Neat little .22 LR bolt gun; Winchester Model 52.

[Litetrigger]

Any discussion of Whichester's M-52 Sporters amost always brings up the mystery of why Remington never offerefd a sporter verison of their M-37 target rifle. Especally since the M-37 was a classier, more refined rifle to begin with: Whearas the 52's trigger guard was only a strip of bent metal, the 37 had beautifuly machined and contoured guard with push-button clip release (And a machined clip, whearas the 52's was more bent metal.) and gracefully curved bolt handle. But soon after war's end replaces the M-37 with their 40-X target and any thoughts they may have had about a sporter were forgotten. (They did eventually make a few 40-X Rimfire Sporters that look much like M-700 Centerfire rifles) So the discussions go on to speculate if Remington had made a 37 Sporter, what would it have looked like? My only clue was a M-37 barreled action discoverd when cleaning out a dark corner of the Illion factory, the barrel had a trim sporter contour! Apparerntly Remington HAD been considreing a sporter by likely interrupted by WWII. A Remington executive who knew I was interested in such stuff sent it to me if I promised to follow up with a M-37 Sporter Project. As I saw it, the challenge was to create a Rimfire rifle in the mode of the higher class big game hunting rifles of the Pre-WWII era, such as Mauser's hunting rifles and especially the elegant British dangerous game rifles created by Holland-Holland, Purdey and Westly Richards, complete with distictly recognizeable features such as folding express sights. But who could fullfill this vision? Roger Green. a master and wood and metal combined with the eye of an artist had done some elegant work for me but was about to retire and close his Glenrock shop and not interested in new commissions. But my proposal proved hard to resist and he agreed to take it on as one final project, which turned out to span over three years with him twice relocating shops, but finally resulted in what I had I had envisioned, and much more. As compared here at top, with M-52 Sporter.

 

[Trey Veston]

That M37 Sporter custom is absolutely beautiful! Great work and concept!

 

[DM~]

A few days ago, I saw a decent looking original Winchester 52 for sale at a gun shop, $999.00.

DM

 

[Howland937]

The vintage lightweight Sporters are the rarest and most valuable of the entire breed.

Most commonly faked too. A guy I know had searched through (in his estimate) about 30 fakes before he finally found a legit OG 52 Sporter in the condition he desired. I guess a lot of the sporters got sported instead of benched.

Fun fact: In a catalogue my dad has dated around 1940 IIRC, a model 52(B) "bull" barrel with Redfield Olympic sights was the most expensive variant of a Winchester money could buy.

 

[Lefty38-55]

FWIW I have ‘the book’ on model 52s if you want your s/n researched … just PM me, please don’t post s/n’s online.

 

[I6turbo]

I really like the Winchester Model 52. I passed on a Heavy Target model about 30-something years prior to finally acquiring a 1938 Standard Target (barrel weight and stock profile in between the Sporter and Heavy Target, closer to the heavy but a bit lighter/trimmer). It instantly became perhaps my favorite .22 LR to shoot, amongst 20+ others, and made me realize how many years I'd missed out enjoying such a high quality rifle.

If I had it to do over, I'd forego a few other guns to acquire a nice Model 52 a lot earlier in life.