T Bone
Well-known member
Occasionally I stop by and peruse a local gun shop. The clearance rack is usually a cluster of junk military and rusty muzzleloaders.
One rifle caught my eye...It was labeled as a Remington 78 Sportsman. I'd never heard of it....788 yes, 700 yes, but never a model 78. It looked identical to a 700.
It had a ton of paint stain and overspray on it. It was very much an ugly duck. I looked at the bolt and determined the metal to be in good shape and the bore was too dirty to tell what it looked like. $230 out the door with some Weaver mounts thrown in. Worst case scenario it was an action to build on.
I took it home, cleaned everything up. The paint overspray came off easily and underneath it I found a very plain jane looking Remington 700. The internet told me the model 78 was made in the mid 80's for a few years as Remingtons low price point rifle. It is 100% interchangeable with a model 700.
It hadn't been shot much, but looks to have spent a lot of time riding in a back window gun rack.
I mounted a Leupold 4x fixed and dug out an old box of 180 grn round nose factory ammo someone gave me.
After getting it on paper, I backed up to 100 yards, settled into the sandbags and shot a 3/4" group. Nice!
I clicked in the corrections and was popping rocks out to 300 yards no problem.
After bedding, it'll be a good beater/loaner rifle. A $230 30-06 is always a righteous decision
One rifle caught my eye...It was labeled as a Remington 78 Sportsman. I'd never heard of it....788 yes, 700 yes, but never a model 78. It looked identical to a 700.
It had a ton of paint stain and overspray on it. It was very much an ugly duck. I looked at the bolt and determined the metal to be in good shape and the bore was too dirty to tell what it looked like. $230 out the door with some Weaver mounts thrown in. Worst case scenario it was an action to build on.
I took it home, cleaned everything up. The paint overspray came off easily and underneath it I found a very plain jane looking Remington 700. The internet told me the model 78 was made in the mid 80's for a few years as Remingtons low price point rifle. It is 100% interchangeable with a model 700.
It hadn't been shot much, but looks to have spent a lot of time riding in a back window gun rack.
I mounted a Leupold 4x fixed and dug out an old box of 180 grn round nose factory ammo someone gave me.
After getting it on paper, I backed up to 100 yards, settled into the sandbags and shot a 3/4" group. Nice!
I clicked in the corrections and was popping rocks out to 300 yards no problem.
After bedding, it'll be a good beater/loaner rifle. A $230 30-06 is always a righteous decision
