Smith & Wesson Model 52-2 (.38 Wadcutter)

My buddy Sarge called me up last month to tell me that his wife had just inherited a bevy of match-grade target handguns from her trophy-winning bullseye-competition shooting grandfather out in New Jersey. As he excitedly read off the inventory salivating at the prospect of range time with new hardware (.45 caliber 1911, .22 auto), I stopped him at, “.38 Special auto-loader”.

“Wait a minute,” I said. “You mean revolver, right?”

“Nope. I’m looking right at it and it’s an auto,” replied Sarge testily. “I mean they DID teach us a few things in the Marine Corps like how to tell a wheelgun from an automatic.”

“Ok then, you mean it’s a .38 Super or maybe a .380 Auto, right.”

“Dude, I’m telling you I can read too and it’s stamped right here on the slide in big block letters: .38 Special.”

I had never heard of .38 Special in anything other than a revolver, but as usual, Sarge was right on the money. After further investigation, it turned out we had a vintage Smith & Wesson model 52-2 on our hands designed for shooting .38 Special Wadcutters.

He quickly snapped off a couple of camera-phone shots and I was immediately skeptical. The blued steel and ungainly appearance of the well-worn custom grips looked like something from a bygone era. I was thinking we’d be lucky to get rounds to fire at all, let alone hit the paper. Boy was I wrong.

Originally manufactured in limited quantities during the 1960’s the Model 52 is still considered by some to be one of the finest target match-grade pistols ever made. But the word “unusual” doesn’t begin to describe the gun.

Let’s take the ammo for starters. True wadcutter ammunition is a rarity these days and Sarge had to custom order it after finding out that the gun stores in his area didn’t routinely carry “specialty loads”. I’d never seen wadcutter rounds before so at first I thought Sarge mistakenly bought a box of empty shell casings. Upon closer inspection, we learned that the cast lead bullet of a wadcutter is completely encased in the brass shell giving it its signature blunt appearance. We also learned that the powder charge is deliberately light to keep the round sub-sonic and that wadcutters typically fire at about 700 feet per second (versus 950 fps for standard .38 Special, and a supersonic 1,300 fps for .357 Magnums).

To me, the aerodynamic concept of sending a 148-grain flat lead cylinder down range at 500mph versus a smooth copper-clad round-nose bullet seemed a bit like the ballistic equivalent of strapping an engine and wheels on grandma’s refrigerator to race the Indy 500. Visions of tumbling rounds and wild shots ricocheting off the range walls reminded me to double check my range bag for backup eyewear.

And then there’s the magazine. In today’s shooting world, where high capacity handguns reign supreme, the underwhelming five-round mag on Sarge’s Model 52 seemed quaint. Contrasted with fast-paced USPSA matches where we shoot rapid double-taps at moving targets and swap 15-round magazines like a pit boss changes tires, I imagined a group of pipe-smoking, tweed-jacketed, gentlemen leisurely popping away freehand at stationary targets amid accolades of, “nice shot old chap”.

Then again, bulleye shooting is about accuracy, not speed and volume of lead downrange. The custom-machined flared barrel with ratcheted bushing, fully adjustable blocky sights, and personalized wood grip further cemented the model 52’s status as a specialized precision instrument as opposed to an all-purpose tool.

I finally got a chance to hit the range with Sarge last weekend up in Minnesota and was blown away by the high performance of such a unique combination of elements. The heavy steel of the gun provided excellent balance and the weapon just felt like a natural extension of my hand. The well-worked slide racked like silk and yet had no hint of slop or play.

The .38 “blunts” fed perfectly and fired off with a pillow-soft recoil akin to a .22. The trigger was one of the lightest and crispest I’ve ever shot (we didn’t measure it, but I’d put it at 2lbs) leading to a couple of initial errant rounds as I took up what turned out to be zero trigger slack while getting on target.

Sarge and I both shot two mags singlehanded at 25 feet to start with no prior practice and you can see the results here.

Sight adjustments aside (grandpa clearly had the pistol dialed in to his own preferred sight picture and range to target) the groupings were ridiculously tight as the flat lead slugs paper-punched perfect circles with no ragged edges. With a little more range time and tweaks to the sights, I’m sure we’d be putting all five through a single hole in the bull.

Sarge and I will be researching this quirky but endearing pistol in the weeks to come. In the meantime, if anyone has any experience or insights on the Model 52 specifically, or wadcutter shooting in general, we’d love to hear from you here in the comments section.