Rebarreling a Remington 788

[Bob Mc Alice]

I went to the shop early this morning to change the barrel on my 788. I picked up a new 24" M700 7-08 takeoff from GunBroker for $45. delivered. It was the rough cloth shredding matte finish SPS barrel. But the price was right. I removed the crappy finish and reblued with several applications of Brownells cold liquid blue. Came out good enough for this gun.

This job was a little more work than the others. The 788 has a 1-20 pitch threaded shank that is 1.560 long. Reworking a 700 barrel to fit is no problem. The pictures have worded details on the process. I trued up the action face and resurfaced both sides of the recoil lug. No wood working was needed, it fit good with a free float as the 700 barrel contour is slightly smaller than the original barrel.

I have had this rifle since 1980. I got it cheap new in box. Was made in 1973. The .308 barrel had over 5000 rounds shot thru it but the Hawkeye scope showed only moderate wear. It would have probably gone another 2000 shots. But, I was just about out of cheap bulk hunting bullets in 30 cal. That is all this gun has ever fired. It was a very accurate barrel with just about any bullet / powder combination.


Many silhouette shooters got their start in HP with the 788. It was low priced and very accurate. I used this one for matches quite a bit, and for use on windy day matches.

I will take it and the M77 out for a test soon...it's been too cold and windy here for the past week or so.


Well, thats it ...no other guns to convert to 7-08.....for now.

http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z94/BOBMCALICE/M788/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remington_788

[Bob259]

Nice job and photos Bob!!! Must be nice to have those toys

[Jim T.]

Bob:

Thanks for another informative and interesting lesson! I always look forward to your posts.

I am sure everyone realizes the time and care you take putting these together and I would like to say thank you from all us for sharing your passion and expertise with us!!!

Jim

[Jim Beckley]

Bob, The way it sounds that Jim T is sucking up, he will have to shoot for free at your next CRC match! Yep started with a 788 in .308. Bought for 225.00 in early 90's sold for 450.00 a couple of months ago! Real good accuracy, very fast lock time, trigger not that great. Timney now makes a trigger for it, but didn't when I was shooting mine!

[dwl]

Why such a long shank on the 788 barrel and why a thread relief in the middle?

[Bob Mc Alice]

Dave, you will have to ask the design folks at Remington as to why such a long shank. The bolt enters the front of the action only about 3/16 inch. No gas bleed port needed with this little entry. The relief cut is to allow clearance for the front action screw. It barely touches the barrel when tightened at this point. Threads would get damaged if they were there. I guess they could have gone with a shorter screw, but the action wall is .05 thinner than a M700. Who knows what Wayne Leek was thinking on this one. A unique design to say the least.

I scored a great deal on a never mounted, mint condition 1981 vintage M8 12x Leupold on Gunbroker a few weeks ago. The "buy it now price" was $225.00 It was advertised for only a few minutes before I saw it. This replaces the 12x target that now is on the Ruger 77. My plan is to get a pig zero , hold at the top of the chicken leg, top of back for turkeys and use the 788 for a good practice rifle. I still have not shot it or the 77 yet since the rebarrel jobs....maybe this weekend. I added a couple of more pictures of the scope and 788 bolt.

[dwl]

Ok. The relief is for the front action screw. I suspect that the long engagement is to stiffen the joint. I have read that the whole action was designed to cost less than a 700. Seems to me though that the 700 could have been done just as easily on a turning center as folks are now doing with 700 clones.

Separate question, know where I can get lathe handles? Picked up a Colchester Colt and need the handle for the tail stock.

[Bob Mc Alice]

I would Google machine parts, lathe, Colchester........you should get something. Crank...lock lever spindle...or tail slide lock lever ? You could always make one yourself with your new toy.

[dwl]

Just waiting to see what the March 31 layoff hath in store for me. If no layoff then need to get 220 VAC to garage and build a rotory phase converter.

[Bob Mc Alice]

I went out to CRC today to test out the 77 and 788 rebarreled rifles. I should have stayed home. I got there 7:30 am to cold and windy conditions. We got some snow here last Thursday, first in many weeks. Still some at the range.The winds were 12-15 mph out of the south. We shoot north, so I decided to stay shoot any way. I could not do any serious group testing but both guns printed several three shot groups measuring one inch or less at 200 M. They appear to shoot as well as the M70 does. All three of these rifles shoot very well so far with the limited testing that I have done. I only fired 50 rounds each gun with the 120 Hornady V-Max and 37 grs. Varget ......and the 154 Hornady BT spitzer with 39 grs. Most of the ammo was fired getting close zeroes on the silhouette gongs. The wind was running down range, so a little fine tuning of zeroes will be needed when I get a calm day. I zeroed the 788 at the pig gong. Holding low at chickens and high at turkeys works well. The point of the upper and lower duplex crosshair post is the exact hold for the chicken and turkey. A 30" hold over the rams back drops them in the middle. The conditions got worse (windier) by noon and I packed up and left.

On the way home , I came across another wacky wildlife scene. Up ahead I noticed an antelope buck close to the road jumping up and down like a bucking bronco. He was shaking his head around like crazy. I stopped , got the camera ready . I notice right off he had a big body and a decent size set of horns........and a red or orange rag or a piece of plastic sheeting totally tangled up in his horns. He was going crazy trying to get it off his head. He wasn't 75 yards off the road. He looked at me as if asking to help him out of this situation. He ran off after a few minutes. The antelope around here are retarded or something. Hit the fullsize key on the pictures.

http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z94/BOBMCALICE/CRC3/

[Bob259]

McAlice, that 77 or 788 would have slowed him down enough for you to take that paper off for hime

[Bob Mc Alice]

I dont think it was paper, Bob. It looked more like the faded out remains of a flourescent orange hunting vest to me. Possibly from that Llama hunter from New York.
I'm thinking maybe that mean looking goat ambushed the guy while he was napping. I will check with CDOW on missing hunters. You check with NYPD or Fish and Game out your way. The poor bastard is probably long plowed under the winter wheat by now.