Winchester Collector - Forum: Winchester .22 Rim Fire

Blue Ridge Parson on Early Winchester 52B Roy Gradle Trigger?

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 17:06:09 +0000

Beautiful work, Steve!

BRP

seewin on Early Winchester 52B Roy Gradle Trigger?

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 16:10:32 +0000

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

Anthony on Early Winchester 52B Roy Gradle Trigger?

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 14:57:16 +0000

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 on Early Winchester 52B Roy Gradle Trigger?

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 14:22:22 +0000

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

btbell on Early Winchester 52B Roy Gradle Trigger?

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 03:27:48 +0000

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?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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!

JWA on Winchester Model 57 .22 Short with Stainless Steel Barrel

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:26:52 +0000

Anthony said

Jeff,
Been contacting a few guy's that I thought might have a M-57 Short, w/S.S. Barrel, or could help out locating one. They do admit it's a hard to find and one claimed, "a rare bird", which I think we can agree. We'll see if anyone comes back again with one. Not holding my breath though!
Tony

Thanks for trying, I appreciate the effort!

It irks me that I actually had photos of the barrel marking and now can't find them.

Best Regards,

Chuck on Roadtrip find #2…

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:16:37 +0000

A little bit of stain won't make it disappear but it will hide the spots some.

Anthony on Winchester Model 57 .22 Short with Stainless Steel Barrel

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:06:03 +0000

Ben said
Now if we can just keep him from taking cruises and other distracting things, maybe we might just... maybe... see the new book.

Ben,

Gotta keep mamma happy!

Jeff,

Been contacting a few guy's that I thought might have a M-57 Short, w/S.S. Barrel, or could help out locating one. They do admit it's a hard to find and one claimed, "a rare bird", which I think we can agree. We'll see if anyone comes back again with one. Not holding my breath though!

Tony

Ben on Roadtrip find #2…

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 14:27:55 +0000

Jeremy P said
"Found" it or bought it? : )
You're on a roll! Next time I drive to Cody from Texas, I have to do better about stopping at shops and well-known gun/pawn places along the way...

Bought it… 🤷🏼. Al, that’s one I don’t have, the hunt continues! 😁

tionesta1 on Roadtrip find #2…

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 14:15:54 +0000

Nice find Ben. I too have a Model 62A with the original picture box. Mine was made in June of 1942 and has a steel serrated butt plate, like what was furnished with the model 55 and pre war 94's.

Jeremy P on Roadtrip find #2…

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 14:04:37 +0000

"Found" it or bought it? : )

You're on a roll! Next time I drive to Cody from Texas, I have to do better about stopping at shops and well-known gun/pawn places along the way...

Jeremy P on Model 78 supposedly only one...

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 14:02:09 +0000

Ah! Very nice!

Someone else, go for it!

JWA on Model 78 supposedly only one...

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 13:22:45 +0000

Hi Jeremy,

Thanks! I don't have that one but I do own this one from the museum, also via Flayderman -

I am very interested in the 78 but the price is a bit steep, the Winchester museum metal hang tag is missing and the books on the 69 and 75 are both done so I can't use it as a tax write-off 😉

Thanks for thinking of me!

Best Regards,

Jeremy P on Model 78 supposedly only one...

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 11:37:27 +0000

https://www.gunsinternational.com/guns-for-sale-online/rifles/winchester-rifles-rimfire/winchester-model-78-junior-target-model-22-lr-from-the-winchester-gun-museum-collection.cfm?gun_id=103775192

Jeff, found you something you don't have already. Maybe.

Ben on Winchester Model 57 .22 Short with Stainless Steel Barrel

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 04:45:21 +0000

Now if we can just keep him from taking cruises and other distracting things, maybe we might just... maybe... see the new book.