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L46/JC Higgins mdl 52 in 222

Sako Collectors Club Discussion Forum

cmjr

Well-Known Member
Just picked up a L46/JC Higgins 52. In the pics the stock, action, and barrel look bone stock L46. Any info on the barrel, its a 222. Mostly concerned about twist, who made the barrel...etc. It is a sporter profile barrel with front site but they're listing it at 26"? Forgive me but I'm leaning towards pulling the barrel and going 17MK4.
 
About 15 yrs ago I bought a JC Higgins 52. I believed then as I do now. It is all Sako. All is just marked for the proprietor.-Misako
 
Maybe this will jog some brain cells, bolt face is supposed to be like new, no holes in dovetails, extra sling stud in forearm.
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I have one and shot it just yesterday. The barrel is 26 inches and a bit heavier than a regular Sako contour. I've never measured the twist but 1-14 was almost inevitable for .222 chamberings for the first four decades of its existence.

I'm certain the barrel is not Sako. These guns were made for Sears by High Standard. I found a source book on High Standard guns which listed the J.C. Higgins (Sears) Model 52 as being made from 1955-1959 with nearly 5,000 of them produced. The stocks are nice American Walnut with decent checkering. I have a Sako peep sight on mine and was able to knock over a bowling pin at 275 yards using some ancient Herter's factory ammunition I got in a trade several years ago.

As far as using it for a donor, that's up to the owner. I kinda hate to see relatively scarce models disassembled, but I doubt the Model 52 ever gaining much of a collector following.

Here's a really nice example, complete with a J.C. Higgins (Weaver) scope, that Rodger at SakoSource.com has for sale: http://www.sakosource.com/-1016r-sears-l46.html
 
That's pretty much a dead ringer for mine, no shadow line on the cheek piece for either, unless my eyes are deceiving me. Glad to see the 26" barrel length is correct.
 
Well good news and bad news, picked up my JC Higgins Model 52. It was as nice as the seller said, maybe even a bit better. I'm a big believer in giving the bolt face a lot of scrutiny. Rifles that have been abused or not taken good care of, it shows up on that bolt face. Even a well maintained rifle will show bolt face wear with a lot of use. So when you pull the bolt, hold your breath.....look at the face of that 65yr old rifle's bolt, this is what you want to see. Bluing is prob 95% with a little wear on the bottom metal. The bad news, I can't tear this thing down so my hunt for a donor goes on. The stock has a few handling marks but actually has some nice dark horizontal streaking. Got it scoped up and will take to the range, maybe if I luck out it will shoot like a turd. If not it will probably end up in the classifieds, I need a donor for a 17mk4, not another 222. Woe is me!

ps...rings and bases are in the classifieds

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More bad news! Loaded up some rounds with cheap bullets, basically 40gr Nosler blems and some 50gr Hornady SP's w/cannelure that were pull downs. Used my RCBS powder thrower and slammed some RL7 in them, looked at max and backed a full 1.5 gr down. Used up all my extra primers, ie Rem 7.5's, a few Federal GM and the last of a tray of Win WSR's. Not a good day, everything 1" or less, couple .5 screamers(fluke for sure!), wind probably pushed them together. So....BIL is going to buy it if I refinish the stock and take out the few handling marks it has. I'll trade him out of it first time he has to find ammo for it. I'm back on the hunt for a donor.
 
Tough luck cmjr. We are all feeling your pain. Maybe the bad luck will continue and the next 'donor' will be an L46 action attached to a weird cal. like 7x33 or hornet!
 
OK, got the stock refinished, removed the extra stud, dropped in a walnut plug and had my buddy recut the checkering. You can tell something is there by the color but you can't tell it's a plug. Wood really has some nice dark streaking and yea you guessed it, having second thoughts on selling it to the BIL. But, I have his money, made a couple hundred off of it and he's on his way over to try it out and pick it up. But, .....I have a plan. He's a tactical junky, slap the name tactical on it and he gets a nervous twitch. So, I'm pulling out a Bushmaster lower, a LPK and building up a AR that will have so much tactical BS on it he'll freak out and go into FTW(full tactical withdrawal). Got enough parts and pieces to really deck this thing out. Gonna top it off with a sweet BSA red dot. Everything on this will have China stamped all over it, except for the lower, probably have 450.00 in it when I'm done and will go a long way to clean out my parts bins of junk. Gonna set them both up to take to the range, this is going to be like taking candy from a baby. Best thing is I don't have to say anything, I'll rattle off a couple groups and he'll start twitching........

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Oh man, that Sears 52 is just full of nostalgia.

It causes you to remember when you could walk into the Sears, Roebuck (downtown, where all Sears stores were located) and buy a high-quality sporting rifle with the store's name on it. Your car was parked on the street, unlocked, with the windows rolled down because there was no air-conditioning and it was too hot to leave the windows up. You paid with a check, and nobody wanted to see a driver's license, much less run it through an automated verification. Then you drove three miles out to the vacant land where the developer was starting to put in roads for a subdivision and you set up a cardboard box with an "X" taped to it and sighted it in across the hood of your Ford Galaxie.

Sell your BIL the video game gun and keep the Sears.
 
Well took a little wheeling and dealing to close the deal, he had a buddy chattering in his ear, they both wore BDU's(what's up with that!). If the battery hadn't gone out in that crap 35.00 Red dot I would have been home free. Helped that I put three in the KZ of his Bin Laden target.....couldn't believe he bought one of those. So I had to throw in a scope when we got back, lined up a bunch out of my take off box. Luckily he passed right by the BL 3200 3x9 and Pentax Whitetail Unlimited and went straight for the big stuff, 6x24x50mm BSA with Butlercreek flip up lense covers. I'm not even sure how I ended up with that one, tossed him a new trigger lock and 50 rounds of 223 FMJ gunshow ammo and he was all grins.

Dang Stoney, got a little tear in my eye reading that. I remember driving up from Mineral Wells to the Sears store in the big town of Fort Worth and watching my father buy a Ted Williams Deluxe 20ga pump shot gun. Unfortunately not a Galaxy but a Rambler Classic. It was made by Winchester, basically a mdl 1300 all gussied up with engraving. I think he shot it once in awhile and "I" dragged it out every year to go dove hunting. Funny how the Rambler didn't have AC but I don't really remember it being hot...in Texas! That shotgun today is one of my prized possession's taking center stage in my gun cabinet. Funny how if your house was on fire what you would grab, unfortunately none of them would be Sako's but that Sears shotgun would be the first one out the door.
 
Luckily he . . . went straight for the big stuff, 6x24x50mm BSA with Butlercreek flip up lense covers.
You're a brave and honest man to admit that you had something like that in your possession, but I know how those kinds of things can accumulate along the convoluted path through various trades on the way to something really good. It's nice to have a lucrative outlet for that kind of baggage.

I never actually bought a gun at Sears, but I did buy a Browning Safari at Penney's and found a Browning BAR .270 for my wife's father at Dillards. You know, you used to be able to go shopping with your wife and actually find something interesting in the same store where she was buying compounds to smear on her face, place mats for the dining table, and something flimsy to be taken off in the process of going to bed (oh wow, those were the days!)

Pardon me a minute while I go look in the mail box to see if my Social Security check has come:(.
 

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