Winchester 52D with Unertl 20x

[m1marty]

US marked 52D that I purchased from a member here and a recently acquired 1.5 Unertl 20x Target (also have a set of Redfield Olympics) It's my faux "M70" trainer and all around fun rifle. Using Fiocchi 320SM, it still hammers with the big boys on the line if I do my part. 5rds @ 25m goofing around today. Pulled one on the final group but still good enough for me.

 

[m1marty]

With the Redfields in place. Groups aren't quite as good vs the Unertl mounted haha.

 

[m1match]

That is one sweet rifle! One of these days I'm going to have to get one, but then I'd be tempted to try my hand at small bore competition, as if it didn't have enough time to shoot highpower and long range comps. I like your screen name. I chose mine because I shot match tuned 308 Garands for six years in NRA Highpower.

 

[m1marty]

Thanks! It's a treat to shoot for sure.
I was on a smallbore team while I was stationed at Ft. Polk
It was a ton of fun and something I've tried to keep up with Over the years(informal now) 100-200m with a .22 will teach you dope real quick haha. Wind drift can be unreal.
I've always had a love affair with Garands and Carbines, hence the name (Marty is a play on my last name)

 

[jbell]

Very nice rifle!

 

[JG26_Irish]

Lovely old M52D. You dun good on the rifle and scope acquisition. Those old 52's shoot amazingly well and the old Unertl's are fabulous optics despite being obsolete and somewhat unwieldy, I would put mine up against about anything. I am curious, how does it do at 50y? I don't shoot 25m distances anymore and cannot relate other than those looked very tight. I have an older 52 pre-A with a BalVar bbl mounted optic on it and it shoots very well too. I have never tried it at 25m. Only 50y and 100y. I once used it to win a 100y match for 17 rimfires. They made them shoot at 100y because 50y seemed to close for the 17's. I asked if I could compete with my 80yr old 22? They felt sorry for me and let me in the match.

Irish

 

[m1marty]

Here is the best one at 50m. I fired a few at 100m....none were over 3/4 inch but not the same tight grouping. I haven't tried much ammo types in this rifle yet. Seems it likes the 320 stuff.
Optical clarity is surprisingly nice on this old scope.

 

[flatland1]

I bought a couple of the 52Ds from the CMP back when they were selling them at good prices - never regretted it. I kept one in its original target rifle configuration, and aside from several dings on the stock, it's a very nice rifle. Mounted a Weaver T-24 on it using a Ken Viani mount. The 2nd one was beat to crap, with a bolt that didn't match the receiver's s/n. I sent it off to have a Broughton sporter bbl fitted, then talked Doan Trevor into carving a sporter stock out of a highly-figured English walnut blank. Was fortunate in that I sent both triggers off to Karl Kenyon to have them re-done by him before he passed. Neither one of these rifles gets out to the range much anymore since I've had my CMP 40Xs converted to repeaters, and have a nice Anschutz 2011 I found on GB to practice prone with. But neither one of the 52s are going anywhere - too attached to those fine old Winchesters.

 

[deltawiskey]

Awesome rifle! Thank you for sharing!!
I find myself shooting rimfire over centerfire more and more...
DW

 

[sandwarrior]

You know, people talk about Win 70's being the standard, I still think the Win 52 is THE standard when it comes to .22 rimfire. They'll shoot like you show above, if the shooter has what it takes. And, you can find them around in the $700- to$1000 range. A lot of the "ultra-competitive" .22 LR rifles now run $4k+

FWIW, my dad's cousin was on the 1956 and 1957 college national championship team, shooting a Win 52.

 

[JG26_Irish]

You know, people talk about Win 70's being the standard, I still think the Win 52 is THE standard when it comes to .22 rimfire. They'll shoot like you show above, if the shooter has what it takes. And, you can find them around in the $700- to$1000 range. A lot of the "ultra-competitive" .22 LR rifles now run $4k+
.

The 52's are exceptionally well made. The receiver and bolts are large, heavy billet machined parts and only the Anschutz 54 actions really compare with regards to robust design and quality fit & finish. I cannot speak to the later C & D models but the earlier model 52's all seemed to lack the adjustable trigger like the Annies. My old 52 had its trigger reworked and it is crisp but still fairly heavy. That is its only weakness. The early, early ones also had a brittle spot on the receiver which must be looked after. If you avoid setting the safety on a cocked bolt you can eliminate 99% of that risk as long as the receiver is not already cracked. Since I use mine as a range rat, it is never carried with the chamber loaded and thus need never have the safety set. The few times I hunted with it, was with it carried on an empty chamber. But it is so darned heavy that my deer rifle is less of a burden to carry than the m52. Since I mounted the big assed heavy BalVAR optic on it a few years ago, I have stopped hunting with it. The BalVAR is huge and very heavy too. Bausch & Lomb used a special optic lens grade glass which was left over from the manufacture of the huge lenses used for the big cameras specially made for the U-2 and SR71 spyplanes. Anytime a big lens cracked or had a flaw in it the pieces were re-cut to make the smaller lenses for the BalVAR scopes. The glass was made from a high silica sand only found in Pennsylvania by PPG. It had near perfect optic clarity and is the clearest multi-power adjustable optic I have seen. It is so clear that I can read the fine print on a pop can from 50y at 24x even with the ARC coating from those old lenses starting to flake a little now after decades of time. They are so clear that even at dusk you can see clearly to shoot. It is highly advanced for its era but is also a little quirky. Attached is a pic of the rifle and one of its better 5sh grps at 50y using the BalVAR. I think we were shooting Norma Match 22 ammo that day. I usually get better results with Lapua or Eley ammo but this rifle is not that picky. Only exception being that some old Win Wildcat and Russian Junior ammo fails to chamber due to the tight fit of the chamber.

Irish

 

[sandwarrior]

That is some nice shooting as well JG26_Irish. Nice rifle too!

 

[JG26_Irish]

That is some nice shooting as well JG26_Irish. Nice rifle too!

It did not shoot nearly that well until after I mounted the BAL-Var optic onto the bbl. Something about having that big ass'ed scope tube clamped to the barrel tightened up the groups from a typical 0.3-0.5" for 5 shots at 50y c-c to what you see in the pic., a 0.149" c-c. The day it shot that group, I shot a total of eight 5-sh groups including a 5sh warmup group. Four of the eight groups looked similar to the one in the pic. The warmup group had the first cold bore shot high and the next four all in one clover leaf shaped hole. It was a marked difference. Since nothing else changed, I give credit to the scope. It does have a more precise cross hair than the previous optic so that could be part of it but it taught me how much difference a scope can make on a rifle. It went from being a good shooter to "Wow". I don't shoot it often, so I am still learning how to get the most out of it.

Irish

 

[m1marty]

One thing I haven't touched yet is the front barrel tensioners. On the advice of an old timer that has been shooting these since new, I backed them off an left them there. Action screws are at 30 inch pounds. Don' believe I'll mess with anything at this point- just shoot it. I will say a 20x at 25m is a touch too much. Talk about watching your heart beat....