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Thought I’d share this nice Winchester model 52 A Sporting Rifle.
A very clean and nice specimen, with a good bore to boot. All numbers are correct, and matching properly.
Correct sights. Bolt, magazine, and with the correct crown on the barrel muzzle, and original sling and swivels.
No cracks or splits in the wood, with a few handling marks, and evidence of cared for use, over the years.
Steve, (seewin), gave it his blessing a while back! In his words, “The, “A’, suffix designation, is Icing on the cake”!
According to his survey, the serial number, #41304 A, falls between, #40592-#41406, for, “A”, Sporters!
Serial number #41304 A, mfg, in late April-early May, 1936, according to Herbert Houze model 52 book.
A Thanks to Steve, as a gentleman, and a wealth of knowledge on these masterpieces. If him and JWA, ever decide to do a book on the Winchester model 52, we will all be appreciative, as I not only feel it’s needed, but the wealth of knowledge between these two gentlemen is astounding! 
Anthony
Anthony,
Great looking rifle!
Steve has agreed to a book (at least in theory) but I will have to retire first…..
Best Regards,
WACA Life Member #6284 - Specializing in Pre-64 Winchester .22 Rimfire
Thanks Jeff, and Al, as I thought members would enjoy seeing it. Part of being a member, is to show and share some of what we have come across, or own. This one will be handed down, to my Son’s and grandsons, as several others.
If a person never owned or handled, and even shot a model 52 rifle, in all regards, you don’t know what you’re missing.
Without bashing other brands or .22 caliber rifles, the Winchester model 52, is my favorite to shoot, and the best trigger feel that I’ve ever shot. I’ve owned a lot of different .22 caliber rifles, and some we’re great lookers, and had everything that I thought would be needed, as far as small caliber rifle would require. I’ve never had a 52 not perform, up to my standards. I do understand that a custom rifle with the several custom triggers and set ups can be acquired, but that’s not what I’m talking about, or comparing to.
Jeff, a book on the model 52, when you retire, gives us all a little more to look forward too, also! Many of us enjoy the books that you have put out, and can’t wait for the ones you’re currently working on.
Anthony
Tony,
That is an exemplary specimen from back when some of the World’s best craftsmen were building the Model 52.
They are built to last and there’s nothing in a rimfire sporter being built today that is better than a 52 Sporting. I base my opinion on having owned and shot a couple of the Kimber of Oregon rimfires in Super America grade that were designed to fill the enormous gap left in that market niche when the 52 Sporting ceased production.
After finally acquiring my 52C Sporting, which has an end-of-the-bolt serial and less than stellar execution of the checkering diamonds, I’m letting the Kimbers go. They are excellent rifles beautifully made but don’t shoot better than the Winchester and dont have it’s charisma.
I’ve pestered Jeff too much already about the ephemeral two volume 52 set he and Steve are being badgered to produce. But I did think he had retired?
- 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.
Online
Anthony,
That is a nice looking rifle, and the “A” Models are the hardest 52 Sporting rifles to find.
A small point; the magazine in your rifle is of later (post war) manufacture. The magazine that your rifle was originally equipped with would have had the 1919 patent date, and looked like this: 
BRP
BRP,
I did not know that, and will be on the lookout for one!
I do appreciate the picture, that you posted, as it will help me to try to find one!
Anthony
I see on page 108, in H.H. book that the magazine you’re referring to is shown on a model 52 mfg. in 1935, Sporting rifle.
I was wondering what you we’re basing you’re information on?
Anthony
Our own WACA member, JWA, has published a list of the many varieties of Winchester magazines that were used in the Model 52 (as well as the Models 56, 57, 69, 69A, and 75) and that list shows that the Winchester magazines without a patent date on the floor plate were authorized in July 1944. Therefore, your 52-A rifle, made in 1936, would not have come with a magazine that omitted the patent date. The rifle on p. 108 of Houze’s book shows the exact same magazine that I picture in my post, and that would be the correct magazine for your rifle.
BRP
Hi Anthony,
Maybe this chart will help…….
It is 15 years old and I need to update the solid single shot adapter to include the Zinc version but otherwise it is fairly accurate.
Best Regards,
WACA Life Member #6284 - Specializing in Pre-64 Winchester .22 Rimfire
Guy’s that information and those charts help out tremendously!
I can’t thank you guy’s enough for that!
Anthony
Anthony –
That’s surely a rifle to be proud of. And, it was surely a rifle for Winchester to have been proud of. I sure miss the days when you could walk into a hardware store and purchase something of that level of quality and craftsmanship. Thinking way back, I was in hardware stores during that period but even if I siphoned off all my school milk money, I couldn’t buy anything. But I sure wanted to!
I’m in agreement with you Steve.
It is my understanding, that these, model 52, “Sporting Rifles”, cost more than a standard model 70, at that time! Hard for me to believe that, in all reality, but there’s plenty of more knowledgeable people here on this forum, that can either verify, or refute that, with facts!
Anthony
Anthony,
Here’s the info on prices of the Winchester 52 Sporting rifle relative to the price of the Winchester Model 70 Standard grade, as taken from the 1938 Stoeger Shooter’s Bible.
The price of the 52 Sporting Rifle with Lyman 48 sight was $88.50.
The price of the basic Model 70 with 22-G rear sight was $61.25.
The Model 70 with the Lyman 48 sight was $74.25.
The Model 70 Super Grade with 22G rear sight was $84.85.
The Model 70 Super Grade with Lyman 48 sight was $97.85.
So the 52 Sporting rifle was on par with the Model 70 Super Grade, where price was concerned, selling for 90% of the Model 70 Super Grade price, when equipped with comparable sights!
BRP
BRP,
Once again I am amazed at the information here, and how quickly a response was made in regards to my inquiry!
What a great deal of qualified info!
Thanks for posting this!
Anthony
And we should not wonder why the 52 Sporting was not a big seller. I recall very clearly the day seventy years ago I used my lawnmowing money to buy my first Gun Digest (the 1954 edition) in the Summer of 1955 from Oshman’s Sporting Goods. Rode there on my bicycle. I quickly scanned the rimfire rifle catalog section and three guns stood out. My Dad never tired of describing his Winchester Model 90 to me so the Model 62 got my attention. But the price tags on the other two made my eyes bug out – the Model 63 automatic and, even more stratospheric, the Model 52B Sporting.
It was a full 57 years after that event before I finally got all three of them and only then because the 52 Sporting (a C model) was hiding in plain sight.
- 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.
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