I was able to pick up a Browning model 52 Sporting bolt action 22 rifle yesterday. The seller said this is a "special edition," although the gun is not marked as such. It does have some very nicely figured wood and very bright, high polished blued metal. It came with Browning 2-piece standard scope bases, a set of unmarked standard 1-inch medium rings, and an old Weaver 3-9X32AO rimfire scope. I tried sighting it in but I ran out of elevation adjustment before the crosshairs got to the bullseye. I guess I could shim the scope on the front ring, but decided to replace the scope. I had a Nikon 3-9X33 AO EFR rimfire scope and put it on the gun. The Nikon scope has a much greater reticle adjustment than the old Weaver. The eye bell is much larger diameter on the Nikon, and the bolt hit the scope when using the original medium rings. I had a pair of Leupold standard 1-inch high rings and those gave me the clearance on the bolt. I got the gun sighted in and fired a 5-round group to see how the gun shoots. I was using Aguila Match Rifle 40 grain lubed lead round nose ammo. It put 5 shots into 1 ragged hole. Using this gun at 25 yards from a sandbag rest, I would expect nothing less. The test will be when I go to an outdoor range and shoot it at longer distances. The steel receiver and straight tapered, cold forged, button rifled barrel are held in the very nicely figured stock via 3 screws. Two from the bottom and one from the top at the receiver rear, in the bolt slot. This set up free floats the barrel. There are 2 screws in the bottom of the gun in front of the trigger guard. One is for adjusting the overtravel and the other adjusts the pull weight of the trigger. It has a really nice, serrated, wide trigger. I haven't tested the trigger pull yet, but I'm guessing it's around 5 lbs. This gun was manufactured with a "lawyer pin" through the trigger housing that contacts a collar on the adjustment screw and limits the adjustment of the trigger to 5 - 5.5 lbs. You can tap out that lawyer pin and adjust the trigger pull lighter, but it's been my experience with these model 52 reproductions that if you lighten the trigger to lighter than 3 lbs pull weight you occasionally get a slam-fire when closing the bolt hard. I'm going to leave it stock for now. It's going to be a small game hunting gun, not a benchrest target gun. It came with a Browning-marked, 5-round steel magazine. There are a couple things that will take a little getting used to. First, the safety is located a little far forward on the receiver. It's about an inch forward of where the bolt handle connects to the bolt. If you are grasping the pistol grip, it will require you to release your grip in order to put the gun into fire or back onto safe. You just can't reach the safety with your hand on the pistol grip unless your fingers are 8 inches long! Second, you have to place the safety into the "fire" position in order to lift the bolt to remove a cartridge from the chamber. Reminds me of my 1969 made Remington 700 BDL 30/06. Some folks don't like that idea. Remington did eventually change their mechanism so you could lift the bolt and empty the chamber while the safety was still engaged. This shouldn't be a problem as long as the gun handler is always aware of the muzzle. Overall this is a beautiful, high quality, well made, accurate 22 rifle. I know it's not a Winchester original 52 Sporter, at $3,000 to $5,000 I can't afford those, but Miroku makes some nice firearms. It's a keeper! Rod
