So I scored again. Picked up a Remington 788 with practicall no rounds fired through it. my gunsmith confirmed that it had all the machine marks in the barrel and looked brand new. so I am looking for some starting pints in what bullets are shooting good in these rifles. I know it has a 1-14 twist and am hoping to use 34gr hp or 40 gr vmax ...any help would be nice

My guess is that it would at least shoot up to 50 grain bullets well and possibly 55's.

Every Remington 788 that I ever saw grouped very well. How is the trigger? Also, You might need to glass bed the action and float the barrel but so do a lot of other guns.

We have them in:
223
22-250
243 (more than one)
308

Our 223 shoots best with the fifty grain bullets.
We started out with the fifty grain Blitz bullet. Next we tried the fifty grain "TNT". Lastly we tried the the plastic pointed fifty grain bullets. All brands shot well, however the 50gr Blitz King and 50gr V-max hold an edge over all of the rest.

For powers I have used Winchester 748.
The draw back here, A max. load in hot weather can have a pressure spike. Back off the amount of powder and enjoy the fun.

Varget is very accurate, it however it is slow. I doubt if you can put enough Varget in a case to cause pressure problems.

I load on a big blue progressive press and 26.5 grains of Varget (under the 50gr Blitz King) will not spill as the turret is truned. Is is very accurate. Note, No Pdog or groundhog has ever complained that it wasn't going fast enough. Hot wearher and / or barrel heat have never caused a pressure problem. The cases can be neck sized several times before needing to be full length sized.

H335 & H223 & H4895 all show promice. Work up 1/2 grain at a time untill it is printing bug holes and there are no pressure signs. A load with these powders will be faster than my Varget load.

I guess the 223 can be loaded with more different brands of powder that any other caliber.

Seating depth is often limited by the clip but they are still accurate.

Enjoy your great find.

You might try this one, it's shot well in slow-twist .223s for me.


50gr. Blitz or SPSX
23.5 H-322
Federal cases
Federal 205M primers

You can also use that load with the poly-tipped bullets, but I wouldn't. This is a nice economical load, running about 3150 fps. It's mild, and accurate in a Howa .223 I had (under .3" @100yd.) The Blitz or SPSX bullets still provide a lot of "splat", they were designed for this speed anyway.

My 223 likes 50gr Blitz Kings and Benchmark powder.

Ive never had a 223 with a 14twist mostly 12s and 9s so I wasnt sure about what may or may not ...the trigger is crips at 4lbs...its not bedded but it is floated very nice rifle for what I paid for it ...heck nice rifle no matter what. I wa wanting to shoot 40s or evn 34s but my dads 78 shoots the 50s really nice too

UPDATE: after several attempts looking for some decnt loads I finally found a wicked accurate one using 27gr of Varget and a Berger 30gr hollow point sizzling out of my barrel and through the chrono at just over 3900fps and 6 shots into 5/16inch. Thought is was a fluke so I loaded 10 more same result except the group opened up to 7/16 for 10 shots.....holy crap I Got a freaking Laser. Its mainly for p-dogs and ground squirrels out to 250. so I think that'll do it with ease.

10 under 1/2"!!


2 !!!

Can't wait to see the carnage they impose upon the poodles at that velocity!!