Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Rimfires Any of you have a Japanese made Winchester model 52 sporter?

Wondering how these rifles shoot. Anyone here have one that they can share with us? I just bought one today, but will pick it up tomorrow. Scope it tomorrow, and take it to the range on Saturday and do some ammo testing. This one was made in 1997, from the research I've done.

I missed out on a really nice Winchester model 52 sporter, made in 1950, about 6 years ago. Then I saw a model B made in 1949, that I did not pass up. I love that rifle. I'm hoping this Miroku Winchester model 52 will be as nice. We will see. I'll post some pics, after I get it home.

I have been thinking about buying a nicer 22lr recently. My thoughts were CZ457, or Bergara, or even a Tikka T1x because I know those shoot very well. I even thought if I could find a nice Kimber with a wood stock, for a good deal, I'd snag it. Then this Winchester model 52 sporter came along. Priced fairly reasonable, so it was a no brainer. I'm just hoping it shoots as good as it looks.

If any of you have one, or even an original, please share your thoughts. Thanks!!!

Dammit bsa… stop with the nonsense and order yourself a vudoo

You’re a shootin sumbitch and you deserve it

I'll put that on my bucket list buddy!!! Thanks! I'm pretty sure you have some 52's though. I've seen some of them. Do you have a sporter buddy?? I'd love to see some pics. Hell, even post your beautiful heavy barrel 52's too. You know I enjoy looking at those rifles. I was just on gunbroker checking completed sales on these Japanese Miroku's, damn some sold for $1,300.00 recently!!!! I don't think I got hurt at $700? If my savage MKII outshoots it, I'm going to be pizzed.. ha ha..

Speaking of Vudoo, one of my buddies I shoot longrange competition with is having a Masterpiece arms Vudoo built. Supposed to be pretty damn nice. I'm glad I don't shoot rimfire competition with those guys, it would end up making me spend more money I don't have!!!! Those are the cream of the crop though, and sweet azzed shooters.

I had one several years ago. a 52D was its designation. it shot very well the trigger needs some attention mine came pretty heavy but I managed to work it down to something reasonable. if I remember correctly I completely eliminated one spring in the system . but it's been long enough ago I couldn't say for sure. damn it pretty much shoot with my 1422 Anschutz and Kimber HS .. and if I remember correctly it had a kind of a liking for CCI green tags ..

Great info. I will look around for some of that ammo for it. I have an assortment to try in it, but I'll add that to the list. Thinking CCI standard velocity may work well too. If the trigger needs attention, I'll do my do diligence to take care of that issue. I'm thinking I'll shoot it first and see how it does, before I mess with it too much. Thanks idholton!

I do have a Japanese 52 and while it’s a very nice rifle with deep bluing and inletted sling swivels and nice checking blah blah it’s one of the last rifles I grab when it comes to .22 games

You definitely did good at 700..you always seem to swoop great deals!

You have an (understandable) draw to accuracy no matter the chambering..I’d highly suggest you take the plunge and never look back

Thanks buddy. This one is going to be topped with one of my spare gloss Leupold 3-9x40 Vari-x IIc rifle scopes. It won't really be a competition style rifle. But it should still be fun to shoot. I'm still hoping it shoots well though. When I saw it, I was hoping it was an older 52 sporter. They wanted $799.99 for it, but I made the offer of $700, and they accepted it. Pretty hard to turn my back on it, as it's a pretty nice rifle.

There’s no way I would have turned my back. That’s a lot of rifle for 700 bucks.
Mine is sweet but I’m sure I paid 1000 for it

Over the years I have had 6-7 Jap 52's. The first thing that has to be done is to remove the "lawyer pin".

The trigger will be a little better. I have one left ...I had a Balvar 6X24 scope laying around .Put it on for fun.

In years past I have had original 52 Sporters....in my mind they were beautiful clunkers, heavy and shot good off the bench.

I have made up a couple sporters from target 52's. I like the "C" models for the triggers. These are nice.

Just my 2 cents.

Thanks cisco1. I'll have to look up the "lawyers pin", and see what you are referring to. This rifle is pretty lightweight, as it has the light contour sporter barrel. It also has sights, and a Lyman rear aperture. I'll remove that and scope it though. I don't know the exact weight, but it felt like around 6 pounds or so.

you know it could have been a pen I took out instead of a spring that I mentioned earlier it's been about 20 years ago that this was so my memory may be a bit foggy there..

I'll definitely pull it apart. However, I'll check the pull weight first. Maybe even try adjusting it, to see how low I can safely adjust it. If i can get to a really clean break at 2.5 pounds, I'll be happy with it. 2 pounds would be even better. Doesn't have to be exceedingly light for my uses. However, I do like a good trigger.

This after a 5 second search

Thanks guys. That will be something I definitely look at. Looks like that pin limits the adjustment on the trigger pull weight screw.

I have had a few Jap 52's .....removed the lawyer pins on all of them . The triggers were better , but never to my satisfaction. As for 52's, I always liked the "C" model triggers the best.

They are still a lot of fun to shoot and I am definitely not an accomplished target shooter.

I know a lot of you guys that shoot targets would be much better than I am.

I'm happy with the trigger on my 1949 model B, so I'm assuming this one will be just as good? Hopefully.

I've had a chance to shoot a few of the Repro 52s and some shoot better than others. All in, it seems the shoot about on par with the Kimber 82 models I've shot and about as picky with ammo as most rimfires. Triggers can be great and can be awful, but at least there is some adjustment and you already found the article on rimfirecentral on the lawyer pin so you have a head start on that.

They really are a beautiful rifle and Miroku did a great job of putting them together like they always do. At the price you paid you certainly won't get hurt on it either way but they make a great carrying around squirrel rifle at the weight and they handle and balance very well in my experience...

Hi, I have a Winchester 52B for about 10-15 years now. As others have said, with the trigger pin removed you can get a clean 2-2.5 trigger. As far as precision goes, it will shoot toe-to-toe with my Anschutz 1903 (past) and my 1907 present at 50 yds. It has a tight chamber so cheep ammo will chamber hard. I do not have a preferred ammo brand, SK, RWS and Eley all work good. I think it will clean an NRA 50 meter target. My setup is a little heavy for hunter silhouette. I have not been disappointed with it at all.

Damn, that sounds pretty good. Thanks for your input.

Thanks buddy! If I were still in Oregon, I'd be packing this around in the fall for those silvers. Here, I can get away with causal plunking at jacks and cotton tails, and maybe some prarie dogs, this spring and summer. I know you like your older 52's, glad you chimed in!!

Nothing wrong with chasing Rabbits and prairie dogs with the Repro 52s while your center fire rifles cool down... Accuracy is definitely sufficient for squirrels, rabbits, and other critters of opportunity. We have had pretty good accuracy with most decent game ammo like Power Points, Federal Premium, and some CCI SV, but once you find the ammo it really likes you will really have a good time . I hope the trigger is decent on the one you got but I know you will get it as good as possible once you get it in hand. I have heard that 2.5 lbs is about as good as they get, but I don't know if that is true or not. Tim's Repro is about 5 lbs, but it breaks really clean so we have left it there for now.

Pictures will, of course, be required...

Ask and you shall receive. Here it is right after I got it home, before doing any clean up on it, and before I removed the rear aperture sight:

This side has a few small dings in the butt stock. Nothing major^^^^^^ As picky as I am, I can live with it.


This side is pretty flawless:






All the metal is very nice. Like new bluing. Not really much wear. Even in the raceway, and chamber area. I don't think it's been shot much. The crown is pristine, but I did not get a pic of that.




So, I want to test the accuracy on this one. I was originally thinking of putting one of my spare Leupold 3-9x40 gloss Vari-XIIc rifle scopes on it. I tried that, and it did not look good. I had to go with medium rings, so the bolt handle would clear as well, so I figured I'd throw a good proven scope on it. One of my favorite rimfire scopes. Weaver V16 4-16x42:


I'll be testing some different ammo in this one, later on today. That Weaver may not stay on there, but who knows??

Oh, yeah, I removed the "lawyer pin", and the trigger is excellent. I lowered it to 2 pounds pretty easily, but the adjustment screw protruded the bottom metal more than I liked, so I set the screw slightly above level, and it's at 2 1/4 pounds now. No creep, and it breaks clean. I think I'm going to like this one!!!