Winchester Model 52, early
Official wording
Winchester, Model 52, rifle, bearing S/Ns 1 to 6500.
What this entry requires
- ATF REQUIRESYour serial number is one ATF listsATF: “bearing S/Ns 1 to 6500”
- INFOATF states no date; production was about 1920–1923.
Editorial facts · Our research
- Country
United StatesBasis: no citation - Manufacturer
- Winchester Repeating Arms Co.Basis: the ATF wording
- Type
- RifleBasis: the ATF wording
- Action
- BoltBasis: no citation
- Caliber
- .22Basis: no citation
- Made
- S/Ns 1–6500 · c. 1920–1923production; ATF states no dateBasis: estimate ¹
- Service
- Commercial
Source
- Official wording
- ATF P 5300.11, April 2025 edition · Section II · PDF p. 20 ↗ · ATF original ↗
- Entries
- 1 line
- Verbatim check
- Checked against the PDF text before every release
- Editorial facts
- Confidence: Medium · Last revised 18 October 2026 (Evidence pass) · How we rate confidence
- References
- 1. Wikipedia, “Winchester Model 52” ↗, years (estimate: partly supports it): Model 52 introduced by Winchester in 1920 (infobox 1920–1980); end of the S/N 1–6500 block (1923) is our estimate
- Fact tags
- ATF the ATF wording states it.
- REF ¹ an outside reference supports it; the number points to the list of references.
- ESTIMATE an approximate or indirect reading, for example the production range of the base model.
- NO CITATION we haven’t attached a reference for this fact; it’s our editorial reading, not ATF’s.
- Source checked
- 20 October 2026: ATF’s page still lists the April 2025 edition
- Corrections
- None
Historical context
Image: Wikimedia Commons, “Winchester 52 original model.jpg” by Winchester Repeating Arms Co., Public domain. Retrieved October 2026.
Summary: Wikipedia, “Winchester Model 52”. Text CC BY-SA 4.0.
FROM WIKIPEDIA
The Winchester Model 52 is a bolt-action .22-caliber target rifle introduced by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in 1920. For many years it was the premier smallbore match rifle in the United States, if not the world. Known as the "King of the .22s", the Model 52 Sporter was ranked by Field & Stream as one of "the 50 best guns ever made" and described by Winchester historian Herbert Houze as "perfection in design". However, by the 1970s the World War I-era design was showing its age and had given way in top-level competition to newer match rifles from Walther and Anschütz; the costly-to-produce Model 52, which had long been a loss leader prestige product by that time, was finally discontinued when US Repeating Arms took over the manufacture of Winchester rifles from Olin Corporation in 1980.