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Winchester 52's
- Thread starter Calfed
- Start date
Thanks, from your picture I think I'm missing the swing swivel and I need to flip the rail 180 degrees
Going to need a lot of luck to find one.
Ok, have another question. Two 52B rifles, with an "O" and one with "DB" next to the ejection port. What do these stamping
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i posted those pics on rimfirecentral. apparently its an inspection stamp. one guy said he has logged at least a dozen different ones during their production span. mystery solved
A friend told me about a M52D for sale that was in a Doan Trevor prone stock. When I called Doan to ask about this stock, he told me he'd patterned it on the Robertson H&H prone stock, which I have on several of my CF LR HP rifles. Wound up buying it, and was pleased to discover that the trigger was either modified by Karl Kenyon, or done by someone else who knew what he was doing. The stock is a nice piece of claro - not too fancy, but still pretty to look at. Only downside as far as I'm concerned is that the buttstock was cut pretty short - perhaps for a junior or petite female shooter. I had a new unused Tubb 3-way buttplate assembly that I'd bought for another project that never got off the ground, so slapped it on to allow me to do some shooting off the bench - doesn't look right because of how small the butt of the shortened stock is, but one of these days, I'll get around to making it fit better. Also robbed a Ken Vianni scope base off my CMP M52D target rifle and mounted a Sightron SIII 45x45 scope on it. My 50yd groups with a good lot of lapua center-x had a lot of vertical, but several left-over lot samples of Eley Match EPS from three years ago all shot better than the best I was able to get with center-x. The bore isn't very pretty when viewed through a borescope, but I'll try to find some more Eley EPS & Tenex to test in it before getting serious about re-barreling this fine old action.
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We shoot Winchester 52's a lot at my local club where we host a Thursday night benchrest "Fun Shoot". It is open to any factory stock (loosely enforced) 22lr repeater. 52's, Annies, Sako's VuDoo's, Coopers, and most others have been tested in that match but the 52's continue to make up about half of the top performers with it being common to see half a dozen or more on a given night. The term fun shoot is a misnomer since winning this match on a given Thursday night is harder than winning a national championship. Our group includes three former national BR champions and about 10 other shooters who are capable of beating any one of the former three on a given night. The level of equipment and skill is outstanding and we tend to elevate the performance of one another by sharing information and tips and just by competing with such skilled marksmen, we have all improved over the years. On a 25 shot BR car if you drop 2 shots you are competing for 8th or 9th place. One night a couple years ago, i scored a 250/20x in the first relay with my old scoped Pre-A speedlok and was given kudos for recording on of the clubs best scores ever. 20min later a 5 time national champion eclipsed my score with a 250/22x, so I ended up in 2nd place. That is just the way it is, lol.
One of my comrades recently acquired another 52 from a Cabelas from out of state. The clerk who shipped to rifle to his FFL stated that it came with a nice plastic case. Upon arrival, he found that the case was not plastic. It was a press board material common to luggage in the 40's and 50's and in fact was an Al Freeland gun case. The rifle also had a 2nd Olympic style stock also by Freeland. What a find. I do not have pics but next time I see it, I will snap a few.
One of my comrades recently acquired another 52 from a Cabelas from out of state. The clerk who shipped to rifle to his FFL stated that it came with a nice plastic case. Upon arrival, he found that the case was not plastic. It was a press board material common to luggage in the 40's and 50's and in fact was an Al Freeland gun case. The rifle also had a 2nd Olympic style stock also by Freeland. What a find. I do not have pics but next time I see it, I will snap a few.
Haven't had the time nor opportunity to do anything more with it than mentioned in my last post. At this point, it doesn't look like it'd be worth sending it to Lapua to test, and the last time I spoke with one of the guys at Killough, there wasn't any Eley Match to test either. And I'm too busy with farm work right now to even order any lot samples if they were available.
Does anyone have a pic or can tell me how the two safety pieces and spring go together any help is greatly appreciated thanks clint679
Not long after I posted the photo of the used CMP 52D in the Doan Trevor stock, a good shooting friend found a Unertl 16x scope in very nice condition for it, so I put the Viani scope base back on the CMP 52D I'd had it on, and got the Unertl set up on the Trevor-stocked rifle. It looks much more period correct, and what little time I've spent shooting the rifle with the Unertl has been very enjoyable. I did more shooting with Eley Match (black box), and found a lot that shoots really well in this rifle's old original bbl. I'd ordered in a Krieger SS blank that matches the dimensions of the factory bbl, and after finding that the OEM bbl didn't shoot any of the SK or Lapua that I tried in it very well, was going to use the Krieger on this 52D. But it shoots the Eley Match so good that I've put off doing the Krieger for now. Wanted to post a photo of the rifle with the Unertl, but then remembered that I don't have any photos of it on this laptop. Will have to bring up this post on the desktop, then edit it to add a photo on that computor.
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Wow, some pretty stocks on those. Most of the 52's I have seen over the years had nothing near that grade of walnut or finish. Those are beautiful.Long been a fan of 52’s.
Started squirrel hunting with one in the 1960’s. Still at it.View attachment 7469636
Those are all sporters, and from what i have seen, their wood was always high grade compared to the target models. would love to have one from the 40s. I would LOVE to trade one of my 52B targets with Lyman or Unertl towards one.
*cough* *cough* @RTH1800
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The rifles that RTH1800 posted are exceptional sporting 52s - most of the other ones I've seen had pretty plain wood. The only other original Win 52 sporting rifle I've seen with nicer than typical wood is one a good friend of mine recently bid on & won on a Rock Island auction - and it supposedly belonged to Robert Peterson, of Peterson Publishing. It was a 52C made in 1956, and I would guess that it was ordered with the optional 'selected walnut' stock, which the 1956 Stoeger "Shooter's Bible" shows cost a whopping $16 more than the $145.70 rifle w/o sights listed for.
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What's the consensus on the Browning M52's? I've got one (24" barrel, 91-92 production) that I'm just now starting to shoot (got my daughter a Bergara B14r and setting that up). Put a set of the warne scope mounts on it and mounted a Nikon EFR 3-9x rimfire scope on it to see what it'll do.
I assume it takes all the same accessories as the standard win52's (mags, etc)?
I assume it takes all the same accessories as the standard win52's (mags, etc)?
After seeing some of the exceptional 52 Sporting rifles I've seen in your posts, I'm really looking forward to whatever 52-related project you're working on...
The last Browning 52C sporting rifle I bought was an online purchase, listed as "As NIB", and when it arrived, and I had time to look it over, I was very pleased with its appearance. But after I'd mounted a scope, and was going to wipe out the bore before taking it out to zero the scope, I found that the bore was heavily leaded, from breech to muzzle. It took a couple of hours of work with a fresh bronze brush to clean the leading out so I could get a good look at the bore with a Hawkeye borescope. What I found was a steeply angled & somewhat rough leade, and several annular rings irregularly spaced throughout the bore. But I took it out to the range anyway, and put 65rds of a good lot of SK Std+ through it (without getting a single respectable group @50yds). And when I got it back to the shop to wipe the bore out, I found that it was leaded-up again, about as bad as it had been before. Screw it, I thought - time to call Krieger and see if they might have a straight cylinder 22RF blank that they could profile similarly to the factory bbl. Got an affirmative answer, so sent the offending "As NIB" bbl off to them, with the request that they use it as a pattern for the replacement bbl, with the exception that they leave the new bbl blank .050" larger in diameter, from breech to muzzle, and leave at least an inch to be parted-off at both muzzle & breech.
It arrived just as I'd asked, and after I'd dialed it in and cut the tenon & chambered it with an EPS reamer, cut the extractor slots, and took it out to shoot, I was pretty pleased with the bbl, but still disgusted with the trigger, which not only had a heavy break, but also subjected my trigger finger to some of the grittiest & worst creep I'd ever experienced. Beats me why they'd go to the trouble to very nearly duplicating the original micro-motion trigger, only to do a really crappy job of finishing the internal parts and wind up with such an awful break. I drove the 'lawyer pin' out of the spring adjustment screw and backed it way off, but all the creep was still there, so I sent it off to Dokey from over on RFC. He got the weight of the break way down, but most of the creep was still there, albeit with nearly all the gritty feel smoothed out. So, long story short - I now have an attractive 52C sporting clone that shoots really well, and has a decent trigger. I don't have any experience with the Winchester-marked 52 sporting rifle, which comes with what is basically the same bbl'd action as the Browning clone, but in a stock that's copied from the 52B sporting rifle, with a cheekpiece, without the monte carlo that the Browning copy of the 52C has.
I'm hoping to find a nice, original 52C sporting rifle in good condition that I can afford after selling off a few other nice rifles - as crazy as prices have been getting, I may have to sell several more rifles to be able to swing the purchase...assuming I find a C model that really appeals to me.
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Yes, I also saw mention that someone else is making a version of the Vianni mount, but I don't recall now whether it was on RFC or Accurate Shooting.
I listed one of the cantilever type 52 mounts in my 52 parts ad yesterday. It worked fine but is not as solid looking as the Vainni mount. I placed a small rubber from a pencil eraser to support it in the back. Shot just as well as it did with the 24X Unertl.
