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Early Winchester 52B Roy Gradle Trigger?

btbell

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August 22, 2026 - 3:27 am

I picked up an interesting trigger, which looks very similar to the Gradle Winchester Model 52B trigger posted by Seewin (Steve) in the RFC “Win 52 Trigger Info” supersticky thread.

https://www.rimfirecentral.com/posts/2802891/

The trigger posted by Seewin is marked ROY GRADLE SANTA BARBARA PAT. 2346484, whereas mine has no markings except for “PAT.APLD.FOR”, so is likely an earlier version. Among other differences, the height of the sear “nose” appears a bit lower on mine that on the one in Seewin’s photo.

Doing a USPTO search, the patent is dated 1944-04-11 and was filed June 22, 1939.

The patent claims that the trigger pull weight can be safely lowered to as low as 1lb, and the trigger movement can be restricted to 0.002″.

The patent never specifies which rifles the triggers were for, but apparently he made triggers for at least the Win 52B and the Rem 37:

1. There is a Sept. 1944 AR advertisement of a Rem 37 for sale with a Gradle trigger.

2. There is a July 1946 AR Dope Bag article discussing how Gradle is “making IDEAL triggers for the Model-52 Winchester and Model-37 Remington rifles”, where IDEAL is apparently his trade name for the triggers. For the next few months there is an AR advertisement where Gradle is offering “Custom Riflesmithing …..IDEAL triggers – the perfect trigger mechanism for the Winchester 52 & Remington 37.”

Other than putting it on a rifle, is there a way to confirm that it is indeed for a Win 52B?

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Observations:

Adjustment options:

1. The hole on the lower front face is to access the small slotted screw which adjusts the amount of engagement between the bottom of the sear piece and the trigger notch. Turned in => less engagement; turned out => more engagement.

2. The trigger pull weight adjustment screw is at the bottom of the trigger, toward the front. Turned in => heavier trigger; turned out => lighter trigger. The initial unoptimized trigger pull weight was ~3lb 10oz, both before and after cleaning. I noticed that the tiny spring positioned on top of the trigger pull adjustment screw was very stiff (likely due to the 3lb pull weight limit at the time), so swapped it with a slightly longer, but much more elastic spring, and the unoptimized pull weight dropped to ~1lb 6oz. It still needs to be tested in a rifle for slam fire, but seems pretty secure.

3. The overtravel adjustment screw is at the bottom of the trigger, toward the back. Turned in => less overtravel; turned out => more overtravel. This trigger, as set, seems (IMO) very crisp, with very little overtravel.

All 3 of the small adjustment screws were initially quite difficult to turn, and benefited greatly from a good cleaning!

With the sear released, pushing the trigger forward will bring the sear nose down into the trigger, allowing bolt removal as is standard for a 52B. However, this does seem to require a fair amount of force!

Attachments

IMG_8531-1.JPG (1 MB)
IMG_8532-1.JPG (1 MB)
IMG_8533.JPG (570 KB)
IMG_8535.JPG (681 KB)
IMG_8530-1.JPG (916 KB)
IMG_8527-1.JPG (1 MB)
IMG_8529-1.JPG (2 MB)
Gradle-trigger-patent-drawing-1.jpg (919 KB)

seewin

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August 22, 2026 - 2:22 pm

Yes, your trigger is for 52B. A “B” model and prior will always have the sear cocking piece to the rear of the trigger. The Micromotion “C” and later triggers will have the cocking piece located at the front of the trigger. I have seen 2 iterations of the 2 lever Gradle trigger. Yours being an early design with no maker’s name and an additional adjustment screw on the bottom of the housing for overtravel adjustment. This feature is also present in the patent drawings you have attached. For some reason, the OT adjustment has been eliminated on the marked versions I have encountered. Roy also made what I consider a much improved 3 lever design for the B’s. I cannot locate my pictures of the original, but have attached pics of a clone I made of it a few years ago.

Steve

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DSC_0005.JPG (2 MB)

Anthony

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August 22, 2026 - 2:57 pm

bt,

Very interesting, thanks for posting!

Steve,

That’s some great intricate work you did on that clone! What details!

Good information provided above also.

Tony

seewin

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August 22, 2026 - 4:10 pm

Thanks Tony, That’s one of my hobbies during our Midwest winters, when there are no matches, and it’s too cold to shoot outside.

Steve

Blue Ridge Parson

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August 22, 2026 - 5:06 pm

Beautiful work, Steve!

BRP

btbell

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August 23, 2026 - 4:05 pm

Thanks for the response!

I expected that this was for a Win 52B, but wanted to be sure (my only 52B is a pretty nice sporter, and I really didn’t want to mess with it!).

In working on this trigger, I was especially impressed how changing the one small spring made such a difference!

As found in a group of misc. parts, this wasn’t that great of a trigger; it seems MUCH better now. The housing screws show a lot of use, and the housing surface gives the impression that at one time it had a fair amount of surface oxidation. My guess is that it has been worked on a few times, before it was finally put aside & sat unused for quite a long time!

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