S&W Model 52-2

[oneeyedpete]

Hi guys I am looking at this pistol for possible purchase and I was wondering what I should look for and possible value. Any help form the experts here would be greatly appreciated!

 

[824tsv]

Any time I pick up a Model 52 I look for a ringed barrel.

 

[oneeyedpete]

Any time I pick up a Model 52 I look for a ringed barrel.

You mean a bulged barrel from a squib? Thanks for your reply!

 

[824tsv]

Yes, also called a "Ringed" barrel. I've seen several. Replacement OEM S&W barrels are very difficult to locate.

 

[oneeyedpete]

Thanks for the tip 824tsv!!

 

[AJ]

Overall fit and appearance & function. If you can shoot it before buying it and check the operational functioning and the accuracy, those are the truth tellers.

 

[Old_Cop]

How many magazines?

 

[oneeyedpete]

Looks like 2 mags in the picture but I am not sure

 

[Jeppo]

Looks like 2 mags in the picture but I am not sure

I'm not sure there's a magazine inserted in the pistol.

 

[Drm50]

I look for cracked frame in slide stop area. They say it doesn't hurt them but I'm not paying $1K for pistol with cracked frame. Generally in dealing in target pistols, they were owned by average guy who put very little rounds through them. Gun looks new. If competition shooter owned it should be easy to tell from wear. I also look at bushing to determine wear.

 

[USSR]

I just bought a 52-2 in Mint Condition that came with one magazine and the original box for $1000. Came with Pachmayr rubber grips, but I bought a set of of original grips for $70.

Don

 

[USBP SW]

In addition to what the previous posts have advised, the model 52 is an excellent target pistol. Smith and Wesson advertised it as capable of ten ring accuracy at fifty yards, straight from the factory. The shooter may struggle with this level of accuracy, due to the long slide travel and barrel time, it's a very unforgiving pistol but the potential is there. The other things of note are that it is designed as a target pistol, the magazines hold only five rounds and the only ammunition is flush seated wadcutters nothing else functions through the magazines. I do have to admit, when everything comes together, they are a treat to shoot, they are a very well made pistol that is a classic and is no longer made. I suspect that they will certainly increase in value.

 

[Sevens]

I look for cracked frame in slide stop area. They say it doesn't hurt them but I'm not paying $1K for pistol with cracked frame.

Genuinely curious, not callin' you a liar. This is a very heavy all steel pistol running a sub-15,000 PSI target load. I would submit that S&W has perhaps never designed, built and marketed a semiautomatic handgun that is less likely to crack a frame, and I'm happy to listen to any counter arguments or examples of S&W pistols that are even less likely to crack a frame than a 52.

Have you seen examples of a 52 with a cracked frame? I've never heard of something like this in all my findings, and I'm a tremendous fan (and thus a dedicated student) of the 52.

Ringed barrel, YES. Screwed up barrel bushing, YES. Torn up and altered magazines, DEFINITELY. Extractor issues, even the very rare ejector issue or a disconnector issue or even a sear spring problem? Yes, yes, okay, yes.

A cracked frame on a S&W 52? Please expound.

 

[Sevens]

Looking at a 52:

The ringed barrel issue can and does happen when a foolish handloader either makes ammo that is too light, sticks a bullet AND then shoots another bullet behind it. The other way it happens is running too hot a load with soft swaged HBWC bullets — the core blows out and the outer ring of bullet remains and the follow-up shot is now greatly over pressure and the barrel gets ringed.

Personally, I'd LOVE to find a 52 with a ringed barrel -IF- it was priced properly. $500 and I'm thrilled, Clark Custom makes a replacement barrel that may possibly be better and has a twist rate better suited to longer distance shooting where the 52 as originally designed has issues stabilizing the bullet.

Some have complained that the trigger on a 52 doesn't always make "legal" weight for competition and it can be difficult to manipulate the sear spring to make the trigger heavy enough. Not a deal breaker, but this exists.

If you look at the MSH, you may find that however they finished this part is NOT very durable when it comes to fighting sweat and skin oils. Many 52's quickly show wear in this area. It's only a finish issue, doesn't affect function.

The bushing is a great design but the threads are extremely fine and a ham-fisted owner could cross thread them and torch 'em. There will NEVER be a reason to torque that bushing down with gorilla strength but it happens a lot. The included "bushing wrench" is complete trash and should literally never be used on a 52 bushing for twisting in either direction. It is stamped sheet metal and this wrench is an abomination. If a prospective purchase doesn't include one, good.

Magazines were often altered to hold more than five rounds. Some tinkerers were better at this than others. Magazines for this pistol currently carry a ridiculous price tag. Even a poorly altered magazine should hopefully still work with the original 5-round capacity.

If you see circles on the frame around the slide stop hole — that's almost certainly evidence of a frame mounted scope rail. These marks are ugly but they don't hurt anything.

Some 52's will show wear by exhibiting hammer follow. While letting a slide slam home with a totally empty chamber isn't friendly gun handling in general, it is the method that many builders use to manually check for hammer follow if you aren't able to live fire the pistol. A few times dropping the slide isn't going to hurt anything and it may show you if there is hammer follow. If there is, it is fixable but takes some skill.

My first 52 was a game changer for me, and an INSTANT REGRET! Sorry, that was a cheap misdirect. I emptied my first five shot magazine and my first emotion was to beat myself about the head for waiting this long in my life to buy one. My second emotion was "dammit, this gun is out of production so owning just this one isn't enough."

So I have three. I'm probably not done.

 

[Model52guy]

Sevens probably said everything I would have except to keep the little bushing wrench for display purpose only. I would have 7 M52's except my daughter talked me out of one of my 52-2's so I'm down to 6. They all shoot better than me so I shoot the one 52-2 I built from parts I bought in a bag at a gun show a few years ago. As far as price: Anything under 1100 for what your picture showed would be good. With box and everything, up to 1600.

 

[oneeyedpete]

Thanks for all the information guys! You are really knowledgeable about these pistols!

 

[kidcom]

I look for cracked frame in slide stop area. They say it doesn't hurt them but I'm not paying $1K for pistol with cracked frame. Generally in dealing in target pistols, they were owned by average guy who put very little rounds through them. Gun looks new. If competition shooter owned it should be easy to tell from wear. I also look at bushing to determine wear.

To be honest, I've never heard of a cracked frame on a 52. The only S&W, that I know, to ever have a cracked frame was the 46.

 

[Rick H.]

I have owned a lot of M52-2's, they are the ones I like best. I also have never heard of a cracked frame on one, but I suppose anything is possible. People have an uncanny knack for screwing stuff up so could be. While the M52 may not be the absolute best choice these days for many shooting disciples, it is one of the best guns ever made for dedicated bullseye use. It is a dream to hold and shoot and even just work the slide to and fro and see what real craftsmanship was like back in the day. While my serious bullseye days are long gone I still get great enjoyment taking one or more of my M52's to the range. Better yet is knowing I can reload quite economically for them which is a major plus today and custom tailor my reloads to what I want and not what the factory gives me. I recently had a Clark replacement barrel installed on one of my M52's and while it was expensive the returns are well worth the money spent. I also have installed a couple of Trijicon RMR's with 1 MOA dots on 2 of my M52's and the results were impressive...for me anyway. These are super fun pistols, but sometimes they need some TLC and a basic solid understanding of the platform. When you get a good one you will most likely never get rid of it, because there will never be another pistol made like it.

Rick H.

 

[mschneider]

Hi guys I am looking at this pistol for possible purchase and I was wondering what I should look for and possible value. Any help form the experts here would be greatly appreciated!

It is my favorite!!!! ammo hard to find

 

[USSR]

It is my favorite!!!! ammo hard to find

So, make your own!

Don

 

[71imperial]

[Dave Salyer is one of the few pistolsmiths that still works on them. Luckily, they do not give much trouble with good ammo.

 

[Rick H.]

It is my favorite!!!! ammo hard to find

There's alot of truth to the reply from USSR. My 1st M52-2 got me into reloading. I did it quite economically and slow and steady. I bought mainly used equipment at first to start with ie. a single stage press, RCBS beam scale etc. and a good reloading manual. After reading and researching the .38 Special and obtaining what I knew I would need I got to work. I damaged a few cases at first trying to figure out everything, but in short order my new reloads were produced. I guess the very first usable round I produced probably cost me about $250.00 or so, but there is something EXTREMEMLY satisfying turning out your own loads and not having to rely on store bought stuff. From the point of making your first round the cost per round drops steadily.

A ton of years has passed since then and I now reload for every firearm I own. Obviously I have also spent a bunch of money over the course of time buying better, more accurate and efficient equipment. I still use the old RCBS single stage press that I bought at a garage sale for reloading .38 W/C's and it has served me very well. Bottom line is you don't have to spend a ton of money on reloading, but the return will be well worth the investment. The freedom from the ammunition retailers is priceless. The .38 Special is a terrific round to start off a reloading pastime. It is a straight forward simple round to reload with few hidden surprises.

Rick H.

 

[AJ]

There's alot of truth to the reply from USSR. My 1st M52-2 got me into reloading. I did it quite economically and slow and steady. I bought mainly used equipment at first to start with ie. a single stage press, RCBS beam scale etc. and a good reloading manual. After reading and researching the .38 Special and obtaining what I knew I would need I got to work. I damaged a few cases at first trying to figure out everything, but in short order my new reloads were produced. I guess the very first usable round I produced probably cost me about $250.00 or so, but there is something EXTREMEMLY satisfying turning out your own loads and not having to rely on store bought stuff. From the point of making your first round the cost per round drops steadily.

A ton of years has passed since then and I now reload for every firearm I own. Obviously I have also spent a bunch of money over the course of time buying better, more accurate and efficient equipment. I still use the old RCBS single stage press that I bought at a garage sale for reloading .38 W/C's and it has served me very well. Bottom line is you don't have to spend a ton of money on reloading, but the return will be well worth the investment. The freedom from the ammunition retailers is priceless. The .38 Special is a terrific round to start off a reloading pastime. It is a straight forward simple round to reload with few hidden surprises.

Rick H.

I concur with what Rick H. wrote. Started pretty much the say way and worked my way up.

AJ

 

[Sevens]

As a long time handloader and someone who has personally taught many the craft, I'm usually one of the first to make the same suggestion.

I have put that suggestion on hold. The perfect storm of problems AND the predictable group of unhelpful folks have made the prospect of starting out right now to be far, -FAR- beyond frustrating.

If you are wishing to become the next brand new handloader, and assuming you can gather the tools (which seems to be MOSTLY possible...), you are now staring down the barrel of:

--barely a chance you will find powder and if/when you do, expect 2.5x the price

--basically no chance you can find primers, unless you are legitimately willing to pay SIX times retail at a gun show, or 2.5 times retail, PLUS shipping PLUS hazmat handling and being limited to a thousandby ordering them, if you hit the click-lottery and find that elusive 15-minute window when someone has them in stock

Bullets can be found. -OOPS- unless you seek swaged lead hollow base wadcutters that are perfect for the S&W Model 52. Those are out of stock everywhere and there aren't many sources of that bullet to begin with.

Thread drift? Possibly. But it's 100% on topic. Becoming a brand new handloader to feed a S&W Model 52 was a fantastic plan 2-plus years ago and hopefully will be again one day. And if you have a hardcore handloader buddy who lives locally to you, it is possible even now. I certainly hope it will be again in the future.

At the moment... it seems to be a pipe dream and advice that is past it's expiration date and not very helpful right now.

 

[AJ]

As a long time handloader and someone who has personally taught many the craft, I'm usually one of the first to make the same suggestion.

I have put that suggestion on hold. The perfect storm of problems AND the predictable group of unhelpful folks have made the prospect of starting out right now to be far, -FAR- beyond frustrating.

If you are wishing to become the next brand new handloader, and assuming you can gather the tools (which seems to be MOSTLY possible...), you are now staring down the barrel of:

--barely a chance you will find powder and if/when you do, expect 2.5x the price

--basically no chance you can find primers, unless you are legitimately willing to pay SIX times retail at a gun show, or 2.5 times retail, PLUS shipping PLUS hazmat handling and being limited to a thousandby ordering them, if you hit the click-lottery and find that elusive 15-minute window when someone has them in stock

Bullets can be found. -OOPS- unless you seek swaged lead hollow base wadcutters that are perfect for the S&W Model 52. Those are out of stock everywhere and there aren't many sources of that bullet to begin with.

Thread drift? Possibly. But it's 100% on topic. Becoming a brand new handloader to feed a S&W Model 52 was a fantastic plan 2-plus years ago and hopefully will be again one day. And if you have a hardcore handloader buddy who lives locally to you, it is possible even now. I certainly hope it will be again in the future.

At the moment... it seems to be a pipe dream and advice that is past it's expiration date and not very helpful right now.

Sevens,

If enough of us can and will help some of the new folks wanting to get into reloading it is possible for them to get started. I have given away a couple of presses, scales and other reloading items. We all probably have spares that we will never use. So help some one you know get started.

AJ

 

[Rick H.]

Hey Sevens....why the voice of doom and gloom?? Certainly things aren't all rosy right now in the reloading market, especially for old timers that have been doing it for a long time, but it really isn't THAT bad! What better time to GET STARTED than now?? An individual that wants to start reloading can buy a couple of books/manuals and start reading up on it. Lots of people are selling their equipment because they don't know when the market will rebound. That means a new guy can buy in cheap, like I did going to garage sales and such. Just look at Ebay/Gunbroker. I just checked Natchez Shooters Supply and they have Hornady 148 grain lead HB bullets in stock. $32.00 for 250 bullets and I made one search attempt!! Sure getting primers and powder may be difficult, but powder is out there, you just have to LOOK for it. Primers are the big stumbling block right now, but you don't have to buy 5,000 at a crack. When I started reloading I was a young cop with a family and I could only afford to buy a couple of flats at a time and a pound of powder. A starting off reloader can certainly do the same today right?

If all we did was cry the sky is falling, the sky is falling where would we be? We would be under a rock, or in a cave waiting for the sky to fall. Be supportive of a new reloader and get him/her going in it. By the time the market for reloading supplies returns, to more normal conditions, that new reloader will already have a ton of experience ready to establish self reliance and a really rewarding pastime. Start small and if it is what you like doing then go big!!

Rick H.

 

[Sevens]

-BIG- difference between "the sky is falling" and repeatedly suggesting that prospective buyers of a S&W 52 just start handloading to feed it in a market where the tools are available but three of the four needed components are all but impossible to get.

NOTICE where I said near the end of my post "if you have a hardcore handloader buddy who lives locally to you…", THAT would be a genuine road to actually getting primers, powder and the elusive 148gr swaged HBWC.

But sure, miss the entire purpose of what I wrote and call me a chicken little. I've loaded 7,300 rounds in 2021. I'll go do more of that now.

 

[USSR]

Rick H. said it well. There will never be a perfect time to prepare to take up reloading. I would simply say to start now and move slowly. Buy used equipment as they become available at reasonable prices. Once we get thru this ammo pandemic and supplies become more available, then move faster with your equipment and supplies purchases. The one thing I can guarantee you is, this will not be the last ammo shortage. Seems to happen every 4 or 8 years in alignment with our national elections. Go figure.

Don

 

[CalifEd]

Thanks for all the information guys! You are really knowledgeable about these pistols!

So onwwywspeet, did you did or did you didn't?
What is the rest of the story?

 

[Rick H.]

-BIG- difference between "the sky is falling" and repeatedly suggesting that prospective buyers of a S&W 52 just start handloading to feed it in a market where the tools are available but three of the four needed components are all but impossible to get.

NOTICE where I said near the end of my post "if you have a hardcore handloader buddy who lives locally to you…", THAT would be a genuine road to actually getting primers, powder and the elusive 148gr swaged HBWC.

But sure, miss the entire purpose of what I wrote and call me a chicken little. I've loaded 7,300 rounds in 2021. I'll go do more of that now.

Sevens, did you READ what I wrote? Seriously, did you READ and comprehend the words? You are fixated on the current availability of reloading components so much so that you want to turn someone off from getting started in reloading. I not only suggested this would be a great time to get into reloading with people selling off their equipment, but I even gave the name of a place to obtain Hornady 148 grain lead bullets. What more to you want me to do, buy them for him??

Guys like you crack me up. You are upset because you can't find or refuse to buy components unless they are priced to your liking. I have a news flash, they will probably never be where they were 2 years ago. That's reality. We are going to pay more and probably so for months or years. Get over it.

The only thing that I couldn't find easily for reloading components is primers. Powder was easy to find just look for it. Primers are the weak link, but like I said you don't have to pay $1,000.00 for 5,000 primers, just buy a couple of flats and start
reloading. You absolutely, completely missed my comment about starting small and if you like reloading go bigger into it. The OP could start now and gain a wealth of experience while things slowly return to normal, but nooo you would rather turn him off to the whole idea and wait for primers to return to $125.00 for 5,000. Quit living in the past and realize prices will never be what they once were. Trust me Sevens, if you put just a teenie weenie bit of effort into finding components they will magically appear in front of your eyes.

Rick H.