Dang! Mine is a 788, too. Purchased it in 1967 for $119.00, and put a Weaver K4-F on it. I’ve since redone the stock, but that thing can light matches at 200-300 yards, easily. I haven’t re-sighted it in decades and it’ll still print clover leaves. I wouldn’t trade anything for it.
Best “lock time” of any commercial , over the counter , action going...... I know a bunch of varmint shooters that use that action to build very very accurate rifles.
1. It had multiple lugs, with a total area which(I suspect) exceeded that of the 700.
2. The rear-locking lugs were arranged in an “interrupted thread” configuration, 120 degrees apart, which allowed the bolt to be completely unlocked with only 68 degrees of rotation, and still clear a scope.
3. The rear lugs allowed more reliable feeding, especially with rimmed ammunition, since the cartridges didn’t have to cross a lug recess in the reciever.
4. The rear locking generally minimized the length of the bolt stroke, which speeded cycling
5. It had a very quick locktime of 2.36 milliseconds versus 3 milliseconds for a stock model 700.
As you state, out of the box its a nail driver. Keeper !