Rifle, Shotgun.....or BOTH!
- Thread starter SoCalHunter
- Start date
No worries! Next time you talk to him. BTW, a buddy is offering me his Remington 788 in .222 caliber for $300. It has a Bushnell scope, but I think it's a fixed power and I don't know what power it is. Anyway, I'm going to pick it up either tomorrow or this next week and take it to the range. It's apparently in excellent condition with only a box or two of ammo run through it. Never shot a .222. If it were a 22-250, I would jump on it BIG TIME! If I do get it, and the scope is a fixed-power model, I'll probably sell it and get a high power variable. Anyway, more info after I shoot it.
I know of two 788 that I have seen shoot,both of them where chambered in 308 and they where
both very accurrate.The 222 should shoot just as well out of the 788.My money says your going
to like it and you wont want to give it back.
both very accurrate.The 222 should shoot just as well out of the 788.My money says your going
to like it and you wont want to give it back.
Well, I picked it up from my buddy. I will say that it is a plain-Jane rifle...no bells or whistles, as in checkering, etc. It had been sitting for many years without any attention and had gathered a bunch of dust. I gave it a good cleaning and brought it back into the real world. The scope is a Bushnell 4x32 fixed-power...not my choice for the rifle, but it will do until I find a nice variable to throw on top. He even threw in a box of shells for it. The price tag on the box was $9.95. Does that give you a clue as to how old the rifle and shells are? 1978! I want to shoot it before finalizing the deal but it does look like a more than fair price for it. Once the deal is sealed, I'll strip the rifle out of the stock, strip the stock and give it a camo job. I wonder if I can find a thumbhole stock for it? I'll look in a little while. I'm going to hit the ballistic tables for a good sight-in distance. I'm guessing that 1" high at 100 ought to do it. Suggestions?
Well, according to the ballistics calculator (which uses a 50-grain PSP @ 3140 fps), a 175-yard zero will be +1.2 at 100 and -1.1 low at 200. I will probably be using the Hornady 40-grain V-Max which goes out at 3600 fps. Since that round would shoot much flatter, I should be <1" above or below line of sight out to 200 yards. That should do it! That's almost as good as my old 22-250!
The 40 gr V-Max should ware out the squirrels and make the yote's very sick! Your gonna' love that round. It is famous for its accuracy.
Well, I bought it. There's a small learning curve with this rifle. I'm used to 50 caliber holes in the paper, not pin pricks! Those damn holes are hard to see. Anyway, I first shot it at 50 to get it on the paper. It was shooting about 5" left. Three rounds brought it to dead center 1" high. I then shot it at 100 and was hitting about 2" high and 1/2" right. I'm going out again tomorrow evening with a friend and will fine-tune it with some fresh ammo. The trigger is a little harder than I like so I may do a little work on it. The gunsmith at Duncan's said there were three screws that adjust it. I tore it apart to REALLY clean it this afternoon and didn't see any adjusting screws. I'll check with him again or just let him do it. I think I also want to free-float the barrel. It's resting on the stock and I've never gotten a rifle to shoot small unless the barrel is free-floating. I think that, with a little work, I can get it dialed in where it will shoot MOA or less.
He Smoke,
I know of a fantastic gunsmith who can do the trigger and float the barrel if you need it done. He has a quick turn around too. He is working on my .270 right now (welding a bolt handle on the bolt and then finishing it). Actually he doing some work on a pistol for me too.
My neighbor is having him replace a firing pin in his shotgun and he is sizing the shotgun to fit his kid. Great guy!
I know of a fantastic gunsmith who can do the trigger and float the barrel if you need it done. He has a quick turn around too. He is working on my .270 right now (welding a bolt handle on the bolt and then finishing it). Actually he doing some work on a pistol for me too.
My neighbor is having him replace a firing pin in his shotgun and he is sizing the shotgun to fit his kid. Great guy!
Sure! Give me his name and number and I'll call him. On another note, I have a 3-9 variable on my Omega. That's a 50-caliber muzzleloader used for hunting at 150 yards and under, mostly 100 and under. You know the Remington 788 that is topped with a 4X fixed-power Bushnell. I am thinking of swapping the scopes. The 788 would do a lot better with the 3-9 on it and the 4x should be fine on the Omega for short-range hunting. What do you think?
I switched the scopes. The 4x works just fine on the Omega and the 3-9 is much better for the 788. I'm happy! The mounts on both rifles are identical so they should still be on zero...or very near so. I bore-sighted the 788 and it was right on. I had to take the fixed front sight off the 788 to accommodate the scope. The objective lens is larger than the 4x was so I had to take it off. No biggie. I just have to get some short screws to plug the holes which I will do the next time I go out to Duncan's. Now I have to go out to the range and do some more shooting to check the zero on both rifles. Darn!
What I'm thinking now that I have the 3-9 scope on it, is that I'm going to float the barrel and see how it shoots. If I can't get used to the crappy trigger, I'm thinking that I will just bite the bullet and put on a Timney. A trigger job is $65 and a new Timney is $130. So, $65 gets me a "better" crappy trigger and double that gets me an excellent trigger. I think the extra money would be money well spent.
I think the Timney trigger timneytriggers.com is the way to go. I have one on a Obermeyer 30-338 obermeyerbarrels.com and I love it.
B
Baja_Traveler
Guest
I know what you mean about pin pricks - I've been shooting my 45-70 sharps alot lately getting ready for BPCR silhouette up at PALA (65 grains 1 1/2F Swiss under 520 grain Postel). Last weekend I had my .204 out and had a hard time seeing holes! Sure was fun to knock over the squirrel silhouettes with it at 600 yards though.
I'm going to start building a Hawken later this year - got the muzzle loader side by side shotgun, the Ruger Old Army and the Sharps, but I need a muzzle loading rifle to complete the collection. Like Jeremiah Johnson said - only a Hawken 50 cal or better will do!
I'm going to start building a Hawken later this year - got the muzzle loader side by side shotgun, the Ruger Old Army and the Sharps, but I need a muzzle loading rifle to complete the collection. Like Jeremiah Johnson said - only a Hawken 50 cal or better will do!
John,
I replied to your previous email but it was kicked back. Anyway, I got a hold of your buddy and he said to just put a Timney trigger in the 788 so that's what I'm going to do. The barrel is now floating so the trigger is the only thing left to do.
I replied to your previous email but it was kicked back. Anyway, I got a hold of your buddy and he said to just put a Timney trigger in the 788 so that's what I'm going to do. The barrel is now floating so the trigger is the only thing left to do.