Another fun project... Griffin & Howe custom 52|Winchester .22 Rim Fire|Forum|Winchester Collector

Good things come in pairs…sometimes threes…  my other 52 Custom project is coming along nicely and is supposed to be ready the first weekend of October.  This past weekend I delivered it to my gunsmith to remove the 48J, TLC the stock and metal of the donor pre-A 52 that I found two weeks ago and install the proper Lyman 48T sight.  I left with the wondrous anticipation of a kid waiting for Christmas… 4 weeks till I would have my “custom 52” in hand!  Well, the next day after I set up at the Kalispell, Montana show, my gunsmith shows up and says “I have something I think you may be interested in” with a big grin on his face.  He opens the rifle case and casually brings out a Griffin & Howe custom 52… the wood & checkering are amazing. The metal shows typical late 1920’s flaking… the Lyman 48J sight is worn… the butt plate is actually from a Springfield 1903 NRA Sporter as are the swivels.   Needless to say, I was hooked…I had to own it…  he was actually pretty gentle on me and I put it under the table.  Later that day a gentleman walked thru the show with a mint early 52… beautiful, unmolested stock, early 82 ladder rear sight & 93A front sight. 🙂 🙂   Overall, the metal rated 98% or better.  It didn’t have any original magazines…  I made an offer… and he got upset.  I said my offer was based on the lack of original magazines, he said the mags were factory because they had “W” on them… I tried to explain that they were not, but were made on original tooling and did function properly.  He left and walked thru the show. He never passed my table again.  I thought I had missed the perfect donor for the Griffin & Howe.  Went to dinner… thought about that Pre-A 52 all evening… made my gut hurt. 

That next morning I finally accepted the reality that I was still on the hunt for a nice pre-A to fill that stock.  Than shortly after the show opened, I saw that same gentleman again… walking up the aisle towards me with that same 52… he had trolled it the entire previous day and didn’t receive an offer… as he walked up the aisle, I went out to meet him.  I asked if I could look at the rifle again.  He said, “I’m sorry for walking off in a huff yesterday… I went online last night and found out you were right about the magazines… I’m open to your offer.”  Thinking to myself, do I stick to my guns or do I sweeten the offer a little to give thanks for a second shot… well, that was what I did.  A few bucks the other way wasn’t going to hurt me, but owning that rifle would literally make my weekend…maybe my year!  He graciously accepted… after a few minutes they Griffin & Howe stock had a new barreled action mounted to it.  I now have a speed lock, pre-A 52 barreled action with a 48J sight and an excellent early 52 stock that I need to figure out what to do with… 

Here’s a couple pics of the Griffin & Howe & nicer 52 barreled action.

UPDATE: Scroll down to see the pics directly… I talked with the “ghost of the WACA machine” and he directed me to the updated protocol… 🙂