My buddy has a pair of 952's... one of them likely to be mine when I put the cash together. Between the two of us we have three 52's and seven PC target (5 or 6") pistols. I have a pretty good hands-on experience in comparing the 52 to the 952.
The 952 tends to have a closer and perhaps slightly more "inspiring" slide to frame fit & feel. On the other hand, though it certainly varies from gun to gun, I give the overall edge in trigger feel slightly to the Model 52.
In a no holds barred accuracy showdown, the 52 has an edge in my opinion, certainly due to the nature of a full target soft swaged wadcutter. Just look at ALL the bearing surface of that bullet! Then again -- feeding a 952 and getting magazines and NEVER dealing with any odd feed, extract or eject failures gives the 952 a huge upper hand here.
The easy answer is "both are amazing!" and it is true. But I think there is another angle to consider:
If you own a 52 and have a lot of rounds down range with them... you'll spend (roughly) 2-3x or more right now to add a 952 and the law of diminishing returns will be clear & present. For the difference in cash, your socks will not likely be blown off your feet.
If you have & love a 952 (and/other PC target pistols), your first range experience with a Model 52 will have your jaw dropped to the ground. Assuming you can handle the 52's idiosyncrasies (ammo is not mainstream, magazines are 5-rd only, cost a fortune & sometimes need tuning) your eyes will pop out of your head when you realize you are looking at target PC pistol kind of quality at a half to a third or more of the price.
Shooting them is quite different simply due to what amounts to a full TWICE the chamber pressure and muzzle blast of the 9mm compared to the sedate .38 wadcutter.
But both are fantastic and inspiring.
