the beauty of a rifle is mostly in how it shoots. I have had a couple of Weatherby rifles. Supposed to be pretty things. I guess in the minds of many they are. One of the reasons they sold so well was pretty. Weatherby wasn't a fool. He was a GOOD marketer. He knew how to reel in the bucks. Were the rifles good. Just as in other rifles..some shot great..others not so great. The calibers were innovative for the time and created a market in and of themselves. Were the velocities as stated in the ads etc?...probably not any more so than the major manufacturers velocities. Now as to the 788. It is a functional rifle. Beautiful?? Not hardly..but the beauty in my eyes is in how they shoot. And almost every one I have had shot great. The one exception was easily fixed as it had a little bedding problem. But it was an 80 buck rifle. It was an embarrasment to Remington to have an 80 dollar rifle out performing the flagship 700 and in some cases the semi custom 40X target rifle they made. I had(have) some ties to Remington...shot with some of their reps and a couple of VP's of the company. When the cost to produce the rifle got up high enough that it wasn't profitable they dropped it...thankfully. The profit margin was wayyy higher with the 700. But the 788 was and still is a good rifle. Wish they still made 'em.
Buy all you can find in every caliber. If ya find one in 44 mag...I have a magazine for it..30-30 too