I have a very nice Smith model 52-2. The barrel bushing is cracked. Does anyone know where I can get one? I would very much appreciate finding one. Shotgunner.

Even IF you were lucky enough to find one - who would know how to fit it to the barrel?

My son is a gunsmith, I just need a bushing.

I found one, a few years ago, at Cylinder & Slide. Also, check Numrich. You may get lucky.

I have a complete set of internals for a 52-2 including slide, barrel and barrel bushing and all mechanical parts.

As your son is a gunsmith should know the parts on a 52 series gun are custom fit on a gun to gun basis. If you can find a NEW part then it would need to be fit to your barrel. Other than that you should use a matched barrel & bushing.

Try Numrich / Gun Parts in New York State to see if they have a "new" bushing.

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ANTIQUESMITHS
LM1300 SWHF425

Hmm as an owner of several 52s, I don't see the necessity of having the Barrel Bushing fitted to a 52. Just my humble opinion.

I made one some years ago for someone who lost the original...If your son has a lathe and a mill he should be able to machine one out...

I built the Mod 52 for seven years, each bushing is hand honed to each barrel and just about every part is fit to each specific gun.
Production was on average about ten guns a week.

Well that's fantastic! Please tell us MORE MORE MORE!

Did you have your own specific number or letter stamped on the pistol down on the very bottom of the frame/butt, covered up when a magazine is inserted? I want to check if any of the 52's in my "family" passed through your hands!

Also, one of my 52's is a late model, three alpha prefix (fantastic pistol!), it's a TZT-prefix. This pistol does NOT have the frame cuts nor the divot in the dust cover for the factory counter-weight. I have not seen another 52-2 without the ability to take the counter weight but I must assume there were others. (the original no-dash 52 never had these features either) Was this due to tooling that wore out?

Definitely please tell us more!

My stamp started as "0" and I changed to a "C" later when I transitioned to fitting the 9mm and 22's (Mod 41's). I never worked with the three letter prefix only the A. When I started fitting the Mod 52, around 1979, there were seven of us on the bench. I was eventually the only fitter left when they started phasing it out. When I went on to fitting the other semi autos there was one person to build them, using up the remaining parts. I believe thats probably when the three letter prefix began and changes in the frame occurred. The semi autos by that time were ramping up and I was put in charge of teaching a group of revolver fitters to build semi autos, this around the time of the first Army trials. Semi autos were becoming very popular. Just before I left S&W, 1989, I was building the first of the 645's and 745's.

My first Model 52-2 is an A774xxx serial number and it does indeed have the "0" stamp on the bottom leading edge of the magazine well! I hope that means you built this pistol of mine.

I have two 52's currently and this one is mint, I've only put about 600 rounds through this one, preferring to "keep it in reserve" while I shoot the wheels off my later model.

I've got a pair of 745's as well, I wonder if you built those also.

Thanks for your posts and sharing some history with us!

Just another note about the barrel/bushing fit

The barrels are turned on a lathe and I believe the bushings are cast, that's why they're brittle. The bushings are fit to the barrel on a spindle hone similar to honing a brake cylinder. There is no advantage to tightening the bushing into the slide, just snug at the closest notch in the bushing. It's all in the diameters of the barrel compared to the bushing. Each individually done by hand and left to the fitters "feel".

This documents the start of the Quality Decline at S&W! It is not our imagination.

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S&WHF 366

I don't understand what you mean by this?

I think what he is saying is that S&W has gone down hill since you left.

I don't understand what you mean by this either. Some of my favorite shooters are from the 80's and 90's era.

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USS ZELLARS
DD-777

The 52 was being phased out while i was still at S&W, I spent seven years fitting them. I moved to assembling the other semi autos. when I did the pay rate was piecework, we had a quota we were expected to build, I went from fitting 10 to 15 52"s a week to assembling 40 or 50 autos a day depending on the model.
These guns are assembled, most parts fit all guns with little fitting to do, except for the Mod 41. We had to build them right or they would come back from the range as repairs, this would take time away from our piecework and would cut into our earnings. It was important to build them right the first time. Most every one there were very conscience of quality. The semi auto department had the finest group of guys.

When I disassembled/reassembled my 52-2 for the post (now a sticky) that describes the process, I noticed a 6 digit number stamped on the slide under the adjustable rear sight. Does anyone know the significance of this number?

I do not remember doing this on ALL of the guns I built. Does it match the serial number? Have you seen many of these? about how many? I remember stamping some there if the slide went back to finishing/bluing after the gun was fit for cosmetic reasons. Otherwise the frame and slides were never apart from each other.

Clark Custom is now selling a match bushing for the model 52, and should have match barrels to go by the end of summer 2018. The barrel may need a few thousands polished off to fit this bushing, but it should work. Hope this helps!

S&W 52 Parts Archives - Clark Custom Guns

Great thread...Owning a Model 52 is a real learning experience.
Tks

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DCCUK

Have not been going to local club matches in years. Of all the 52s, just a personal prefeance, I like the 52 and 52-1. Sold my 52-2s a few years back but kept the 52 and the 52-1. The only other .38 Mid Range that semi auto that shoots as nice as the S&W M52 is a John Giles, .38 SPL 1911 built on a Colt 1911 Gunsmith Kit (all the rage back in the 1960s).

Apparently Gil Hebbard ordered of Colt a few hundred .38 SPL Colt Kits (unfinished / unassembled full parts kit) and a few hundred of the same for the .45 ACP.

I have 3 Giles, 1911s in 38 Mid-Range. A 1947, Colt 1911 converted from a .38 Super, another converted from a pre-70 .38 Super and the "Kit Gun" build. The magazines on those were a nightmare as they were altered .38 super mags and always wore out quickly. When JG passed, I tried the Colt .38 Midrange magazines (from the National Match .38 Mid Range) in the conversion 1911s, to find they work perfectly. Odder than this, the NON-Colt, repro 38 Mid range mags perform even better than the Colt brand on the 2 conversion guns.

The Colt Kit, 38 Special, 1911 is the sweetest but only marginally better than the S&W M52 (no dash).

PS: Allen if you see this ... thank you again (a few years later) for selling it to me. Sal

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ANTIQUESMITHS
LM1300 SWHF425

Could the crack in the bushing of Shotgunners 52-2 be welded and then refitted? Model3SW thanks for showing us your Giles 38 special 1911. Out here on the West Coast Bob Chow used to make 1911 38 specials and he often used the Colt "Kit gun" barrels. One of Bobs apprentices has a stash of those barrels and has made some 38 special 1911's and they are really neat.

Clark Custom Guns is selling M-52 bushings. They are very high quality and nicely machined.

S&W 52 Parts Archives - Clark Custom Guns

I had a 52-1 towards the very end of dash 1 production that had the serial stamped under the rear site as well, IIRC it had large ampersands but although marked as a dash 1 had the new extractor.

My 52-2 is from the late 70's era and does not have a serial stamp there.

Troystat, I've never had my hands on a Chow but heard only good things about his work. Was it Chow that got his experience working for Clark ? I caught an article somewhere on Chow, years ago, he started learning on beat up ex-service 1911s to accurize. Some of those 1911s shown (early ones) were the ugliest ... mix and match part 1911s I've seen but his accurizing techniques were AMAZING.

One of the observations I had intended to impress is that the S&W Model 52 is such an outstanding, precise, work of art and craftsmanship, that it is still coveted by shooters and collectors alike, many years after the commercial production ceased.

I have yet to find mention, anywhere, about a Model 52 reworked by a respected accurizer-gunsmith. This is likely because there is nothing that needs to be done to improve a Model 52 because it is already there.

I believe the S&W Model 52 is either "the" most accurate or "one of" the most accurate S&W firearms ... OUT OF THE BOX, with no add-ons, improvements, hooo-hah or bling.

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ANTIQUESMITHS
LM1300 SWHF425

I can't find an asembler's mark on either of my 52-2s, could somebody post a picture of one so I'll know for sure where and what to look for?

Thanks
Jim

PPC and Bullseyesmith Jerry Keefer had some opinions on the M52 he accurized for the Bullseye shooter he sponsored:

"The Model 52 has many issues working against it. .355 bore diameter and an 18 + twist are major factors to overcome. Plus the bushing system is "far" from ideal..I had a long talk yesterday with one of the old time top AMU smiths.. They had many 52s back in the day...Stating, "The accuracy was always an issue". I believe I can greatly improve the accuracy negatives, by changing out the barrel to a 10/12 twist and I have already completed the bushing revamp ."

A link with some pictures of his work:
Loads for S&W model 52
Aimpoint which model

A M52 built for accuracy:

Probably closer to the point... a pistol designed in the early 1960's and basically unaltered throughout it's life, the Model 52 as an untouched factory built offering deserves it's own corner in the handgun hall-of-fame.

Compared to what elite gunsmiths can potentially put together today (at a cost of $2000 to $5000 I might add), a totally unaltered Model 52 is still able to distinguish itself as worthy of all the praise it has earned.

Bullseye shooters today do not recommend the 52 for competition and the one thing that almost everyone universally agrees on is that the 52 is not at all an easy gun to shoot extremely well with. It rewards a shooter that can manage perfect execution, but it punishes you swiftly if you aren't shooting your best.

I love the two that I own and I'd like to find another. I also believe these are PC guns before the PC existed, and if you look at them that way, they are still a STEAL even in a rising market.

As much as I love them, I own other handguns with which I routinely out-shoot my 52's. I have other handguns that are easier for me to shoot more accurately every single time

Model3sw From what I know about Bob Chow is that he got his start working for King Gunsight in San Francisco after WW2. Bob was on the 1948 Olympic pistol team. Bob opened up a shop in the 1950's in San Francisco and specialized in tuning 1911's for bulleye shooters, he also did High Standards as well as revolver work. In 1984 a few years before he retired he did a trigger job on a model 17 for me and it is a delight to shoot. Bob was a really nice gentleman. I believe he was a contemporary of Jim Clark Sr. From what I understand Bob really understood what needed to happen to make a 1911 both accurate, reliable and durable for bulleye shooting.

Fun post and I really need a 52 and a 1911 in 38 special.

Hello,
I bought a used 52-2 to start bullseye shooting. Does anybody know a source for all springs for this model? Wolff & Numerich don't have them.
Or does anybody have dimensions & weights of springs?

Thank you !

The barrel and bushing are only two of the trifecta that need fitting,
The third part is the slide stop. The flat on the bottom of the breech rides up over the pin part of the the slide stop. That gives it that snap, right before lock up. I hope donk chimes in and describes how that part was fitted.

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Mike 2796
SoFo Bunch member

Chow , Giles & Jim Clark Sr. all had to modify existing factory parts or make their own for 38 special 1911 conversions . They did not make their own barrels so were stuck with factory upper lug engagement , hence the shims in lug recesses & / or silver soldered in the ejection ports . Jerry Keefer made all his own including the barrels in the 2 guns pictured above . Only thing factory is slide & frame which were modified . Jerry was the consumate machinist & held tolerences to " bench rest " standards . Now days a custom " Bullseye " pistol from a top 'smith runs 4-5K or more . In the '60's a 3" @ 50yd gun was competitive , now days it's half that . Not many are capable of that kind of fitting & it's extremely labor intensive hence the price . Most shooters can not shoot to that level , but 90% of being competitive is mental . Having a gun that has that capability removes all doubt . If you can't shoot a 100 - 10X it aint the the gun , it's you . Bullseye is one of the few endeavours that no one has ever shot a perfect score ie 2700 - 270X .
I too attempted to master the 52 , but for me the 1911 was easier to shoot consistently . For a semi-production gun they were pretty good but not as perfect a some here believe .

Lets not forget one name that has been omitted from this list of the masters. Richard L. Shockley of El Reno, OK. He also made some fine custom competitive handguns.

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Mike 2796
SoFo Bunch member

I agree with all of that EXCEPT where you label it a "semi-production gun." Obviously, we would get in to argument or discussion on the pure definition if what precisely is a production gun, the 52 did indeed require hand fitting where other models at the time required less of that, but when we consider how long it was offered and how many examples exist AND that nearly all parts can be swapped across different examples of the same model, I fail to see how it isn't clearly defined a production gun.

And yes, that makes it extremely special. Absolutely everyone knew that in 1970, there wasn't a Colt semi-auto pistol on the market that could go from new in box to competition ready without someone's help, but a S&W Model 52 could.

I believe that is a distinction of the 52 that should be duly noted.

Sevens, duly noted. and wholeheartedly agree.

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Mike 2796
SoFo Bunch member

Agree . Last Colt semi-auto that was competition ready ( in it's day ) was the pre Gold Cup NM in 45 acp . Grandpa bought me one for my first 45 wadgun in 1960 ( 4 digit s/n ) . It would hold the 10 ring @ 50yds . For nostaglia's sake I'm considering fitting it's 3rd barrel / bushing . Still shoot it's companion 38 special Officers Model Match also a 1960 vintage gun .

Wolff has the recoil springs, though you will have to scroll down their page to find them. $7.98 each and 3 or 4 different weights listed. Brownell's lists some of the other springs other than the hammer spring. I strongly suspect hammer springs made for the 39/59 would work. Wolff may be able to confirm this.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!