Winchester 52 or 75 ????

[sakorick]

What do you look for? Do the stocks have cartouches? Just how accurate are they? Are they worth the gnormous prices? Blued or parked? Regards, Rick.

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[NMC_EXP]

I can't speak to the specifics of whether or not the US DoD ever bought the Winchester Model 75T or Model 52. The DoD bought a lot of Remington 513T and 40X & 40X-B.

In general the Model 75 Target is considered an entry level target rifle. The Model 52 was a high end target rifle capable of competing at the National level.

The Model 52 went through several design updates: "pre-A" through 'E'.

As to what they are worth, they have the Winchester mystique, and a Model 52C, D, or E will let you win smallbore matches.

[enfield303t]

Have a friend that always has a few 52d's and they really are a great gun, very accurate and yes expensive. He considers them a Holy Grail in accuracy and worth the money.

[Ben Cartwright]

I got the warning that this thread is over 6 months old but there are very few threads in the .22 forum so I feel it is safe to respond.

DOD (well back then Dept of Army, Navy) used both Winchester 75's and 52's. The 75 during WWII and the 52 after.

Early examples of the 75 were procured from the civilian market and may or may not have US markings.

on the 75 there have been stock markings noted, "A4" on left side and "P" on pistol grip butt

the 52 (M12) marked with electro pen (per my source) and I am not aware of any stock markings.

[Ben Cartwright]

Sounds like the Winchesters maybe sort of rare in US Property and unfortunately may be easy to fake

[Herschel]

I will share a little of my personal experience with the M2 Springfield and the Winchester 52C Heavy Barrel. I was enrolled in college ROTC in 1955. When I tried out for the rifle team I was assigned an M2 to learn on. There were 4 of them in the range arms closet. In about Jan 1956 we received a shipment of 10 or 12 new Model 52C Winchesters. I was in Army ROTC and the Air Force ROTC used the same indoor range. The AF ROTC already had the 52C Winchesters. About all the college ROTC teams we fired matches against had the 52C. This was in AR, OK, KS and TX. I suppose the situation was the same across the nation. The point I am trying top make is that were many 52C Winchesters in military possession in the late 1950s. I believe all were elec pencil engraved. I never saw any stamped with US or US Property.

[Ben Cartwright]

Herschel
That agrees with the Batha book. I enjoyed hearing about your experiences with the M2 and the 52!

When I went through Navy boot camp in 1972 we had the Mossberg Model 44US. I wasn't that worried about what I shot then and mostly remembered the 1911's, but I recently went back over some pictures from the indoor range in my boot camp book and there were several great shots showing the 44US, no doubt about it.
I recently picked up one of them and the 42M(B)

Gawd do I love .22's, almost as my as my favorite gun of all, my 45/70 Trapdoor Carbine! only a Pedersoli repro but it is by far and away my favorite gun!

[XLIV]

Lot of fakes, buyer should always ask for CMP paperwork when purchasing.

44

[XLIV]

Edit to add: one of my CMP 52D purchases had no US marking. The CMP paperwork is important lineage for that rifle.

44

[ltc]

My bit of minor research on Winchester 52's indicate that Winchester originally designed the 52 for submital to the U.S. government as a small bore training rifle. It was beat out by the Springfield 1922.

Winchester cried foul due to Springfield being a government armory, but still lost out. I have two pre-A's. One an original slow lock and a second that is a fast lock. They are both exceptional rifles and worthy of their reputation. Pictured is the slow lock from 1929.





LTC