Remington 552

The Remington 552 Speedmaster is a blowback semi-automatic .22 caliber rifle that has been in production since 1957 with a few changes. These changes include different stock designs, checkering methods, and the addition of the J- Lock safety. According to the owner’s manual, the Model 572 shares the same basic shape but the 572 is a pump action. Both have a tubular magazine with varying capacity. This varying capacity is due to the rifle being able to fire. 22 Short, Long, and Long Rifle cartridges.

According to the owner’s manual, the magazine will hold 20 Shorts, 17 Longs, or 15 Long Rifle cartridges. Since it has a tubular magazine, it is not as fast to reload as a detachable magazine, such as used by the Ruger 10/22, for example. This can be mitigated to some extent by making a speedloader as I explained in my "Winchester .22 Speedloader" (June 2019) for the Winchester 190. These speedloaders are basically a tube with a plug in one end and a removable cap on the other.

This allows preloading the tube with the desired cartridges, remove the rod from the magazine tube, and carefully pouring them into the magazine tube. If you have multiple different rifles with varying capacities, make sure you don’t get the speedloader tubes mixed up. Also, be sure to insert cartridges in the speed loader tube in the proper direction. The Remington 552 manual contains a very important warning.

After you unload the rifle by removing the rod from the magazine tube and pouring the cartridges out the end, the rifle may have two cartridges left in it; one could be in the chamber and another in the action. Moving the operating handle to eject the round from the chamber could load that second round into the chamber. You should pull the operating handle multiple times and check the chamber before considering the gun unloaded.

As with any rifle, but especially a .22 rifle, a good cleaning can help the rifle function to its greatest capacity. Disassembly is relatively straight forward. Like the 870, the 552 has two pins to push out to release the trigger guard from the receiver. The trigger guard should be pulled down and towards the back of the receiver to be removed. Rather than disassembling the trigger assembly, I sprayed it out and brushed it off. If it is really dirty, it should be taken apart for cleaning.

Once the trigger assembly is removed, the cover plate in front of it can be as well. A large screw holds the forend in place. Once the screw is removed, the forend should be moved down slightly and pushed forward. The entire barrel assembly can be moved out of the front of the receiver. As you remove it, make sure the action bar/operating handle doesn’t fall out of the bolt. The magazine tube has a small, rather delicate screw to remove. Be very careful with this screw and always use the proper screwdriver.

The magazine tube pulls straight out the front. As it is removed, the action bar, spring, and forend can be removed. Be careful that these Far

When reinserting the pin, make sure it doesn’t interfere with the firing pin channel. parts don’t disassemble themselves faster than you planned due to the spring. The firing pin and extractor are held in the bolt by pins. Removing these allows for better cleaning of the bolt. At this point, once you have cleaned everything, the automotive repair manuals seem to be fond of saying, "Assembly is the reverse of disassembly." Then, they go on to the next topic. Sometimes, that is sufficient.

Other times, you run into snags putting something back together. With this disassembly, the biggest snag seems to be that you may need to hold the action bar, bolt, spring, forend, and barrel assembly together as you push them back in to the receiver. Otherwise, it might try to spring apart. Once everything is reassembled, it is time for a function check and a trip to the range for testing. Start close to make sure you’re still on the paper and then proceed from there.

If the day is hot and you know where to look, you might catch a glimpse of the bullet as it arcs out to 300 yards. While it is not a magazine-fed autoloader, the Remington 552 Speedmaster is still a fun and accurate plinker. Maintain them well and 552 rimfires will enjoy along service life for your customers. AG While it isn’t as stiff as a recoil spring in a 10mm 1911, it is still a spring under compression that may try to take on an uncompressed state. American Gunsmith Reader Services 1.