It's not so much a matter of finding M52 magazines as what you will pay for said magazines. And that issue has been going on for far longer than a decade. For a while I was buying any M52 magazine I saw for $75.00 or less until I built up a stock so to speak. When I saw prices going north of $100.00 for them I stopped buying. The rip-off artists took over in that regard and I won't feed that bear.
Over the years many attempts were made at getting after market magazine manufacturers interested in making replacement mags for the M52, but these attempts never came to fruition. The M52 magazine isn't like a typical magazine and requires a bit of finesse to make and have it work acceptably. Would I like to hear Mec-gar was coming out with a M52 replacement? Absolutely, but they obviously don't want to take the plunge, which is fine, but tells me something about a company that makes mainly magazines. Why is Triple-K doing a M52 magazine and not Mec-gar? Hmmmm....
And most certainly S&W could have continued making magazines for this pistol if they wanted to, but they chose not to. Making magazines is not the same as making parts for these old pistols especially odd-ball magazines for the Model 52. From a personal standpoint I think S&W had an obligation to continue magazine production for the M52 as without a magazine the pistol is basically useless, but we see similar situations crop up all the time in the manufacturing world, not just with Smith and Wesson. Although "customer loyalty" is universally sought after by almost all manufacturers, it is a one way street. They only want your loyalty when it suits their needs, not the other way around. You see this a lot in the firearms world and I think we have come to expect this type of treatment.
Certainly someone at Smith and Wesson has seen where prices have gone on M52 magazines over the last 15 or 20 years and they could have re-introduced factory magazines for the M52. No doubt the price for a new factory magazine would have been much less than what the gougers want. Let's face it, S&W has built an entire market on re-introducing "old" revolvers, so why not magazines for the M52? Should be simple enough. I guess the desire to help the owners of these fine old pistols just isn't there anymore, if it ever was. But hey, we have this terrific M&P semi-auto pistol that's just as good as the old M52!
Rick H.
