I just picked up a nice S&W mod 52 in 38 sp. does aneyone have a good load for this pistol?
Bill

Bill I used 2.7gr of Bullseye with a 148gr Hollow Base Wadcutter in my S&W 52 when I shot one in NRA Bullseye competition.

The bullets should be seated flush to the case mouth.
I applied a mild taper crimp to the brass.

If your gun will not run with 2.7gr then go to 2.8gr.

Also as long as your gun is shooting good groups, do not worry if the holes in the target show a slight amount of base tipping [ie. not perfectly round holes in the target] even at 25 yards, it is pretty common with the 52.

Those loads will work with solid cast 148gr Wadcutters as well, I just found better accuracy with the HBWC.

Thanks for the info. I knew about the bullets being seated flush but couldn’t remeber what a good load was. I was lucky to pick up a nice clean 52-2 that even had the barrel weight and a Aimteck mount. I will post some pictures when I finish getting it setup.
Bill

Bill
Keep us posted. The S&W Mod 52 is one of the most accurate factory handguns that has ever been made.

Groups of 2.5 inches or under [10 shots] at 50 yards are not unusual.

Strange as it sounds, the 52 makes a great rabbit/squirrel gun.

Think about it 2.5 inches at 50 YARDS.

VERY, VERY few handguns can make that claim.

Actually, NE, a lot of them make that claim, very few of them actually do it! How many gun writers shoot a 10 shot group? They generally shoot a 5 shot group with 1 or 2 called fliers!!!!
Peter.
PS. I own a Model 52!

the 52 carried a 10 ring accuracy guarantee. the load is indeed 2.7 gr of BE and a 148 gr HB wadcutter. it is also the only pistol i know of that had a soft trigger

I used a M-52 for all my pistol competitions, 1974-2002. The handload for it is 2.7 grains of Bullseye with a 148 grain wadcutter bullet, the hollow based version being preferred, but the double ender works as well. The M-52 is a soft shooter that just flat works!

Larry

Well I have a little hiccup in the proceedings. I went to Cabellas and they are out of Bullseye. Does aney one know what velocity the 2.7gr. load might be? I am thinking it would be in the 700-750 fps range. I may try to duplicate the load with tight group or unique until I can track down some bullsey. I realey want to try this new toy out. I mounted a Millett red dot sight on it tonight. This modle is intresting as you can change the dot size from 3min to5,8,or 10 min.
Bill

Bill

I checked a bunch of my older books for loading data for your M52 with Unique.

Start with 3.4gr of Unique, which should give you a velocity around 750fps.

If your pistol will not function increase the charge .10gr at a time.
3.6 or 3.7 of Unique is as far as I think I would go in a S&W 52.

One of my older Hornady books shows 4.1gr of Unique as MAX for the 38 Special.

Well I finally got to try my new toy.
NE 450 No2,
I didn’t have time to load with Unique bur found some I had loaded for a revolver that were with 4.0 gr and a flat base wad cutter. They were not seated flush so I couldn’t get them in the mag. Can you say single shot auto. Well at least you don’t have to pick the brass out. I may try the 3.7 gr load and see how it does.
This is my first 50 yard target I hope with a little practice I can learn the trigger and tighten up the group. The other load with 2.7 gr of Hodgdon “Tight group†and Berry’s plated 148 gr HBWC didn’t do very well I need to bump it up to maybe 3.0 in .1gr increments and see if it will do better. This load wouldn’t function the gun reliably and was not grouping better than 7 ring at 25 yards.







Bill