RWS 52 Review

Overall Rating

Excellent workmanship, Beautiful finish, Powerful Rifle

Somewhat loud discharge noise might lead some to mistake this for a firearm. Not a bad point, really, just be aware around exciteable/nosy neighbors.....

Just got my RWS 52 .177cal \'48 yesterday (finally graduating up from the mod. 24 I bought 16 years ago) and am very happy with it so far. I was a bit surprised to find when I fired my first shot in the garage last night at a 1/4 inch thick piece of plywood that it passed cleanly through the wood like a hole punch and left the wadcutter pellet portruding on the *outer side* of my wooden garage door! I have been using light daisy wadcutters as this is the only thing I have got on hand at the moment (at least until some better ammo arrives in a few days..) and with these light pellets the rifle has a report like a .22 cal firearm. The first shot left my ears ringing. Shooting out in the backyard the next day it exhibited the same behavior, perhaps caused by the pellets breaking the sound barrier. So now for a few personal observations, some based on comments in other opinions posted here (that I made a point to read completely before I settled on this marvelous rifle): 1. recoil complaints are a bit overrated. if you can hit a target with a .22 then this rifle is a pussycat. Certainly it jerks a bit when fired, but..so what? 2. I have read many complaits that this was a heavy rifle..true dat, but again, if you want light, buy a mod 24 or something lower powered. Weight is the price you pay for the substantial power this rifle has got 3. The sights are. as typical for RWS, excellent with wonderful adjustment and settings 4. This is definitely a rifle for adults, preferably with long arms because the stock is full sized (too big for the kids to shoot competently) and it requires a lot of effort to cock this beauty. Chalk that up to yet another sacrifice made for the power this rifle offers. Drawing the cocking lever definitely builds upper body strength. I wouldn\'t want to see anyone try who couldn\'t see it through to completion, however... 5. Accuracy: emm, lets wait a bit to comment on that one. From what I read it takes ~1000 shots to break these rifles in so that the shots even begin to show any consistency. I am awaiting the 1000 shots-fired day with quiet hopefulness. So far it shoots high and to the left. Havent seen anything closer than 1\" but I remain hopeful this will improve as the rifle breaks in. If my good old mod 24 is any example the 48 will do just fine given some time and adequate break-in. 6. Note to all southpaw shooters: I settled on the 48 and its plainer stock because I shoot left handed and it appeared that the 52, while having a more polished stock, was biased more towards the right-handed portion of the population. Overall, I find the 48 is pretty friendly for southpaws. The arc of the breech might be extended a bit more towards the left side of the rifle to make loading a pellet easier, but all in all it doesn\'t present too much trouble for me as a lefty. Now if there was a left handed stock for the 52, I might have forked out the extra cash for that fine rifle...

Overall: excellent rifle, typical to other RWS products I have owned. It has its quirks as any rifle/special design will, but, that having been said, I give it a strong 10 for quality, fit and finish, and..did I mention.. Power...