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Old November 24, 2019, 01:21 AM   #7
bamaranger
Senior Member
 
Join Date: October 9, 2009
Location: North Alabama
Posts: 8,273
Winchester 88

My grandfather willed me his .308/ M88 and I began hunting it at age 13. The M88 was my sole deer/high power rifle 'till I was in my 30's. Now the old heirloom is semi retired, I hunt it occasionally under soft conditions, but as Scorch noted, break something, and parts are hard (and expensive to find).

Regards authenticity, the M88 was made by Winchester, USA and not imported nor a copy of an existing design as some traditional lever rifles are today from Italy or South America. The 88's are often described as bolt rifles with a lever, and that is a fair description. One piece stock, rotary bolt, high intensity cartridges, with the ability to used spitzer bullets. I look upon the M88 as the epitome of the lever rifle design. Why is important that they don't have a hammer or a tube magazine? The lever rifle was headed in that direction anyhow by the turn of the century with the introduction of the Savage 99.

Concerning ergonomics. The trigger moves with the action lever, there is no possibility of stumbling with the trigger upon closing the lever. The fully loaded M88 is readied to fire by disengaging a safety button. There is no turn of the century hammer to cock, and more importantly, to lower to half cock, to reduce the rifle from "fire' to "safe". Additionally, to clear the rifle, the box magazine is removed, and the single cartridge in the chamber is then safely levered out. Simplicity, and far easier than clearing a tube fed, hammer equipped "traditional" lever of multiple rounds through cycling the action and chambering and ejecting all rounds in the magazine tube until the rifle is clear, risking I might add, an accidental discharge every cycle in the process. Finally, the M88 points just fine for me and I suspect more than a few others. It's simple classic lines are uncluttered and I find getting a repeatable cheek weld no problem, despite the lack of a rollover cheekpiece or Monte Carlo design.

About accuracy. I'd offer that a M88 was no less accurate than it's rival lever rifles, and as accurate as some of its bolt action competitors. The M88 suffers from a mushy trigger and there is not much can be done about it. Additionally, anchoring the action to the stock via the forearm mounted screw leaves room for improvement as well. But a simple shim near the tip of the forearm can solve a lot of M88 accuracy complaints, effecting a sort of free float of the barrel. Such a minor tweak allowed my heirloom rifle to shoot factory ammo (W-W 150 Power Points) into 1.5 MOA groups with ease. Frequently, the initial 3 rds with factory ammo would be touching and well under MOA. The old lever rifle shot tighter than family M94's and 336's, Rem 141 and 760 pumps and was the equal of more than a couple bolt rifles at the club.

The M88 is not a modern rifle, is not poly stocked, stainless, nor camo dipped and have a hi-tech bladed trigger breaking like proverbial glass rod, nor is it likely to shoot repeatable sub-MOA 5 shot groups. The M88 harkens back to a different era, when good rifle stocks were made of walnut, barrels of rich bluing, and their barrels and triggers yielded accuracy good enough to take game out as far as most thought ethical to shoot. A bit of care in their use and transport is necessary to avoid costly or irreplaceable damage. But they are a big step ahead of traditional lever rifles with moderate cartridges, and not far behind the bolt rifles of their era.
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