I bought a 52-2, 1979 vintage here on this forum 2 - 3 years ago. High condition, box, bushing wrench and all the other stuff that came with it. Plus 3 magazines. I think I paid $1250 and was very satisfied. I removed the rear sight and installed a Vortex reflex / red dot sight. It's a lot of fun to shoot, very mild and quite accurate. I regularly shoot .22 bullseye league and I wouldn't hesitate to shoot this 52 in a match.
Need experiences and opinions Model 52
- Thread starter Plinkasaurusrex
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I would say that assuming really nice shape that $1,500.00 isn't a crazy asking price. If you really want it to shoot and reload .38 SPL WC, offering $1,200.00-$1,300.00 would be reasonable. They don't make them anymore and no pistol that comes off the line can touch the quality.
Plus getting three mags with it makes the price seem more reasonable. They are wonderful shooters - I have three and would not part with any of them.
Saw one at the show on Saturday that some of you folks would have jumped on... 52-2, A-prefix (I want to remember it was A340xxx or thereabouts...) and it had four magazines, all metal follower. He was asking $1,200.
AJ
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Did you buy it?
OP
Plinkasaurusrex
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AJ
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Looks good. What did you end up paying for it?
OP
Plinkasaurusrex
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$1300, but with three magazines, I think the price was reasonable.
And I think you’re right.
OP
Plinkasaurusrex
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SCSW says that the extraction system was changed in the 52–2. Is this adaptable to the 52–1?
No. But don’t panic.
The 52 no dash and the 52-1 have the old style long extractor. If you find someone or somewhere offering this as a component part, it would be a fine idea to buy it if the cost isn’t crazy. However if you do find one, the cost could very well be crazy because these are hard to find.
If you ever break the extractor on your 52-1, you will be in a world of hurt.
Many folks will say (flippantly, in my opinion) that the old style extractor was changed on the 52 to the new style because it was prone to failure and I believe this is NOT the truth.
The Model 39 started life with the old style long extractor and enough of those exhibited problems that the extractor was redesigned in to the familiar style we now know for the 39-2.
I believe that S&W elected to streamline their center fire semiautomatic pistol extractor design in 1970 so the extractor changed for the 52-2 pistol with a new style that’s very similar to the 39-2, the 59, and every single other 2nd and every 3rd Gen ever made.
I don’t believe that the old style long extractor on the 52-1 was specifically problematic. Admittedly… I was not there in 1970 when S&W moved to the 52-2 and the new style extractor. However, it’s been my experience in exhaustive 52 searching that many owners of the 52 no-dash and dash-1 pistols requested and purchased back up old style long extractors very shortly after the debut of the 52-2 pistol and the key here is that I’ve seen countless examples of 52 and 52-1 pistols offered in auctions and estate sales where these one or two extra backup extractors are included.
Extractors that owners worried about… and then never used.
Always strip rounds from the magazine and NEVER drop the slide on an already chambered round. This is excellent advice for every semiautomatic but especially for all 39 no-dash and 52/52-1 pistols.
I think you’ll get fine service from this beautiful 52-1 that you bought!
The 52 no dash and the 52-1 have the old style long extractor. If you find someone or somewhere offering this as a component part, it would be a fine idea to buy it if the cost isn’t crazy. However if you do find one, the cost could very well be crazy because these are hard to find.
If you ever break the extractor on your 52-1, you will be in a world of hurt.
Many folks will say (flippantly, in my opinion) that the old style extractor was changed on the 52 to the new style because it was prone to failure and I believe this is NOT the truth.
The Model 39 started life with the old style long extractor and enough of those exhibited problems that the extractor was redesigned in to the familiar style we now know for the 39-2.
I believe that S&W elected to streamline their center fire semiautomatic pistol extractor design in 1970 so the extractor changed for the 52-2 pistol with a new style that’s very similar to the 39-2, the 59, and every single other 2nd and every 3rd Gen ever made.
I don’t believe that the old style long extractor on the 52-1 was specifically problematic. Admittedly… I was not there in 1970 when S&W moved to the 52-2 and the new style extractor. However, it’s been my experience in exhaustive 52 searching that many owners of the 52 no-dash and dash-1 pistols requested and purchased back up old style long extractors very shortly after the debut of the 52-2 pistol and the key here is that I’ve seen countless examples of 52 and 52-1 pistols offered in auctions and estate sales where these one or two extra backup extractors are included.
Extractors that owners worried about… and then never used.
Always strip rounds from the magazine and NEVER drop the slide on an already chambered round. This is excellent advice for every semiautomatic but especially for all 39 no-dash and 52/52-1 pistols.
I think you’ll get fine service from this beautiful 52-1 that you bought!
OP
Plinkasaurusrex
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Thank you very much for that narrative. It was very informing. It’s interesting that Sig Sauer did things exactly the opposite. They went from short extractor to long extractor a number of years ago.
Rick H.
Member
I come late to this discussion unfortunately. I think if the OP spent $1300 for a clean well taken care of M52-1 he did okay. I have owned any number of M52's in all configurations, but the only ones for $800 or less I have seen are dogs in looks or function. If you want a super nice one with original box and all be prepared to spend at least $1500 and up. At one time I had 5 or 6 M52 variants and I now have 2 left. One has a new Clark barrel and bushing in it and it not only shoots very well, but it cleans up much easier that any OEM barreled M52 I ever owned. Clark still sells barrels and bushings, but their stock on these is getting low and word has it from the horses mouth they will not be making anymore. In other words, making these isn't worth their time and effort. The market for these items is much shallower than they anticipated.
Depending on how the soon to be released "new" magazines work there may be a price drop on originals, but OEM magazines will always be expensive and desired at this point. I have a mix of OEM metal follower magazines and plastic and have never had a problem with either. Just another old wives tale as far as I am concerned.
The hay-day for M52's has long past and much more accurate pistols have come on the market, but for much more money too. Even ammunition has become difficult to find for a M52 and who would have ever thought 148 grain lead wadcutter ammunition would be hard to find!! I load my own so it is of no consequence to me.
The rub on a M52 is in finding parts for them and someone who knows how to work on them. As far back as I can remember people always complained about the early long extractors on the early M52. I obtained a spare extractor for the one I owned, but never had to use it. It was nice piece of mind knowing I had one though. The same complaints were voiced on the early M39's too so take it for what it's worth. At one time I used to closely watch Gun Parts Corporation's website for newly arrived M52 parts. If they had something I thought I might need I bought it and put it in my M52 spare parts box. I now have a bunch of spare parts that I rarely ever need especially being down to only 2 remaining M52 pistols.
While not a terribly fragile pistol by any means, the two quirks of the M52 were the shooter and the ammunition used. The M52 was best used by experienced shooters as it was not a forgiving pistol. If you made any mistakes shooting it the pistol would let you know immediately. And if you used ammunition it did not like it also let you know that immediately. However, shooting a M52 of any variant was a reward in quality now long gone. If you didn't keep it clean and/or treated it roughly you were most certainly going to have problems and DO NOT drop the magazines on a hard surface. Many M52 shooters blamed the gun for these problems when they were actually the fault. I can only think of one or two other factory built pistols in my lifetime of shooting that were as well made as a M52 and were as much fun to own and shoot. It's still a darn fine pistol the likes of which will never again exit the doors of Smith and Wesson.
Rick H.
Depending on how the soon to be released "new" magazines work there may be a price drop on originals, but OEM magazines will always be expensive and desired at this point. I have a mix of OEM metal follower magazines and plastic and have never had a problem with either. Just another old wives tale as far as I am concerned.
The hay-day for M52's has long past and much more accurate pistols have come on the market, but for much more money too. Even ammunition has become difficult to find for a M52 and who would have ever thought 148 grain lead wadcutter ammunition would be hard to find!! I load my own so it is of no consequence to me.
The rub on a M52 is in finding parts for them and someone who knows how to work on them. As far back as I can remember people always complained about the early long extractors on the early M52. I obtained a spare extractor for the one I owned, but never had to use it. It was nice piece of mind knowing I had one though. The same complaints were voiced on the early M39's too so take it for what it's worth. At one time I used to closely watch Gun Parts Corporation's website for newly arrived M52 parts. If they had something I thought I might need I bought it and put it in my M52 spare parts box. I now have a bunch of spare parts that I rarely ever need especially being down to only 2 remaining M52 pistols.
While not a terribly fragile pistol by any means, the two quirks of the M52 were the shooter and the ammunition used. The M52 was best used by experienced shooters as it was not a forgiving pistol. If you made any mistakes shooting it the pistol would let you know immediately. And if you used ammunition it did not like it also let you know that immediately. However, shooting a M52 of any variant was a reward in quality now long gone. If you didn't keep it clean and/or treated it roughly you were most certainly going to have problems and DO NOT drop the magazines on a hard surface. Many M52 shooters blamed the gun for these problems when they were actually the fault. I can only think of one or two other factory built pistols in my lifetime of shooting that were as well made as a M52 and were as much fun to own and shoot. It's still a darn fine pistol the likes of which will never again exit the doors of Smith and Wesson.
Rick H.
Nice rundown Rick H. ! I also got another grin with yet another piece of evidence of a guy who definitely bought a spare backup long extractor… but hasn’t ever actually yet needed it.
Some things are easy to research… but folks hands-on 52/52-1 use and extractor experience is a difficult thing to research.
Let me say this… got my first ever 52-2 in late 2015. Took it to the range and after my first 5-shot magazine, my senses and brain were all abuzz but I had ONE thought that rose above all the others shouting inside my head. That thought was specifically, “okay, I need to own ANOTHER 52, because having only one of this out-of-production pistol is not enough!”
After three 52-2’s and loving all of them, I bumped in to an opportunity for a 52-1. I jumped at it and when I got it home I was maybe not shocked but pleasantly surprised that my 52–1 trigger eclipsed all three of my 52-2 pistols and it was also better than any of my PC Limited guns also.
My 52-1 has not yet eaten as many rounds as I’ve enjoyed through the 52-2’s, but it has not had even a bobble so far.
I still love my 52-2’s but it’s the 52-1 that I’m shooting these days. If anything, I’m choosing it to expand my knowledge base on the longevity and service of the old-style long extractor. I will keep shooting it until it gives me some hassle.
I’m feeding it 148gr swaged HBWC over 2.7gr Bullseye exclusively. I grab from an array of different bullet manufacturers. I’ve got (really!) old stock Star, I have Hornady, got some of the elusive and blacknasty Remington that some guys lose their minds over and I’ve got a supply from Precision Delta too.
Some things are easy to research… but folks hands-on 52/52-1 use and extractor experience is a difficult thing to research.
Let me say this… got my first ever 52-2 in late 2015. Took it to the range and after my first 5-shot magazine, my senses and brain were all abuzz but I had ONE thought that rose above all the others shouting inside my head. That thought was specifically, “okay, I need to own ANOTHER 52, because having only one of this out-of-production pistol is not enough!”
After three 52-2’s and loving all of them, I bumped in to an opportunity for a 52-1. I jumped at it and when I got it home I was maybe not shocked but pleasantly surprised that my 52–1 trigger eclipsed all three of my 52-2 pistols and it was also better than any of my PC Limited guns also.
My 52-1 has not yet eaten as many rounds as I’ve enjoyed through the 52-2’s, but it has not had even a bobble so far.
I still love my 52-2’s but it’s the 52-1 that I’m shooting these days. If anything, I’m choosing it to expand my knowledge base on the longevity and service of the old-style long extractor. I will keep shooting it until it gives me some hassle.
I’m feeding it 148gr swaged HBWC over 2.7gr Bullseye exclusively. I grab from an array of different bullet manufacturers. I’ve got (really!) old stock Star, I have Hornady, got some of the elusive and blacknasty Remington that some guys lose their minds over and I’ve got a supply from Precision Delta too.
Rick H.
Member
You kind of hit the nail on the head Sevens in mentioning the trigger feel on your M52's. I have only had one M52-2 that had a somewhat disappointing trigger feel in it, compared to my other M52's. It was in all other aspects a really nice pistol and I didn't want to mess with it and I eventually sold it off to fund other "stuff" I needed/wanted. My remaining M52's have triggers that break at 2.0 lbs and very clean. No other trigger on my collection of target pistols equals my M52's and that includes 1911's, Sig P210's and more recently a smattering of CZ's that have surprisingly good trigger actions on them. I wish I would have discovered the CZ pistol line much sooner than I did, but that's another story.
For all its faults and there are a few, the M52 is one of those pistols true afficionados should own. I don't use mine in competition anymore and they have become "fun" guns for me to take out on special occasions. It has been said many times before, simply working the slide on a decent M52 evokes long gone quality from Smith and Wesson. In my mind I see one pistolsmith at S&W putting one M52 together from start to finish and when he said it was completed it was done right.
Two weeks ago I took my eldest son with me to the range along with a few firearms to have fun with. One was my re-barreled M52 and another was a WWII era M1 carbine. My son likes to shoot for recreation, but he never really got into shooting much which is okay. He has a family and work to contend with and is divorced so shooting isn't at the top of his list of things to do. He had an absolute ball with the M52 and the M1 carbine and he told me it was like he held history in his hands when shooting those two firearms. He loved both of them and he made me promise to never sell them which I did and he was happy. I was happy too because at 40 years old he finally understood one of the pleasures and benefits of owning old firearms. Now if I can just get him to help me reload and clean those firearms I'll really be pleased.
Rick H.
For all its faults and there are a few, the M52 is one of those pistols true afficionados should own. I don't use mine in competition anymore and they have become "fun" guns for me to take out on special occasions. It has been said many times before, simply working the slide on a decent M52 evokes long gone quality from Smith and Wesson. In my mind I see one pistolsmith at S&W putting one M52 together from start to finish and when he said it was completed it was done right.
Two weeks ago I took my eldest son with me to the range along with a few firearms to have fun with. One was my re-barreled M52 and another was a WWII era M1 carbine. My son likes to shoot for recreation, but he never really got into shooting much which is okay. He has a family and work to contend with and is divorced so shooting isn't at the top of his list of things to do. He had an absolute ball with the M52 and the M1 carbine and he told me it was like he held history in his hands when shooting those two firearms. He loved both of them and he made me promise to never sell them which I did and he was happy. I was happy too because at 40 years old he finally understood one of the pleasures and benefits of owning old firearms. Now if I can just get him to help me reload and clean those firearms I'll really be pleased.
Rick H.
donk52
Member
In my mind I see one pistolsmith at S&W putting one M52 together start to finish and when he said it was completed it was done right.
Rick H.[/QUOTE]
We actually built them 10 guns at a time. It took on average about a week.
Rick H.[/QUOTE]
We actually built them 10 guns at a time. It took on average about a week.
Rick H.
Member
We actually built them 10 guns at a time. It took on average about a week.[/QUOTE]
Hi Donk52, thanks for the reply. So each pistolsmith had 10 M52's and it took him about a week to complete the entire batch? That's not bad for the amount of work that was done to each pistol in my mind. Was the person that put the pistols together involved in test firing them, or did that job go to someone else? If there was a problem with the test firing did the pistol go back to the person that put it together? I always wondered about that.
Rick H.
donk52
Member
Rick, The job of test firing was done by the guys in the range, ransom rest,50 yards in the ten ring, and function with no problems. We would get the guns back to rework if there was.
Thanks Sevens, that's the nudge I needed to make my mind up on a 52-1 I've been watching at my LGS, I've also got a pair of 52-2s and was having a hard time justifying a 3rd 52. The one that I'm eyeing is a pristine example w/ box and all the goodies.
