John,
I think you'll be suprised at how competitive that rifle may be. I have two of the re-issue 52's, one is box stock, and the other I restocked and bedded into a AAA black walnut stock, which still hasn't been checkered--maybe some day. Both of my rifles shoot beter with the forend screw loose--and they shoot very well. My trigers have not been to Kenyon, but if the trigger on mine was 4 oz., I wouldn't be afraid to compete in sporter class with it. It all depends on how good the barrel is, but these rifles shoot. They have match chambers and a very good action, and yours has a great trigger to boot--it should work. Good luck, and use Eley EPS Match or Lapua Midas ammo to get the best out of that baby. You have a fine rifle, equal to or better, than rifles costing twice as much!

 

Kent -

'if the barrel is good' - it doesn't shoot as well as my Kimber, although it is close using Master or Midas L. When Karl re-engineered the trigger, he pushed a slug through the barrel and declared it 'crap'. He wasn't even nice about it. Looking at it with a friends borescope made me agree with Karl - some very rough spots in there.

After that, I figured 'FinalFinish' bore lapping wouldn't hurt anything, so I spent the $32. I've only been out once since doing that, so no verdict on that process. Pushing a patch through seems very much more uniform than before, though.

Can you comment on approx. torque of the action screws that yours like? Thanks,

John F

 

John-
The 52 that I shoot is the one I restocked. It's receiver is fully bedded with Brownells Steelbed, and also 2 -3/4" of the barrel next to the receiver ring is bedded. This bedding sort of balances the rifle at the receiver ring--or that was my intent. I have the front screw around 25 in. pounds and the rear at 15 in. pounds, or just good and snug. I didn't pillar bed the action. This rifle shoots very well, but it's much too heavy for sporter class--weighing aroung 9 lbs. with a 3.5-10X40 Vari-X Leupold scope mounted. It made a very nice squirrel rifle, and I like 52's

 

I also have one of them from the first batch in 93. It shoots good when compared to a marlin or savage but don't try to shoot again a rem. 541, sako or even some CZ 452.s. Mine sits nicely in the gun case and I use it for hunting mostly. My cooper goes to the sporter matches. There is a guy that uses his at one of our matches and he does well. I thought of rebarreling mine but every gunsmith I talk to tells me not to waste my money. Although the actions are decient they are not as good as the original 52,s. I still may do it someday but man the way my CZ shoots I may be better of using it and a lot cheaper. Good luck in whatever you decide. They are a pretty gun and deserve a place in ones gun collection but as a competitor they have a hard time making the grade. Almost forgot, take that barrel screw out and put it someplace safe. It will shoot much better without it. I rebeded mine both at the tang and the first inch and a half of the barrel. I really don't think it helped. I even had the barrel frozen but again no help. Enjoy the gun and shoot it whenever and where-ever you can. They are nothing to be ashamed of.
Take Care, Oldfart

 

The new M52s (mine is a Browning 52) don't sell well for a reason.
Ther are supposed to be glass bedded from the factory but mine
had a dab of cream colored bedding at the barrel action junction
that doesn't even touch the metal and the rest of the bedding is even poorer. This rifle won't shoot! My CZ452 shot much better
right out of the box and other rifles I own are much better. After
a lot of tuning I gave up on this rifle. Carried it around at a couple
of gun shows but couldn't get rid of it. Offered it for $400.00 after
paying $625.00 for it new but nobody wants them. Read a lot of
good things about them in the mags but everyone I have talked
to that bought one has been disapointed. My friend who has an
original M52(International) and shot in compitition with it in the
1970s shoots good iron sight groups but nowhere as good as
you can get with a CZ452 with scope. I have an Norinco JW15
that I got in about 1984 that shoots consistant 5 round groups
off the bench of .75. This is with a bit of tuning and accurizing
but the rifle originally cost only about $79.00. The $625.00
M52 never did as well even once. My Mossberg M141LSB with
Japanese 4-16Ao Tasco has always shot better than the Browning.
I may only have a bad one as I also bought an Anchutz 1418
that wouldn't shoot well and did not respond to any tuning but
I have heard to many people talk about bad experence with the
52s to think mine is an isolated case.
Try another rifle and you shouldn't be sorry.
Sewmacoil

 

John, if you could give us the results of some careful accuracy testing (hopefully with good target ammo) after your Final Finish
treatment of the bore, I would be very curious to see if it improved anything. I have a Utah Centennial 52 that didn't shoot well at all when I received it. I sent it to a rimfire benchrest gunsmith for pillar bedding, free floating, recrown and trigger tune. The trigger is now a wonderful 11 ounces, and the rifle averages 0.5" at 50 yards for several 5 shot groups with the ammo it likes best -- SK Jagd high velocity HP, using a 6X Leupold Alaskan scope. It's a squirrel hunting rig, so that works for me!

However, it is very ammo finicky, and does not shoot nearly as well as I would expect a bolt gun of its reputed quality to. The gunsmith said the barrel on it was rough also, and I suggested that I might fire-lap it to smooth it out. He recommended heavily against doing that, stating that he had found the process to heavily wear the throats of barrels he had seen fire-lapped. I am still tempted to do it, if only using fine polishing compound, nothing coarse.

Any info you can share on the process you used in lapping your barrel, and accuracy changes you have seen, would be most interesting indeed!

John

 

I shot it today, but with 15 mph winds I'd not like to use it as a benchmark. I use Lapua Master L (Midas L doesn't do any better in this rifle) and Wolf Gold. It doesn't seem to care for Eley anything very much. It was not shooting half-inch groups today, I'd be spitting one out of 4 out to the 7-ring. I'm close to giving up on this thing other than a plinker. I'll wait for a calm day next week, try again, and report back.

I can tell you the bore FEELS much smoother pushing a patch through, and cleaning never requires more than 2 wet and one dry. Before I had to brush and use many patches to get it clean.

If it doesn't start shooting soon, I'll cut my losses and relegate it to plinker status. Unless I decide to get it rebarreled <g>

John F