Remington Speedmaster 552 Questions!

Drachenblut

Drachenblut

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Hello Folks,

As I proceed to purchase one of these venerable .22 rimfire rifles, I find myself at a loss for some information. Perhaps you guys can help me out!

How reliable are these semi-autos for function of the action and over-all durability?

I am purchasing one specifically for it's capability to handle and fire .22S/L/LR, how does it manage to accomplish this multi-ammo firing? Why don't all .22's do this, as most will only reliably cycle .22LR? I understand most semi .22's are blowback operated, so is it merely a very light bolt and spring in this rifle?

Tube magazine - How often does it jam? What kind of ammo do you guys use that seems to function reliably and is reasonably accurate? (Minute-of-Gopher at 100yrds?)

Any more info or sources to read up on info would be very welcome!

Thanks,
Sincerely,
Drachenblut
 
You will love the 552

I had one for a couple years so i can speak with experience.

Mine was super reliable feeding various 22 shorts and long rifle in the mag tube at the same time. as for how it does this i would have to suggest magic perhaps.

As for jamming i dont actually remember it doing that mabey once or twice.
The hammer hits very hard so even an FTF was quite rare.
Accuracy was very good. I really only shot it at 50 yrds with a 12x scope but at that range it would do hole on hole groups with great consistancy.

For ammo i used anything in the bulk packs and were good enough for my needs. 22 short was the cool part. You could load 25 of them and they would all cycle without issue. I would also use CB longs quite a bit too which would not eject but you could load them and cycle it manualy.

A cool trick is to take aluminum arrow shafts and fill them with rimfire rounds to work like speed loaders. Hot glue one end shut then drill the other end and fit it with a cotter pin.

Its a very nice gun you will like it. Now i suppose you are wondering why i sold mine, It was something i bought as an early gun before i really knew what i wanted. I bought a marlin afterwards then sold the remington, and now i have a ruger 10/22 im still playing around i think i may end up with a 552 again someday who knows.
IanC
 
Get one you will not be disappointed. I have a number o rimefires (read too many) and this is one of my favorites. Very realiable and accurate. i love mine.
 
Well Gents, I ended up making a deal to buy one. From all I hear, they are an amazing and impressive little firearm! I am looking forward to owning my very own :)

Cheers!
 
Here's a pics of my arrow shaft Speed Loaders, worked great with my 552 and Marlin 60
Bob
DSC04322.JPG
 
Neat... now question, do you just insert that into the .22 and the rounds dump, then you load with the mag tube insert, or the arrow shaft is the mag tube insert?
 
You stand the rifle up, put the shaft into the end of the mag tube , pull the pin and the shells will drop into the mag. It's cheap and fast ,very handy when shooting in cold weather:D
Bob
 
Have a pair of deluxe speedmasters for nearly twenty years now and no failures to mention. Have dedicated one to shorts and the other is feed long and long rifle. Although to mix the ammo and run it through was never an issue.

That arrow shaft is a great idea to spped up reloading at the range.

.
 
Sorry for seeing this thread so late :redface: - the 552 is a beautiful firearm :cool: , and one of my all-time faves....:)

As long as you don't have one where there are burrs or the spring(s) was (were) butchered (not a word of a lie, some morons not in this country and years ago tried to "trick" the thing into automatic fire :( ), the function ought to be quite fine. In fact, the only time I've noticed jams with a good-condition 552 (and remember, some of these have been around for a while, hence the above comment about burrs and why YMMV) was with a ridiculously heavy scope-arrangement atop the receiver, and even then the reliability was pretty darn good !

Like the OP guessed, the key to the mix-and-match ammo feeding is a "lightweight, buffered bolt" (unlike the 550 and 550-1's "floating chambers"), and AFAIK, there aren't any other semiatomatics configured in such a fashion, so there aren't any others than can replicate the mix-and-match feeding feat...

One thing worth being aware of is the left-side ejection: not a huge issue, but it will get your attention the first time you're shooting in short-sleeves and not accounting for it!

Accuracy...this thing can and will do impressive things...I'm no expert-shooter, but it even makes me look good....'nuff said...

What else? It won't cycle CB Longs....nor Remington CeeBee's (I've only seen the 550-1 do that, so far - it's actually kinda cool to see [and hear!]). But .22 shorts are not a problem...and an interesting way to have a larger magazine capacity.

FWIW, the arrow-shaft trick is also pretty darn cool...
 
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