A Remington 788 brought back to life.

[gitrdun]

This little beauty came to me in the most horrible condition. Metal with surface rust. Crown beat up. Wood covered with grease, dented. Absolutely atrocious, it looked as though critters had nested in it. And to top it all off, it's chambered in .222 Rem. But, thank the gun Gods, after a thorough cleaning, the bore looked great. So off to work I went.

Knocked off what remained of blueing with Muriatic acid mix.
Bead blasted the metal.
Dismantled the trigger and cleaned and polished.
Cleaned up the wooden stock with 1850 stripper and sanded to 220 grit.
Lifted the dings and scratches by steaming.
Polished the bolt down to wet sand 320 grit.
Parkerized and then Dura-Coated the metal with tactical black.
Pillared and glass bedded the action and recoil lug.
And finally added the head stamp from a .222 cartridge to the bolt head.

Seriously, who wouldn't not want to rescue a 788 chambered triple deuce from destruction?

[leo]

Nice work Yvan!

[gitrdun]

A picture of the crown. On a different gun, but still the same crown as I do on most guns.

[hawk-i]

congrats on rifle and work....let us know how it shoots.

[gitrdun]

Originally Posted by hawk-i

congrats on rifle and work....let us know how it shoots.

I shot it prior the determining whether the work was worth the expense of restoration. In it's ugly state, but with a clean bore, it shot very well. I assumed that pillaring, bedding and a crown re-work would do it justice. Thus, I moved forward with it. I expect that it will do just fine. But, yes as expected, I will post it's target results.

[KBF]

Originally Posted by gitrdun

I shot it prior the determining whether the work was worth the expense of restoration. In it's ugly state, but with a clean bore, it shot very well. I assumed that pillaring, bedding and a crown re-work would do it justice. Thus, I moved forward with it. I expect that it will do just fine. But, yes as expected, I will post it's target results.

Looks good. When you decide your safe is to full to comfortable house it let me know.
Beauty. That kind of work looks rewarding.

[shakeyleg02]

Looks awesome i bet it will be an even better shooter than previous

[bat119]

Nice job !
That takes me back to the 70's and in a sweet heart cartridge, just like new

[6mm rem]

Very nice! What should we start the bidding at ?

[psale63]

Beauty, nice work!

[bubba300]

Very Nice,got to love the triple deuce.Got one in a 700 and love it for gophers

[stob]

amazing work... had a triple deuce in a 788 before... your work is much better than mine ... i found the 40gr worked best ... i found a site online that showed how to adjust the trigger

[gitrdun]

Originally Posted by stob

amazing work... had a triple deuce in a 788 before... your work is much better than mine ... i found the 40gr worked best ... i found a site online that showed how to adjust the trigger

Yes, there are a few diagrams out there. However one might assume that 788 triggers are all the same. The basic construction is, but there are dimensional differences in the aluminum casting body. This makes drilling and tapping for set screws applicable on some and not on others. The instruction of the trigger housing has me thinking that Remington could have easily made it more adjustable. However the 788 ws meant to be a budget rifle, so I can forgive them for that. My personal 788 wears a Timney.

[Redneck 7]

Great work man, maybe post some other restorations you've done. I really like that tactical black.

[58thecat]

Give ya 50 bucks for it...best offer you'll get....trust me!

Great job

[Don_Parsons]

Looks like a fun build G and it will add to good times forward.

I hear yha when you mentioned "budget firearms" category as there are a few of us that tinker on this stuff.

One would be surprised what kinda down range grouping we can get out of them, plus it gives us something too pass the days away till we enjoy our next outtings in the days ahead.

Don

[gitrdun]

Originally Posted by Redneck 7

Great work man, maybe post some other restorations you've done. I really like that tactical black.

Hi Redneck, I too am a big fan of "tactical black". I had thought that black was black, period. But there is gloss, semi gloss, matt, tactical, SOCOM and a host of other. The tactical black is so flat that it will not reflect any light whatsoever. You may notice a bit of a sheen in my picture. That is because I had just applied TruOil to it.

For sure, I will post others that I've done. My internet is a bit slow these past few days (Xplornet), so downloading to Photobucket is like watching paint dry.

[gitrdun]

As requested by Redneck7. This 788 is my own, the one pictured above belongs to another person. It's butt plate was missing the heel so it was either replace it or take the one off of mine. I did not want to put a pad such as a Limbsaver or Paychmayer on it as they are unnecessary for a .222 Rem. Instead, I carved one out of dark walnut, pinned it and glued it the the butt stock of my own rifle. Of course, being that the walnut material is thicker than the original butt plate, I cut 3/8" off the stock as to not alter the LOP.

A close up view:



The original plates and a piece of walnut for the next one:



This particular 788 is my own: pillared, bedded, Timney trigger, Dura-Coated matt black, Vortex optics. On this rig, the scope bases are also bedded with the compound married to the bottom of the bases, not the receiver.

[marlin1]

nice work

[gitrdun]

Originally Posted by marlin1

nice work

Thanks you. I may try 260rem's 300 yard challenge with these 2 guns thiis weekend weather permitting.

[cody c]

Are those the actions where the barrel was pinned in place as opposed to threaded?

[cody c]

Edit, sorry that was the 770


Never knew Remington made a bolt with rear locking lugs, kinda neat actually

[elkhunter11]

Originally Posted by cody c

Edit, sorry that was the 770


Never knew Remington made a bolt with rear locking lugs, kinda neat actually

The 788 was a low priced entry level gun, but they tended to be quite accurate. My father used one in 243win for many years to hunt deer, and over 25 years later, it sold for double what he paid for it. As for the restoration, nice work.

[Hunter1602]

Gitrdun my friend looks like ur using an amazing oil concoction
Looks good!

[gitrdun]

Originally Posted by Hunter1602

Gitrdun my friend looks like ur using an amazing oil concoction
Looks good!

I got the recipe from a great chef Hey, I hope that you still remember where I live.

[gtr]

Great looking job. You must be proud of that.

[Hunter1602]

Originally Posted by gitrdun

I got the recipe from a great chef Hey, I hope that you still remember where I live.

I do, I'll send u a pm in the new years and we can grab a java.

[bb356]

Cool !!!

[cody c]

I had to read up on the web about it, I was intrigued after finding out it has rear locking lugs (and finding they made them in left handed configurations).

Quite a neat rifle, it seems there was a few that had the bolt handles come off where they were brazed on, an easy fix but an inconvenient issue.

What is the method of extraction and feeding method like on it, hard to find pictures on the web, but I like the idea of the rear lugs giving a shorter bolt throw and quick lock time of that action.

From an engineering perspective, I would like to see that design incorporate the modularity of the barrel nut savage style barrel but that would change the method of extraction and bolt face, but would be a really cool mechanism.

[gitrdun]

I know that they come with a LH bolt. I haven't seen one but I am told that the ejection port remains on the right side IIRC. As far as extraction, I don't necessarily chase hyper velocities and confirm easy extraction of my loads before rolling a bunch. Plus, I've also lightly lapped the recoil lugs to the receiver with Clover Leaf 120 lapping compound. Both guns featured above will also be jewelled in the very near future. I'll post more pics when done.