I've had a lot of Remingtons come through the shop and haven't seen the rifling issue that PEPPER01 describes. It's not that unusual to find actions out of square and lugs "uneven" on many production rifles. For an "out of the box " rifle I'll take a Savage hands down.
It's a great round. It should be a tack driver in a Savage. I rebarreld a Winchester 88 in this cartridge for a guy who wanted it for antelope hunting. I liked it so much I put one together for myself.
After you've found a good load, I would slowly build up a pressure point in the forearm using thin pieces of tape. You can usually get some good results without bedding.
Buy another 88. I've got two that I hunt with--both in .308. One has a 4X Leupold the other a
6X...old school hunting. I sold one in .358 not to long ago. I wish I had one in .284.
Soaking the inside if the holster with hot water and putting the gun (heavily wrapped in saran wrap-water tight) in over night will usually do the trick if you can't loosen it any other way.
With coal you need a fairly fine shaker grate. The openings on most wood grates are too large and the coal falls through. Unlike wood, coal needs to have a good flow of air coming in underneath the bed to burn efficiently. The depth of the coal bed is also important...about 15 inches worked best...