Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters ? On Landis 52 Winchester

Would anyone know the details of C S Landis Hoffman 52 Winchester? He mentions it in "Hunting with a 22", but there are no pictures. He describes barrel diameter in detail, but not the stock or how the chamber was cut. Is there a book with a better description, or would someone here have a picture?

Would anyone know if he based it on an A or B action? The way he describes it I think he is referring to an A action with speedlock modification, but again, there are details missing.

There are pictures in "22 Caliber Rifle Shooting" and "Woodchucks and Woodchuck Rifles". It was an original 52 slow lock action fitted with a Hart speed lock, rebarrelled with a Winchester factory barrel. In "22 Caliber Rifle Shooting" he describes the stock in good detail, that book has the best picture, the Woodchuck book also has some smaller pictures of the rifle, and a lot of pictures of the rifle in his son's hands after shooting something. I would love to see this rifle in person, I wonder where it is.

Landis was a heckuva devoted rifleman, who was fortunate to have lived during the Golden Age of .22 wildcatting. At the same time, 1920's-1940's, accurate/precision .22 rimfire rifles and ammo became the norm, and became available to the common man not just the most intensely focused mechanics and shooters. He was doubly fortunate to have an inquisitive mind, and the good fortune to be on a first name basis with all the movers and shakers in those worlds. I can't imagine a better chronicler of .22 shooting (rimfire and CF) during those heady times.

My lifelong love of things .22 started with my reading his books when I was a kid. Our local public library had all of his books on the shelf, and I'll bet I checked them out and read them, repeatedly, more than all the rest of the citizenry combined. Of course, copies of them reside on my bookshelf now and are becoming a bit tattered from decades of re-reading and consulting. Over the years his writings led me to expending treasure on guns/cartridges created by guys named Lovell, Killbourn, Gebby, et al - with little hope of resurrection of said treasure because of ever lessening attention paid them by successive generations of riflemen. (Anybody need a bull barreled single shot Krag built by Hervey Lovell for his .22 Maximum Lovell cartridge? )

Oh well. Coulda been worse I suppose, but darn you C.S.Landis!!

Thanks fellows. I will look up his other books. Landis got me started on 52s and set an example of field perforce that is very hard to live up to. 60 and 70 yd heads hots on squirrels is hard to do from offhand. And Landis did it with them running. Hard to believe.

.I'd like to see his rifle if anyone finds it .

22 Caliber Rifle Shooting eBook:

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/22-caliber-rifle-shooting-c-s-landis/1118476462

Bruce