dandy
The M88 is a grand old rifle. Mine is an heirloom from my Grandad, early production, 4 digit ser# and chambered in .308.
Pap would get the rifle out and prop it in a corner of the old house dining room, light a kerosene lantern (in the house mind you), throw a sheet over the dining room table and we would crawl under......we were at "our" deer camp. Pap wrote a letter as part of his last wishes, willing me the rifle, I still have the letter and the rifle (of course).
The M88 is sleek, balanced and most are pretty accurate. For me they shoulder and point very well. The trigger is not really a "rifleman's" trigger, but it works. Killed 10 +/- whitetails with Paps rifle before I semi-retired it, but I still hunt it lightly every few seasons. My longest shot on a deer to date was with the M88 (225 paces) on a Thanksgiving morning very near our house.
Mine shows an affinity for 150 gr bullets. Varying the tension on the forearm screw may produce interesting results on the groups the rifle shoots. I shimmed the area just ahead of the forearm screw with a slice of credit card, and it helped the old rifle shoot much more consistently, hot, cold or with different weight slugs.
Three generations of my family have carried the old M88, Pap, my dad briefly, me, and my boy will be next.
