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southernxpress

New life to an old rifle

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So I picked up this rifle a couple months ago and have been working on it just for a project to do. The one pick is what it looked like when I got it. I got a wild hair that I need to build a stock for it and so ive been tring to work on that in between helping everyone else. It started as just a plain old Remington 788 in .308.

I picked up a 6mm barrel cheap (I have my doubts about it already but if I need a new barrel im ok w that too) I picked up a 6mm Dasher reamer and cut the chamber a couple weeks ago.

For the stock I picked up some Bubinga and I had some maple, laminated them together and started cutting and shaping, still a little ways to go on the shaping but here it is so far. Still need to finish the metal too.

The action I ended up building a new shroud for it and cut the old knob off and built a new one that is oversized. I got rid of the mag and built a single shot follower that fits like a glove in the bottom of the action. I squared the action face a lug too.

I built the pillars and just got that part of the adjustable cheek piece done last night. Its been a fun little project and figured I would share it. Even the the 788s have always been a good action.. I always felt they looked a little cheap.. I think it looks a little different now..

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Yes, that looks great! Good job. Let us know how she shoots.

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That's great. I have one that I was going to use to build a Silhouette rifle out of years ago mainly because they have such a fast lock time but I stuck it back in the safe and just bought something else.

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So I hurried up and got the gun to a point where I could at least test shoot it since I was headed out of town last weekend and knew the plan was to do at least a little shooting while we were out. The targets are a couple of the fire form test loads. The top group even with the flyer was still jut barely over a half inch group. I didn't have any groups over one inch, I was pretty happy about that since I already had my doubts about the cheap barrel. I was curious about the barrel and that was part of the reason for going through with the build with the barrel. I still have some fire forming to do and then on to the real test loads with a few more grains of powder. At this point I think there is potential in this set up and am pretty happy so far. The other pic shows the loaded 6mm BR before fire forming next to the fire formed 6mm Dasher.

 

and actually after review some thing the bottom group even though it says 4 shots... was actually 5 shots as well.

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I have a 788 in a .308...... I could only dream that one day it can look like that! Well Done!!!

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Thanks for the kind words! Its been a quite a few hours changing its wardrobe but the more I shoot it the more I like it.

So I had a few minutes yesterday morning and I took the rifle with me just to finish fire forming the other stuff I had loaded. I already knew it was close from last weekend. I found clay pigeons at 245 yards and started w those... hit them. Then I tried a small spot on a rock at 430 yards kept hitting that. And then I got crazy and tried to make it out to 1315 yards on a big rock face.. fired a couple times but just couldnt tell where I was hitting by myself. So I dropped back to 600 yards and same thing I kept hitting the rock, I will say w the 4# trigger it made it super hard at the longer diatances. At this point pretty happy though.post-8703-0-85862800-1407075854_thumb.jpg

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So last night I had some time to start messing w the trigger some more again.. it took a couple few hours anyway as I worked and reworked it. I had seen some info online about some modifications that can be made to make the trigger a little better and I wouldnt say they were far from exact and I had to change a couple things to make it work. I drilled and tapped the trigger housing and added 3 screws and another spring as well as stoned the surfaces a little more from what I had already done. I then ground a pocket in the trigger for the new spring too. The trigger now cleanly and consistently breaks at 1# w no over travel. Sure I could have bought a Timney for all the extra work but the projects bring better satisfaction and learning.post-8703-0-07387200-1407076281_thumb.jpg

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Super sweet...that is a way cool project and great job it looks awesome

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I had the pleasure of seeing this rifle in person a week or so ago. It is awesome, an absolutely beautiful stock. Todd does great work. I recently had him work on my 300 RUM, she's not all done but really close.

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