Log In
Members
Home
Add Reply
Add Topic
Offline
First, all the purists here should just hit the “Back” button on your browsers now, so you won’t disturb the rest of us with all your weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. The rifle shown below is not in the condition in which it left the factory. (Some of us don’t care!)
OK, now that they are gone, here are a few pics for the rest of us of my latest acquisition, a Winchester 63 from 1957 that has had some custom stock work. I have no idea who the artist responsible for this rifle might have been, but rest assured it was not the proprietor of Bubba’s Bait & Fine Gunsmithing. The quality of the walnut itself is exhibition grade, and the workmanship in crafting this rifle is equal to the materials. Note the skeletonized checkered grip cap and the beautiful work on the butt plate. The Conetrol rings and bases are a classy touch, and I have mounted a vintage Leupold 6x scope with a dot reticle, my favorite scope for rimfire use. Those who know me are aware that I love fine rimfire rifles, and I am especially fond of rifles with breathtakingly beautiful wood. This rifle checks both boxes for me.
And since today I saw the first gopher of the season pop up here in Big Sky Country, I won’t have too long a wait before putting this beauty through its paces. Enjoy!
“>
“>
“>
“>
“>
“>
“>
“>
“>
“>
“>
“>
BRP
BRP,
No it’s not the way it left the Factory, but she’s hard to take my eye’s off of! What a work of art!
Enjoy it, as we know that you will!
Thanks for sharing! 
Anthony
Wow, beautiful. Someone put a lot of care into that, I wonder if it was an heirloom or important to someone and it just got away from them over the years?
A good question. My collection is filled with beautiful rifles that some original owner must have once loved and cherished. But these old Winchesters will outlive all of us present day collectors, and will then pass into other hands. We are all just temporary guardians of them…
BRP
This is what comes to mind… Confederate Railroad’s song “Trashy Women” and especially the line “that’s a cocktail waitress in a Dolly Parton wig”
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
Some people have all their taste in their mouth!
How about these “trashy” 52 Sporting Rifles? All these are just as they left New Haven before the Second World War.
BRP
Blue Ridge Parson said
Some people have all their taste in their mouth!How about these “trashy” 52 Sporting Rifles? All these are just as they left New Haven before the Second World War.
BRP
Now those rifles are just plain “Sexy” 
WACA Historian & Board of Director Member #6571L
November 7, 2015
Online
As a T.C. Johnson fan I like the rifle. I’m also a sucker for a fine piece of wood and the workmanship is nothing short of awesome. I can live with not being able to check the “original condition” box on this one.
Good job on the photos, thanks for sharing!
Mike
Blue Ridge Parson said
Some people have all their taste in their mouth!How about these “trashy” 52 Sporting Rifles? All these are just as they left New Haven before the Second World War.
BRP
As for the custom 63: I lust for it. Congratulations, the workmanship looks to be of the first water. For the less sophisticated among us (asking for a friend), could you please differentiate your four illustrated Model 52 Sporting rifles? I can see that 38016 has the early vertically swinging tab safety and presume that is the first version of the rifle. By its “B” suffix serial I can see 47232 is a B. The other two defeat me, although I’d guess one of them is an “A” variant. Thanks
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Zebulon said
Could you please differentiate your four illustrated Model 52 Sporting rifles? … Thanks
Glad to, Bill.
From top to bottom, the top rifle is a Pre-A with both serial number and barrel stamp from 1934. The “wow factor” wood makes me presume it is special order.
The second rifle is an early 52-A (unmarked A) from 1935. The wood is unremarkable, but the A Sporters are the rarest of them all.
The third rifle is a pre-war 52-B Sporter with excellent special order wood and the extra cost piano (French polish) finish. The receiver dates to 1937.
The bottom rifle is another pre-war 52-B from 1937, with the finest special order wood of the group, and the lower cost Lyman 57FH receiver sight. I like how the original owner thought; he scrimped on the sights and spent the real money on the wood! I am only this rifle’s third owner.
All of these rifles will remain with me until I assume room temperature, and since I have four grandsons, they shall then disperse down the family tree.
BRP
That is very helpful. All four are choice specimens but I think the special order B at bottom takes the cake, although the limitations of photography prevent me from fully appreciating the subtle French polish on the other B. I’m familiar with that finishing process and in the flesh I’d bet it will knock your eyes out.
What I love about the 52 Sporting is it perfectly exemplifies John M. Olin’s attitude about Winchester guns: ” I want the best and I don’t care if it makes a profit. It will sell ammunition. ” And those things were costly and classy from the get-go until McNamara’s Band killed them off.
Thanks for sharing.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
Bill,
You have a good eye. The bottom rifle has drop dead gorgeous wood from any angle, both front and back. I bought it several years ago from a gentleman in Montana who was well into his 80’s and decided to move it along because of advancing years and declining health. He bought it in the early 1960’s from the original owner who special ordered it in the 1930’s in New York. I assured him it would be in very fine company in my safe.
Maybe some day Seewin will show us the 52-C he owns which was once the property of John Olin. Not surprisingly, it is a real beauty.
BRP
Steve helped me decipher what I had thought were mysteries about my own 52C, which is not in the same league as any of yours or his Olin rifle. I’d bought it for a bargain price because the dealer thought it might have been made up from parts and was not a “real” Sporting model. Neither the dealer nor I had ever seen a Sporting with a brazed front sight ramp and the illusion was heightened because the original buttplate had been replaced with a thin brown Pachmayr solid pad, the base of an incorrect Lyman 48 had been crudely modified to fit the left receiver wall (the sight bridge was missing), and aftermarket hood was installed over an incorrect Lyman bead front sight, and a flared plastic grip cap was installed, giving it something of an early Weatherby air.
Miraculously, genuine Super Grade swivels still hung from the bases, holding an old Readhead leather sling. Fortuitously, a Weaver J3 was mounted on a nice Redfield Jr. Base and rings. (The dealer believed no 52 Sporting models were factory drilled and tapped.)
I brought some tools and Herb’s book over to the store, did some measuring and bought the rifle for a grand even. Sent Herb some pix and he pronounced it a genuine 52C Sporting that had been messed with. He told me (in good faith but mistakenly) the front sight ramp was an aftermarket addition to the “without sights” style of the rifle.
Much later, Seewin got a look. His Olin rifle is only a couple of serial digits from mine, it turns out. The last Sporting models did have brazed ramps and plastic buttplates, he explained, although the Olin rifle’s is steel. We figured mine likely was a no sights style to which somebody added a receiver sight and front bead (in place of the blank). The factory plastic buttplate had been the same as seen on the Models 88 and 100 rifles, so no real loss except for originality. I don’t know how many hands the rifle had been through but I fancy it belonged to a long-armed squirrel hunter who admired early Weatherby mausers.
I recycled the screwed up receiver sight base, bead front, hood, and fruity looking grip cap (underneath, on the wood, you could see the pair of marks where the Winchester washer had once been installed). Browning graciously sold me a new steel cap, washer and screw from its parts bins — the Miroku 52 parts are identical to the originals and the cap fits perfectly, as if it had been sanded in place.
I had a spare 3278 hood in my parts box and located a correct Lyman front sight blank on eBay. Pulled off the J3 and the 1/2″ rings and installed my favorite Leupold Compact 2x7x in 1″ Redfield rings.
Except for the pad, my 52C is pretty much to spec and it is a joy to shoot. The wood is nothing to write home about and the checkering of the forearm diamonds is not first rate work but rather typical of 1960 factory hand checkering, I regret to say.
But, nevertheless, it realized a boyhood dream. The first image of a 52 Sporting I ever saw was in the 56 Gun Digest, when I was 12 years old. It illustrated the C Model and I still remember marveling at the price.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
What a fine rifle to have and shoot! And I would give you 150% of your purchase price ANY day that rifle begins to take up too much room at your house (I won’t be holding my breath waiting for you to take me up on my offer.) 
Most of the 52-C Sporting rifles were of the sightless variety, which makes perfect sense, as these were the first 52 Sporters that were drilled and tapped for scope use. The average buyer probably figured “Why bother spending the extra price for iron sights that I will never use?”
I would love to find a 52-C Sporting rifle, especially one with the steel butt plate and forged front sight ramp. Nice wood would be a plus, but is especially scarce on the 52-C Sporters. Nevertheless, I always balk at the price any 52-C Sporter brings in today’s market. As much as I love the C’s micro-motion trigger, the present prices leave me walking away. I am glad you have one.
BRP
Here is my compromise rifle: I had a gunsmith build a 52-C “wanna-be” Sporter. A genuine 52-C action, breech bolt, and micro-motion trigger and bottom metal. A Lilja barrel with a match chamber. A late Winchester 70 sight ramp holds a genuine Redfield full gold bead front sight, and the rifle is fitted out with a Lyman 48F receiver sight. Given my presbyopia, it also wears a Leupold scope. The stock is from a Miroku reproduction rifle, and the plastic butt plate is genuine Winchester, the exact one that was used on the last 52-C Sporting rifles. At five paces, few could tell it’s not original, but the barrel’s only marking is “LILJA 22 LR” as there is no intent to deceive anyone. It is a superb shooter. And I am in it for about 25% of what a genuine 52-C Sporter sells for today.
BRP
Outstanding rifle, that one is!! That’s got to be a stock off Browning’s version of the rifle, which was the “C”. After Herstal acquired the Winchester gunmaking assets, they issued the same rifle but put it in a “B” stock, for some reason. I bought one those but would have preferred the Browning version because those came with better wood, on average — as witness yours.
The only fly in the Miroku action’s soup was the pull and overtravel adjustment screws did nothing — zero, zip, nada. I can guess why but it was a jarring note. Otherwise the gun shot great. I eventually sent it down the road for obscure reasons I’ve forgotten.
Yours was the far better choice to start with a real 52 Micro Motion action, although I doubt you skated by for the paltry $650 the Miroku 52 set me back. Oshman’s was winding up its business and this one had a steamable small dent from store rack handling. Last time I looked, Lilja was not selling its superb barrels at K-Mart blue light special prices.
And if you ever grow tired of that 48F ….think of me.
- Bill
WACA # 65205; life member, NRA; member, TGCA; member, TSRA; amateur preservationist
"I have seen wicked men and fools, a great many of both, and I believe they both get paid in the end, but the fools first." -- David Balfour, narrator and protagonist of the novel, Kidnapped, by Robert Louis Stevenson.
The Miroku 52 reproduction 52 Sporters, whether marked “Winchester” or “Browning” had a roll pin that limited trigger adjustment, as a nod to the ambulance chasers in a certain profession, (cough, cough— don’t look in the mirror). It has been appropriately christened the “Lawyer Pin” and once removed, the Miroku trigger is pretty close to the original in ability.
BTW, Once I sold off all the bits and pieces I did not need from the 52-C target rifle and from the Browning reproduction, I had an embarrassingly small amount invested in my project rifle.
BRP
1 Guest(s)
