Remington 788 chambered in 22-250

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WindyHill6561

New member
Hi everyone,

New to this forum. I have an older Remington 788 chambered in 22-250. How do you find the barrel twist rate that I read about.
Hoping to use factory ammunition with a heavy solid copper bullet. Any help with this is appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
Just a heads up, your 788 probably has a slow twist barrel, not like the newer Remingtons. Probably a 12, maybe 14, I can't remember. Doubtful it will like heavy bullets but you can try them. Watch for top end hot loads as the 788 has the rear locking lugs on the bolt and they usually don't get along with stiff loaded ammo. And lastly, don't beat the bolt open if its stiff. Its a weak point. I've never had an issue but others have. They are great little rifles and I've have several. Usually very accurate but a tad on the heavy side for some. It never was an issue for me. Parts, hopefully you won't need any as they are a little hard to find.
 
You will need a 1-8" or 1-9" twist or faster 22-250 barrel to shoot heavy lead free copper bullets. Heavy copper bullets are much longer than heavy lead bullets are.

I know of two Rem 788 rifles that the bolt would slide right out of the gun if you pulled back on the bolt very hard.
 
Unless you have to shoot lead frees and want to use your 22-250 for big game. The 70gr Speer Semi-pointed, Winchester 64gr Power-point and Hornady 55gr Flat base Soft-point will work for deer size game in a 1-14.

If you live in a lead free area, Barnes makes a 45gr TSX that will work for deer sized.

If this is for predator hunting in lead-free areas, both Barnes and Nosler make light lead-frees that will work

As mentioned earlier it is the length bullet that determine stability in a certain twist. .Flat based and semi -pointed bullets can be made pretty short.
 
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As far as the 788, great little rifles, the rear locking lugs do allow heavier loads to stretch the brass. The lock time is extremely fast and back in the day some were sleeved and used for benchrest rifles. The trigger has a pin the sticks up and blocks the bolt from coming out, pushing forward on the safety retracts the pin. If the front of the pin is worn the bolt can push it down. I changed mine out to a Timney.

The action in 30-30 is in demand by cast bullet benchrest shooters

Most of the 788s seem to be accurate in all the calibers it came in.
 
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