Remington 788 rifle info?

[Trooperdan]

In a previous post I was telling about a 788 in .223 I scored but when I researched to determine how many might have been made in that caliber, I came up empty.
Remington, when questioned, responded very quickly they didn't have info on specific calibers. I assumed someone somewhere has written a book on this model but I wasn't able to find one, Surely there is a lot of collector interest in this model, heck, there are books on the Savage 219! ( also like them!).
Anyone know of specific caliber "educated guesses" on the 788?

 

[DWalt]

I think there is a Remington Society website and you might search for it. I would start there.

 

[BB57]

The Rem 788 gets almost no space in the Standard Catalog of Remington Rifles, even though some of them are quite collectable.

The left hand models that were made in 6mm Rem and .308 Win command about a 40% premium over the average 788. The 788s in .44 Magnum bring about a 30% premium, the .30-30s bring a 25% premium and the 7mm-08s bring a 20% premium. The other cartridges (.222 Rem, .223 Rem, .22-250 Rem, .243 Win, 6mm Rem and .308) are all pretty common and don't add any value. That is a general reflection of the numbers produced. The .223 Rem was introduced in 1975 and was produced until 1983 when 788 production ceased.

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The stock change mentioned in my previous post occurred in 1980. At that time Remington shortened the barrels on the .308, .243 and 7mm-08 chambered 788s to 18.5" - which I thought was incredibly stupid at the time (and still do). All three of those cartridges benefitted from the longer barrel, while the .222, .223, .30-30 and .44 Magnum would have all been superb in an 18.5" carbine and I'd have loved to have one in .223 in particular.

Worse, the 18.5" carbine was not an option in those cartridges, it was the only barrel length they came in after 1980. I've always thought that was one of the nails in the 788's coffin.

 

[Trooperdan]

DWalt, thanks for the tip on the Remington Society, that hadn't come up in my search for a forum but I've joined it now.

 

[DWalt]

As you may have seen they have a forum for all things Remington. But it is not nearly as active as this one.