An old co worker I met in 1999 who ended up being a really good shooting friend passed away 5 years ago. He had a great collection of guns including a 52 sporter that he was able to buy from the Clark gabel estate at auction from Sotheby’s or some other major hose that auctioned the guns in late 70’s. It’s a pre war with a scope and it’s a thing of beauty. He has the paperwork to document it all as well from the auction. We shot it once and I got to handle it many times.

Pre war sporters are already crazy priced and add some golden age of Hollywood provenance. Who knows what the value is.

Nice, I haven't seen a sporter in real life so they have to be on the rare side to begin with. That's one all .22 fans have on their list of "wants".

I ended up refinishing the stock with Tru Oil. I hate to see a good piece of walnut hidden.

Nice job on the wood stock. Walnut and black metal work together to make beautiful rifles. There is just some kind of aesthetic perfection in that combination

I really like the fore end, beautiful figuring. Nice job on that for sure.

How does it shoot?

4.40, I haven't had a chance to shoot it yet. Hope to get it out next week. Looking forward to it.

I braved the wind gusts today in order to shoot the 52D for the first time. It took me a few minutes to get it dialed in for 25 yards. But this is the 5 round group from 25 yards using the Redfield sights. Shot with Eley Tenex. That'll do!

quote:

Originally posted by got2hav1:
That'll do!

Indeed it will!

Shot in our local on line match today with the 52D.
Squirrel hunting. 8 rounds in the black kill zone and the 9th shot has to be at least touching the eye. 25 yards, peep sights, Eley Match ammo. I love this gun and it is not picky about ammo, it shoots various brands well. The kill zone bullseye is 1".

Great!

I had an opportunity to pick up an old, LN condition specimen, and my thoughts were to acquire it, and then get rid of all my other 22 LR rifles. Too bad I didn't do it.

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:
I had an opportunity to pick up an old, LN condition specimen, and my thoughts were to acquire it, and then get rid of all my other 22 LR rifles. Too bad I didn't do it.

We've all missed some that we should have bought!

Yea, you're not a true gun person until you've made that mistake. In either direction.

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:
In either direction.

Well, I've definitely got the one direction down.

That's some nice shooting for sure got2hav. Especially with the irons, well done.

How many different brands did you test before finding the Eley to be such a great match?

quote:

Originally posted by 4.40s1nine:
That's some nice shooting for sure got2hav. Especially with the irons, well done.

How many different brands did you test before finding the Eley to be such a great match?

I had some Eley Match I tried first and it did pretty well, so I then tried the Tenex. I haven't tried my go to which is Lapua OSP. All things Lapua seem to be harder to find and I have one rifle that just shoots that. So happy this one likes Eley!