where are the 52's

X

xxgrampa

Guest
greetings all,

in the last issue of precision shooting, there was an article by hoke kerns called the 'rimfire honey hole'. it's about a shoot put on by the infamous jerry graves.

it was a superbowl of rimfire shooters. the top shooters were invited. all in all there were 16 shooters and an impressive list it was.

a partial equipment list was;
actions, first,rem 40X second was turbo.
trigger, jewell by a loog shot.
stocks, mcmillian by a looong shot.
barrels, first, benchchmark second, all others
scope, first, leupold second 3 others
gunsmith, gene davis and bill calfee by another long shot
ammo, all shot eley. lapua was conspicuious by it's absence.

now, my question is,, where were the 52's??? always thought the 52's squared up nicly and were very accurate??

thanks and ..ttfn..grampa..

PS... not one 'as issued' barrel, stock or trigger in the bunch.
 
Turbo is the perfect 52. Initial cost of the action and collector value of the 52 plus the trigger may be pricey if it is not the "good" trigger.
 
Perfect RF Action

Kind Sir::
What would you call the perfect RF Action ?
The 40X has come on strong last few years. It isn't the beat looking...for sure.
 
I was not invited, nor should I have been. But I have shot a single IBS target 250 with my Win 52D scoped and more than a few 250's using irons with it. It is stock except for a front sled attached to the fore end and a well tuned trigger.

Yesterday I picked up a used Anschutz 1411, cleaned it up a bit and mounted a scope on her. First IBS target (and only target so far) was a 250 x 16X. No way I'd ever try to compete among the custom rifles with my stock 52. Would not have a chance unless all the stars and planets were aligned just for me. I'd have a better chance of winning the lottery. bob finger
 
hummmm,

always thought God loved winchesters and thats why he invented 52's..

maybe it's time to build a 52 with an 8" bbl and a 16"blooptube..

..ttfn..grampa..
 
Grampa,I always liked 52's I have had all of them at one time or another pre-a,a,b,c,d and a E I have seen some great ones but I have never been lucky enough to own a great one but I still like them alot. Im kinda partial to the 40x. Hold Center Jerry
 
I've built two 52d's from parts. One I shoot all summer at 50 and 100 yards with irons. I've won a lot with that rifle.

The other one started out as a barreled action from CMP. It appeared un-fired. Fred J donated a beat-up stock that now looks nicer than new, (thanks Fred) and a gunsmith made me a trigger guard. I can't remember his name but he is on here sometimes. I am still working with this rifle to compete at 50 yards and it seems to get better every time out. The inside of the barrel has alot of reamer marks on top of the lands which are smoothing out. Occasionally I shoot a box of CCI mini mags to speed up the break in process.

52's? I love em.
Dale
 
Still have

I shoot one BR, one Ironsites 100 Offhand and one I can't lift, in the safe. Just rebarreled the one I shoot BR, and i'm in the process of tuning it. Will have it at the barn for the Winter Nationals.
 
Fred J said:
I shoot one BR, one Ironsites 100 Offhand and one I can't lift, in the safe. Just rebarreled the one I shoot BR, and i'm in the process of tuning it. Will have it at the barn for the Winter Nationals.
Click to expand...

Fred when you are tuning it for the barn hang a chicken bone on it that away them darn chicken ghosts will leave you alone;) Jerry
 
Are you sure?

JLG. said:
Fred when you are tuning it for the barn hang a chicken bone on it that away them darn chicken ghosts will leave you alone;) Jerry
Click to expand...

Jerry, That sure is going to look funny with a chicken bone hanging on the end of a "parallel noodle".
 
Just make chicken noodle soup. Look forward to seeing you guys down there I'll have to choose betwween the 37,Suhl, or 54 Annie though. My 52 just won't keep up with those three
Don
 
greetings,

the last couple of 52's i picked up had the over travel set too tite. this seems to be a common ocurrance on almost any rifle with this adjustment... back the o.t. off a tad and they shoot better.

or am i doing something wrong by wanting just a little 'pull thru' ?? :confused::confused:

tia and ..ttfn..grampa..
 
Where are the 52s?

THEY ARE IN THE GUN SAFES!

Such a shame. 40 & 50 years ago they were all being used, on 50 and 100 yard ranges in the summer and 50 foot indoor ranges in the winter. Used in sanctioned NRA Prone and Position Matches.

So what happened? Several things, but probably the most important were the closing of many 50 foot indoor ranges because of the lead scare, and the need for a shift by the NRA from promoting match competition to fighting gun control legislation. Do you remember when all NRA sponsored matches for the next three months were listed in the back of the American Rifleman?

When all those indoor ranges were closed, ROTC and Jr. Rifle Clubs all over the country returned target rifles to the CMP, that the clubs had on loan.

Remember four years ago when CMP offered about 3500 Remington 40X rifles for sale. Then two years ago when some Winchester 52 were offered for sale?

Where did they go? My-O-My: Most were locked up in all those gun safes. Will they ever see the light of day again? A few were entered in Rimfire BR matches, and a few of those were upgraded for $1200 to $1500 so they could be competitive in our Sanctioned Matches. The rest: Back in the Gun Safes.

About two years ago, I started to think: (If I'd had a beer in my hand, it would have been full of tears) UP here on the Canadian Boarder we had an International Smallbore League with up to 140 shooters from our twin Cities of Sault Ste, Marie, Michigan/Ontario. It's all gone now, but some of those rifles are still here, and of course they are still in every town that had NRA Sanctioned rifle matches.

So: I put up a suggestion on Rimfire Central: How about a benchrest class for those old NRA Match Rifles? An interesting thread developed and within a couple of months we put together some rules for what we call the "Vintage Smallbore Class".

It is becoming popular on Rimfire Central, and as I see it, this is a good low cost way to get into the benchrest game. Here at our local club it has almost as many shooters as our Unlimited Class, and I see it eventually being our most popular class.

Joe Haller (Mr. Frosty)
 
I shoot both of my CMP 52d's all summer long in matches.
We have a match every Friday for the old military trainers from all over the world. 52's, 40X, H&R, Kimber, Vostock, Martini's, and a few more I can't remember. Lots of fun!
Dale McClure
 
Vintage class

Your right joe and Mad....... We are a small club in NC, half of our shooters shoot Vintage class. With all the cmp guns around and the lower price of the guns=fun...The history and shooting a gun thats 50yrs old is cool. They still shoot very good scores. It doesn't get any better than that!!!!....Steve
 
that vintage gun class sounds like fun. does anyone know of one in the s.cal area???

thanks and ..ttfn..grampa..
 
Grandpa:

There was a club near San Diego that shot with us in the Rimfire Central On-Line-Matches, back a few years ago. That club moved up to RBA and then to ARA sanctioned matches, which is good. I see our RFC matches as being a "Farm League" for the Sanctioned Matches. A lot of shooters got their start in the RFC matches, and then moved UP to Sanctioned matches in ARA, RBA, IR-50/50 and even centerfire NBRSA.

Anyway, for the RFC Matches, you don't have to shoot with a club, or be in an organized match. You need to order some official USBR targets, get a scoring gauge, learn how to score the target, shoot some scores, and report your best score each month to RFC in the "Benchrest Scope Sight USBR Matches" form, which is in the RFC "Matches" section. There are new set of matches each month.

If you don't mind shooting "all by yourself", or can get a few guys to shoot with you, go here and look around:
http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=5
The rules are at the top, in the "Blue" section. Scores October are listed here, for the different classes.

Go here:
http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=181
And you will see the the scores the shooters have entered for the month of November.
The 25 yards "Vintage scores are here:
http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=244748

And the 50 yard scores are here:
http://www.rimfirecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=245333

The rules for the Vintage Class are at the top of both the 25 & 50 yard score entry forums.

Our 25 yard matches are more popular than 50 yards. That is because the USBR target is more difficult than the other rimfire BR targets, and can be a real ego crusher at 50 yards, for the new shooter.

Joe Haller (Mr. Frosty)
 
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