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52C Blued Muzzles and all Other 52 Crown Pics

21K views 32 replies 16 participants last post by  LarDaBear 
#1 ·
I noticed a thread about blued barrel muzzle on 52c's asked by ttam. Some of the answers you got are not correct. Any 52c barrel that is rust blued will have a un-blued(shiny) muzzle. Most all the middle 50's guns that had the standard blue including the D's and E's will have the flat and shiny muzzle. The early 52c standardweights with a crown will have the standard blue and a blued crown. Where these gentlemen got it wrong was with the early 52c heavyweights and mostly the 52c bull guns. If they had a dovetail instead of two tapped holes for the front sight and had the standard blue then the muzzle will be blued also and not shiny. One of my 52c bullguns has this feature(serial number 82576c) This is the only 52c I have like this and they are fairly rare. They were probably left over barrel blanks from the late 52B bullguns(The early ones had the sandblast finish and the real late 52B bullguns and heavyweights had the standard blue finish)
 
#3 ·
When I said middle 50's-I probably should have said late 50's before the standard blue 52c's had the shiny unblued muzzles(nobody knows the exact date that the change occured) I have a new in the crate 52c heavyweight(pictured on page 153 of the 52 book) that has the standard blue finish and a un-blued muzzle. This is a very late 52c! The point I was trying to make was that the early dovetailed 52c's that had the standard blue also had the blued muzzles. Your gun is also correct for the era its in. Im glad you showed the pictured because the man who was buying the gun on auction arms thought because it had a blued muzzle then it was wrong.(He said it was a 53 gun so its earlier than yours. I would like to know when the change occured from the standard blued guns going from a blued muzzle to a unblued one. One thing for certain that if its rust blued the muzzle will be unblued as the rust blueing would harm the bore and the standard blue would not!
 
#5 ·
52

I cant tell for sure but it looks pretty good to me. Is your front sight base dovetailed or have two screws on top of the base? Thats why I hate buying guns on the internet -its hard to tell for me unless its in my hands with my high powered glasses. Thats the point I was trying to make though-that your gun could very well be right when these guys were telling you that the muzzles had to be shiny(un-blued) Does the blue on the barrel look right?
 
#8 ·
52

All of the 52c receivers have two holes on the side for the rear peep sight -so their is not a question about that being right. Does the barrel blue look right? All of the early 52c's with the dovetailed front sight like yours-that I have seen has the standard blue and a blued muzzle-like your gun. There was a change in the latter guns that featured a standard blue and a unblued muzzle like the rust blued guns but nobody knows for sure when the change occured!
 
#10 ·
52

I hate to say for sure but from what I have seen it looks and sounds good to me. Like I said before - without seeing the gun - I can't be 100%. If its the same gun that had the pad-that wouldnt be correct but you never know when a original stock might come up for sale. If the metal is messed up(re-blued-extra holes- etc) then you just have a shooter and not a collector! I wouldnt write this gun off just yet. Getting back to the pad-someone may have just took the steel buttplate off and not cut the stock. It might be a matter of finding a steel buttplate and trading it out.
 
#13 ·
52c muzzle

I'm starting to like the picture of your guns muzzle more and more. It has just the right amount of blue wear for a gun thats been shot and scraped a few times on the muzzle. I pulled out my early 52c bullgun and it would match up perfect with yours. Herpestes gun muzzle picture looks more like my 52B(New in the crate thats pictured on page 131 of the 52 book) It has a newer looking blue where it hasn't been shot or scraped up any on the muzzle.
 
#15 ·
Barrel

Hawaii,

While others are looking at your crown I looked at your bore. I really hate to mention this but I found years ago that looking thru a barrel head on, as everyone does, tells you little, but a light shining in and looking at a slight angle into the muzzle at the first inch or so of rifling can tell a great amount. Your first pic of "51" does just this and what you see are corrosion spots (discoloration spots).
Back in the middle 70's I noted just this. Thinking it might only be at the muzzle I had the barrel cut 2" off. Looking at the result showed the same type spots, in fact its full length. I sectioned the cut off stub and it was in fact very minor pitting. Cleaning after every 30 to 40 rounds the gun shot fine. Not cleaning it would on occasion drop a shot.

bjm
 
#16 ·
I agree, but I have not used a bore brush on the barrel, only oiled patches since I acquired these two in the early '80s. There were decades between when I bought and shot these guns.

I don't want to hijack this thread on muzzles, please PM me on suggestions on
how to use a brush on the bore. I have new bronze cored not steel cored .22
center fire brushes, Balistol, Breakfree and others. I have a bore guide, but it
hits the comb of the stock, sooo..

Thanks.
 
#21 · (Edited)
Crown

I suspect your recessed crown was done much later than the original barrel installation, (late 50's). Bill Atkinson your barrel maker used a unique 11 degree crown. The recessed crown didn't show up as such until Winchester introduced it in 1969 with the "E" model. Then a lot of shooters wanted on the band wagon.

bjm
 
#22 ·
The barrel is an Atkinson and Marquate (SP?) and I believe they were from Prescott, AZ. Later the M was dropped and they became Atkison barrels. Both varieties are well known for their quality and I have a 52D with an Atkinson barrel which was installed by Karl Kenyon and the trigger is a Kenyon. I shot is last year at a match in NJ in August and once I got the adjustments set correctly it really showed its potential. The Atkinson barrel was printing groups at 50yds and 50 meters whcih were exceptionall and I had several 19X targets. It also showed great potential at 100yds with the right ammunition.

I hope to get it really running this coming year with ammo matched to the barrel. Good luck with your rifle and A&M barrel.

Your stock looks almost like the offset stock that come from Australia but I cannot remember who makes them. I believe they are marketed by MT Guns and the name Mastin comes to mind.

Bill
 
#24 · (Edited)
Thanks for the info on the stock! The combination of heavy/dense stock material and bull barrel makes for one HEAVY rifle. I nick-named this beast "Blonde Bertha".

I have been able to shoot a few clover-leafed/overlapping groups at 100 yds off of a bench when there is little to no wind.

I got "Blondie" in a trade for an old Kimber Compact 1911 and so far I think I came out ahead in the deal.

My only nit-pick is with the butt-pad which has an adjustable/removable crook (not pictured). If you look at the circumferenced/width of the butt stock, you can see that it doesn't match the diameter of the butt-plate. I initially thought it wasn't the original butt plate installed when the customization was done, so I removed the butt-plate, but didn't find any other screw holes.

Either it is original and the butt stock wasn't tapered to match the dimensions of the metal butt-plate or it was replaced with the current metal butt-plate which matched the original butt-plate screw hole dimensions. Either way it doesn't really matter becuase she's a real shooter.
 
#25 ·
stock

That fitting of a butt assy fitting flush with the wood is more not true than true. To me it appears to be an original Dunlap base. I might suggest that the stock and butt assy were purchased as semi finished and the shooter or smith did the assembly work. Dunlap sold both finished and semi-finished. Had Dunlap done the work he would have attached the base and sanded all to fit.

bjm
 
#26 ·
where is barrel stamping?

i just bought a 1956 model 52C. i have just started collecting/shooting 52's and am trying to learn as much as possible.
i never thought about the possibility that the barrel on the gun i bought might not be the original. i hope it is.
in reading the posts i have a barrel that has the front sight mount screwed on, not dovetailed. the muzzle is shiny, but the blue on the barrel seems just slightly lighter than the bluing on the receiver. is this a problem?
also, several posts mentioned a barrel stamping. does this mean the date on which the barrel was made. where can i find the stamping?
thanks.
 
#27 ·
i just bought a 1956 model 52C. i have just started collecting/shooting 52's and am trying to learn as much as possible.
i never thought about the possibility that the barrel on the gun i bought might not be the original. i hope it is.
in reading the posts i have a barrel that has the front sight mount screwed on, not dovetailed. the muzzle is shiny, but the blue on the barrel seems just slightly lighter than the bluing on the receiver. is this a problem?
also, several posts mentioned a barrel stamping. does this mean the date on which the barrel was made. where can i find the stamping?
thanks.
Sounds like your barrel is rust blued which is the best bluing! The muzzle will be shiny because the rust blue procedure would damage the bore! Your action should be a deep rich blue and will look darker than the barrel! Rust blued barrels have a silver looking blue and not as dark looking as the conventional blued guns! To see the barrel stamp-you have to take it out of the stock! Its underneath on the barrel where it is screwed into the action!
 
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