The stock on the Western Classic version is AAA claro walnut, and the buttstock features a shadow-line cheekpiece.

Each Model 52 comes with test groups fired at the factory. Two groups came with mine, one measuring (as best as I could measure) an incredible .05 inch, the other an even more incredible .007 inch, the latter basically three bullets in the same hole. Both were handloads with Reloder 22 powder, the former with the Nosler 85-grain Ballistic Tip, the latter with Speer's 120-grain Grand Slam.

Cooper rifles are tested for accuracy on an indoor 50-yard range, and while it is true that the 100-yard groups most of us shoot are usually more than twice as large as groups fired at half that distance, those test groups measure well under quarter-minute of angle any way you look at them.

The Model 52 is guaranteed to shoot three bullets inside half an inch at 100 yards with handloads of its liking, but what the accuracy guarantee fails to mention is it is not uncommon for a rifle to deliver the same level of performance with some factory ammo. My Model 22 in 6.5-284 Norma will shoot three bullets into half-minute-of-angle all day long, not only with several of my handloads but also with Nosler Custom ammo loaded with the 100- and 120-grain Ballistic Tip bullets.

Same goes for the Model 52 in .25-06 I have been shooting; in addition to averaging half an inch with several handloads, it came close enough to living up to its accuracy guarantee with a couple of factory recipes from Federal and Nosler. When testing the rifle for accuracy I equipped it with a Burris Signature 6-24X scope but switched to a lighter 3-10X Swarovski AV for an upcoming hunt.

Rifles built by Cooper are capable of incredible accuracy for the same reason a match-winning target rifle is accurate: Each component part is the best money can buy or skilled hands can make. Equally important, when all the component parts of a rifle are put together, they are absolutely square and concentric with one another.

The author's sample featured optional Niedner-style steel buttplate and model 70 Super Grade-style quick-detach sling swivel posts.

Years ago, while competing in registered benchrest matches, I learned that a top-quality rifle built for that game will shoot any load reasonably well. A good benchrest rifle will shoot some loads more accurately than others, but it will seldom shoot poorly with any reasonable load its owner decides to feed it. The Cooper Model 52 in .25-06 I had the pleasure of working with is cut from the same cloth; it will shoot loads it really likes inside half an inch and seldom shoots worse than an inch with anything I come up with.

Machined from solid bar stock, the Model 52 receiver bears a strong resemblance to the Model 22 receiver. Both are cylindrical in shape, and both measure 1.30 inches in diameter, but at 83⁄4 inches the Model 52 receiver is about half an inch longer.

The two actions differ in other ways, too. Whereas the Model 22 has a plunger-style ejector in the face of its bolt, the ejector of the Model 52 consists of a spring-loaded blade housed in a slot in the receiver floor, basically the same as on the pre-64 Winchester Model 70.