Very nice! Living here in Central NY in the shadow of the Ilion plant, the 788 in Triple Deuce was a popular woodchuck killer in the 70's.

 

. If you can't put all the bullets through one hole at 100 yards with a .222, you need to work on your shooting form.

Totally true quote there. I currently have two. A Rem 700 BDL and a Rem 600. Both are honestly 1/2 MOA shooters and less. Just add H322 and a quality bullet. I'm a Sierra fan, but H322 and the old Hornady 50 gr SX are one holers at 100 yards with both rifles.

 

I have done well with Noslers in my 25-06. Nosler recommends H322 as their most accurate powder with the 50/52 and 55 grain bullets, so that's two counts for H322.

 

Any suggestions for improving the 788 trigger?

 

Is it not the sheet metal box like the Rem 700? If so, pretty easy stoning and adjustment.

 

I was born in Watertown. lived in Utica, Syracuse and Buffalo, got the Remington catalog every year. Being a high school student and then college, did the things I had to with my money. Then joined the Navy, got married, got divorced, remarried a wonderful gal who tolerates my affliction with guns and fishing gear. A guy at work told my the fishing rods in the living room would be gone when I got married. My wife and I ran into him at a play and he asked about them, I said not only are they still there, I gained six her son left behind.

The trigger is the weak point, non-adjustable factory. I am researching stoning. Timney has a drop in replacement adjustable for about $125.

 

I owned a 788 in .222 while in college (1970's). Much like the XP-100 in 7mm BR I also owned (1980's) both of those firearms were sub-1/2 inch firearms.

 

I've owned two triple deuce, the first one was a savage 840 my Dad bought new around '69 and gave it to me. It was stolen about 20 years ago, replaced it with a M700 with a heavy barrel and it does drop 'em in one hole when I'm doing my part.

 

Had a 788 .308. Extremely accurate, a real sleeper. Had to sell it in a divorce:vollkommenauf:

 

I got a Mod 70 .222 that shoots OK. The most accurate .222 I ever saw was a 788 with a ringed barrel that shot Win factory ammo into 1/4 moa. all day.

Oz.

 

Two comments. First, a fellow range member owns four or five heavy barrel target benchrest rifles....all are oldie goldie .222 cartridge rifles and yep, they shoot quite well. Second, not that uncommon to see a fellow range member, generally a retired gent, shooting a 788 Remington. Guess I've see one in every cartridge they were made in. All shot quite well when it came to accuracy.

 

Sounding like my research is going to pay off. The pony express should deliver the rifle to my LGS/FFL holder tomorrow. Lesson learned , never buy a rifle the weekend before a national holiday and expect quick delivery. Should have a range report from the coming weekend. Found 2 boxes of 50 gr at another local store and will be ordering dies, etc. soon

 

Been following this thread. Just a thought, you may have room in the magazine to ream the chamber to .223/5.56mm NATO. Get a little more oomph and brass is a lot easier to come by. Can't wait to see pictures. AC

 

Or I can use a full length resizing die and push the shoulder back on once shot .223s from people who don't reload. The neck on the .222 is almost two bullet diameters, the .223/5.56 less than one. Primary reason the .223 was invented was the military requirement to have a 55 grain bullet be supersonic at 500 yards. I purposely traded ~300 fps for the ability to put all the bullets through one hole.

 

RE chambering one to 556 might depend on the bullet weight choice. It was popular to rechamber the early SAKO 222s you will recall, but most of them didnt shoot all that fantastic since the SAKOs had a 14 twist for the then 50 gr standard 222. I have one of the J C Higgins 222 with a SAKO action. It has a 16 twist! it for sure likes the lighter bullets accuracy wise.

Kind of funny, those 788s always had a great rep for accuracy, the trigger was of course fully OSHA approved and that was the one thing guys didnt like at the time, they couldnt be adjusted as light as the 700 series triggers could. But for the guys that could handle a heavy pull, they shot bug holes pretty easy.

Now, they are getting collectable! The mags are often scarce, so dont lose the ones you might have. Or hock your first born to buy an original if found. At least thats the case with the 22 250 mags.

The 222 is still way far from being obsolete. I have one in the safe now, and had others in the past, its a neat classic round.

 

I had a Remington .222 788 back in the '70s, one of the main reason was It came in a left hander and it truly was a great shooter. :shot: Unfortunately things have to be let go sometimes.
It was a great little rifle, these days I have filled the .222 void with a Zastava .222 and it is quite the little shooter.:top:

 

I remember the 788 as it was my first center fire rifle I bought when I made 18. They were very affordable compared to prices now. I paid 146 dollars for mine brand new in the box. It is a 22-250. The only mod I did over the years was to retrofit a Timney trigger to it. I kept the original Remington trigger. I changed it because the trigger would freeze up over time if stored. Must be something with the dissimilar metals as the trigger housing was aluminum with steel parts inside. It is very accurate but has a slow twist rate barrel so I am limited to 55grn or lighter bullets.I only have 1 mag and it is hard to find them.

 

I bought a 788 243 once for $100.00 because the trigger was froze up on it.
I took it home and dis-assembled it and the trigger housing was gummed up
with either some sort of solvent or WD40 that reacted with the alluminum.
I cleaned it up and sold it for $450.
My LGS sent me one he bought in an estate sale that was the same way once
as well. I think this is a fairly common problem with the 788.
Before the Timney triggers for them came out I used to replace the trigger
spring with one from a Bic lighter. That would put them around 2 lbs.

 

Driving home on the interstate Wednesday night, get an unknown number calling my cell, I pick it up. It's my FFL, my gun is in, they're open until 6 and the next exit will take me right to his store. Needless to say, I picked up the gun and it's pretty good looking. Need to leave a positive review on GunBroker, it was at least as good as represented. This morning I scrubbed out the bore with patches, Hoppe #9, a new brush and more patches until they came out gray (be silent gun cleaning haters, I used a bore guide!). Rifling looks nice and sharp; no borescope, but I have a little LED light that I can wiggle around in the chamber to highlight the bore. Trigger pull was a repeatable 4.5 pounds. I then removed the action from the stock, pretty clean underneath. I hosed out the trigger with Remington action cleaner and cleaned up the stock with Olde English furniture polish and wiped down all the metal with Hoppes #9 followed by RemOil. Letting it dry thoroughly, then sparingly oil the trigger and reassemble. Recheck the trigger pull. Execute HoneyDoo list (supposed to rain today). Range tomorrow.

 

WD-40, while an excellent product for protecting electrical circuits and metal on boats (bought it by the gallon when I owned a boat), has probably gummed up more triggers than any other single product. I will gladly pay a couple of dollars more for a application specific product. As for the Bic lighter, one writeup I saw indicted that one spring is used to both reset the trigger and the sear, so lightening that spring also makes the sear engagement less positive.

 

That is correct. You have to be careful and cut it a bit longer than the factory one.
I never had a problem, but like I said...that's what I (used) to do.
The Timney is about 130.00 shipping and all...pretty cheap fix for the one
character flaw this otherwise perfect rifle has.

 

I've found the Timney for $110 plus shipping. I'll see how well the rifle shoots now before making any decisions. I shoot with a couple of guys I would never bet against, so if there is a question, I'll ask them to shoot a group to take me out of the equation.

 

My first experience with the 222 was when I was living in Western Oklahoma and my FIL traded guns with me and I wound up with a Model 600 Rem 222. We took it out in the open spaces to shoot it and a hawk flew up into a tree about 150 yards away and I threw up the little 222 and with open sights the hawk fell to my surprise. I traded it off and years later I picked up a Model seven 222 and deer hunted with it and it was deadly when you put the little pill in the neck of a whitetail. I lost one of the biggest bucks I ever shot with a behind the shoulder shot although he did not go far. I thought he was a doe as he was standing with his head and shoulders covered by brush and I could just see from behind the shoulder back, I knew it was a big deer but at the shot he ran down in a ravine filled up with big saw briars that looked like buggy whips. I was still thinking it was a doe until a day later several people from out of state saw buzzards down in the ravine and they cut a trail through the briars and found what they called a monster buck and cut his horns off and I never got the chance to talk to them again or converse with anyone that found him and it really never dawned on me that it was the deer I had shot until several years later. The mild report of the 222 did not seem to spook deer like a larger caliber does and on several occasions I would shoot a deer and when it hit the ground the deer with it would trot up to it and look at it like they were asking "'what happened to you".

 

Picked up a second hand 788 in 222 in the late 80’s. It was my first c/f rifle and up until then had only owned a 22lr and 12g.
It has been a long time since it has been used for hunting, mainly used for rabbits, crows and roos.
Considered selling it but each time I picked it up, it brings back too many happy memories.
Last year took it out of the safe after not having used it for probably close to 15 years. Best group with Winchester factory 50gn SP was 0.4 MOA. Next outing will try some PPU 50gn sp which I picked up cheap at my LGS. If it doesn’t like them, can always go back to the Winchester.

 

I traded for a 788 in .308 and another trade for one in .243 last year. All along I was looking for one in 6mm but could never lay my hands on one. Now one has popped up with scope, strap and a box of ammo for $650. It's so tempting.

 

Grab it Henry and sell the .243.

 

I didn't mention that the scope was canted and I corrected that, so I knew I'd have to rezero the scope. After missing a whole target with 6 rounds at 25 yards, I decided I'd better bore sight it. Of course I started turning the adjusters the wrong way. One of my buddies showed up and helped me get on the paper. By now I was frazzled enough to shoot like crap. Probably about a 1 1/2 inch group at 100 yards; not worth inconveniencing any electrons to post a picture. Definitely a promising rifle, next range trip I will work on producing a post worthy group. Don't even ask about my first attempts at the Bull Snake Postal Match with a peep sight on my 1894C .357, at least all 5 shots were on the 8 1/2 x 11 paper at 50 yards. Not my best day at the range but still enjoyable..

 

I don't know how such a cheap rifle could be so accurate. I typically get nickel size groups at 100 yrds with mine.

 

A good friend of mine was given a .243 788 to hunt with when we were teenagers. It looked like it had been used as a canoe paddle. It had a lot of pits on the outside of the barrel around the muzzle, had pits where your hand wraps around the stock when carrying it with one hand, and had a bore that had so much old copper fouling that it looked like the statue of liberty when you looked down the tube.

That rifle is to this day the most accurate rifle I have ever shot. I could hit cantaloupe sized targets offhand standing at 100 all day long and from a lead sled it shot a ragged hole.

IMO the 788 is the best rifle that big green ever made.

 

The 788 is a fine shooter in 222 and 223. Have one in the safe made Jan. 1968 with the walnut stock that looked unfired when purchased two years ago. I think the hang tag is in the safe some where. It is now fitted with a Timney trigger and it is a nice addition to that rifle. It will shoot most any bullet from 50-55 gr. but seems to favor Sierra's. Full case of H 4895 or 20gr. 4198 and it is a fine shooter. Have two 222's in the safe right now. The other is a Sako Hunter light weight that is a joy to carry but not quite as accurate as the 788 but has a very light contour barrel. Makes a nice fall turkey gun though.