st-2nd year rifle with a walnut stock. Sold it to my brother, regretted it ever since.. TIG welding is a permanent fix and it take nearly no time. The locking lugs are on the rear of the bolt and MUST be protected from even the brief heat of the TIG spot weld(all that's needed). A wet cloth(outside around lugs) and a heat sink(inside the stripped bolt) will suffice.. Touching up the weld and nearby areas with OxphoBlue will finish things up. This will of course void the warrantee(???so) but must not be overdone. The trigger is very much the same as the M700 minus the adjustment screws.. Some drill and tap to make it adjustable, I just polished and jeweled the interior parts(be sure to NOT round the sharp corners) and lightened the pull to 3 pounds.. Simple and permanent.. The rifle would shoot well but after many many rounds it was loosing it's fine edge..when it was stolen. I sure would like that one back.. I would shoot the rifle as is and only fix it if it broke, most didn't. Also they are getting really collectable and valuable wish mine was back home..

[Mikey]

Frank - you say that Rem stopped making the 788 as they were more accurate than the 700s and cutting into their sales - dang, if I had known that I would have kept the miserable bunch of junk 788 I had and waited for it to age into better accuracy.  Mine would easily shoot groups around a basketball at about 10 feet and wouldn't close its groups without painstaking handloading.  I finally traded it for a Winchester M94 and have been happier since. 

[demented]

Strange!  I had one of the rather rare left hand .308's that was literally a tack driver.  Mine would shoot any 150gr factory load under an inch, Federal, Winchester, Remington-didn't matter it'd shoot 'em all well.  The kicker was that ALL brands would print in SAME place.  Stupid me sold that rifle to buy a Savage 270 that never shot all that well. 

[mauser98us]

Don't worry about it

[gunnut69]

Mikey--that's way harsh!!  the 788's main claim to fame was it's incredible lock time faster than even the 700 and way faster than the M70.. The triggers were a version of the standard remington trigger but sans the adjusting screws. Initial rifles came from the factory with plain walnut stocks but these were soon replaced by sycamor, aka american hardwood stocks. the sycamor stocks are heavy and dense but have a bad tendance to more as the wood changes moisture content. This can be fixed at least to some extent. The barrels seemed to be pretty much standard Remington barrels and as such usually shot quite well with the recoil lugs the normal Remington trapped washer.. Good barrels combined with super lock times and low prices made the 788's popular especially with offhand shooters such as steel target shooters. I've messed with a very early 222, a 223, a 22-250, a 308, a 6mm and a 243(perhaps 2 of the latter??) and haven't found a bad one yet. Some of course were better than others and if the barrel was damaged well no rifle would shoot like that.. I would have loved to have worked with yours Mikey to determine what was the matter.

[Drilling Man]

  My Rem. 788, chambered in .243 Win. is from the 70's when mom and i bought it for my dad.  Dad is now in his 90's and he gave it back to me, origional bolt still in place and all.  It's quite accurate, and over the years dad shot quite a few deer with it here on the farm.

  I've owned other 788's and all of them were good accurate rifles.

  DM

[Frank46]

Mikey, mine was a 222 rem. Shot almost as well as a 40x in the same caliber. In a fit of stupidness I sold it. Frank

[mannyrock]

  If you are really paranoid about the handle coming off of the 788 (they are screwed on, with only a few threads), then just get rid of it. There is no point in feeling worried about your rifle, when there are literally hundreds of others to choose from.  Its just a hunk of metal parts, not a person.

   On the other hand, I have never heard of a handle coming off a 788 when it is shot with factory ammo only.  I have a suspicion that in the vast majority of cases, the handles come off as a result of folks shooting handloads, which create the necessitiy of very hard yanking to lift the bolt (even hitting it with a mallet), to open the bolt after a split, stuck or overloaded round.

Regards, Mannyrock

[moorepower]

All I know is there are alot of folks looking for bolts! I have a .243 I bought in 1978, and it is still hanging on. I would agree that they are not designed to be hot rodded. Mine shoots 95 grain SST's under an inch for a group of five, at about 2950 with a under top book load of RL 19. I had never really heard of an inaccurate one before I read this today.

[gunnut69]

I've had 2 that lost the bolt handle. The first went back to Remington and it came back just fine. The second Remington couldn't fix(already discontinued) so I had it TIG welded on.. One has to use a heat sink to protect those rear locking lugs from heat and from flying sparks but that's no biggy. I had not heard of folks looking for bolts for the 788.. If I had the chance I buy a few of those rifles if all that's wrong is the handle fell off..

[wreckhog]

If you check gb, used bolts go for near $200

[gunnut69]

I would wonder what happened to the rifles.. The bolts evidently survived but the receiovers did not? Hard to explain..

[wreckhog]

I would think that people that could not get full price for their rusty (known issue) guns, parted them out. Scope, stock, bolt, mag on auction probably net you more than a local gun shop for the whole complete rifle.

[Prebanpaul]

I have owned about 45 remington 788 in my life. I found one out of all them that did shoot a 10inch group.   Then I cleaned it. actually I used an electric fowler remover and it started shooting around .75 of and inch.  I have yet to have on shoot over an 1.5 inch group with any caliber that I have.  Including the 44 remington that I have now.   If you take care of stuff you will not hurt the gun, or the bolt.   The 788 are extremely accurate.  I currently have them in 44 remington magnum, 222,223,and 6mm.   I love them

Paul

[demented]

 I was in a shop the other day, saw two boxes with 788 marked on them.  Didn't see what was inside but both boxes were shoebox size...Amity Arkansas, Rebel gun repair 870-342-5825

[Mikey]

gunnut:  Dang!  Had I known you  would have wanted it I woulda adopted you and bequeathed you the rifle.  Actually, it did not shoot that badly but it was a real pita.  I do not favor 150 gn slugs in a 30 bore and this rifle would simply not shoot a factory 180 with the degree of accuracy I want/need from a rifle.  It was a nice, lightweight package and made for a excellent 'mountain gun' when I was out beating the boonies.

However, I did not/ do not care for the 9 lug bolt concept.  Mine never smoothed out.  It also had a very tight chamber and was a royal pain to handload for, so I gave it up for a really nice Winchester 94 in 30-30 and went back to the 06 for scoped long range work. 

I think that if I ever saw another one I would pass it up, especially if it was in the 308 but if I found one in 44 mag I would snatch it up.  Just a thought.

[gunnut69]

Hey Mikey! I'm always open for adoption! I've dealt with an awful lot of 788's and found them great especially for the price.. Triggers were overall pretty good and easily fixed if not. I disliked the box magazine. It was in the wrong place and seemed cheap or flimsy to me although I've not seen one go south. The 308 and 243's are probably the most common with the 44's and 30-30's pretty rare. The 222 I found years ago for my younger brother is very rare. It's first year walnut stocked version and shoots really great. Likes 50 grain SX Hornadays and 4198. I've seen handles come off the M700 as well as the 788's and am a devout believer in the one piece bolt is best school of thought. Still a MIG or TIG welder can do miracles here. Even the late versions of the M70 used somposit bolts! Almost a sacrelige!