Browning Medallist. - 22 January 2002

The name Browning Medallist is somewhat of a misnomer. It is not actually made by Browning at all, but is simply distributed by them.

Unlike all the other guns that are made by Browning, either in Belgium or via Miroku in Japan, the Medallist is made in Italy.

Today the guns are made by Fias, and have been for about the last 12 years or so. The medallist started life in the mid eighties and was originally made by another maker the name of which, escapes my memory at the moment.

I have seen a few of the early ones. And in fact I have one tucked away in my gun cabinet at the moment. I don't think they were dropped in favour of the new one because of any detrimental problems. But they were perhaps a little too complicated for their own good. And certainly the current Medallist is a simpler gun mechanically speaking.

In fact the Medallist could be said to owe some of its pedigree to Browning, in that the basic layout of the mechanism is loosely along the lines of the B25. That comparison starts and finished with the fact that the hammers pivot at the bottom of the action, and the sears are suspended from above. Also similar is the sear lifter come selector block.

As the B25 was the first mass produced OU gun, I guess it could be said that most modern guns borrow something from this original thinking.

The selector works in the same way as the other Browning/ Miroku guns, with the safe button itself being used to choose which barrel should be fired first.

The build up of the action, though is typical Italian, with a shallow action frame dictating that the barrels hinge on stub pins set in the side of the action walls. Lock up is provided by a full width locking bolt in the bottom of the action that engages with a bite cut in the bottom of the barrel lumps.

The barrels themselves are built on the now almost universal monoblock principle. The gun is available with either 28" or 30" barrels. And although most I have seen have been multichoke, I believe they were made in fixed choke as well. Certainly the 20 gauge version is available as fixed or multichoke.

The side ribs are ventilated to reduce weight and keep the gun cool. The top rib is approximately 8mm wide and is ventilated for the same reasons. It is cross cut with small crescents to reduce glare. A red plastic foresight is fitted and they usually had a small brass mid-sight added as well.
Chambers are for standard 70mm cartridges.

The extractors are directly coil spring powered, and provide good contact around the rim of the cartridge.
The action frame itself is covered in a very bold scroll engraving that is obviously done by machine and does add a fair bit to the appearance of the gun. The top lever, safe and trigger guard are all finished in silver to match the action frame. With only the barrels and forend iron being black.

Inside, the top lever spring is housed with a sleeve that is retained by a screw under the top strap. The spring powers a small rod that bears directly onto the top lever spindle. If required a rod can be fitted between the top lever spring housing and the safe button itself to make the gun return to safe automatically on opening the gun.

This spindle locates through the full height of the action frame to connect by a cam with the locking bolt at the bottom.

From the back of the action the strikers or firing pins pass through the spindle to appear through the breech face. The hammers are powered onto the strikers by large coil springs.

Independent levers for each side cock the hammers. And are retained back by a tooth in the bottom of the hammer. On firing these levers come forward and an arm on the side engages with the ejector trip. The cocking levers are pushed back on opening by a cam in the front of the forend iron.

As the gun is opened and the cocking levers are doing their task, so the extractor comes into direct contact with the front of the action, and is forced back over the trip until it fires at the point of the gun being almost fully open.

That basically how the gun works. So what's to go wrong?
Well for a gun at the cheaper end of the market the Medallist does have a fair bit of staying power and is generally reliable. Rarely do they misfire, as the strikers are pretty chunky and the mainsprings are big and strong. Though there are one or two things that do show up pretty regularly in my workshop.

The medallist's extractors are made from cast steel, and have the actual ejector rod hidden in a slot within them. This ejector rod is very strong and I have never seen one broken, but the extractors do break fairly regularly, largely, I think because they are cast. However, it is not too much of a problem to fit a new one. Though a little time is needed.

Another problem that found me on a couple of occasions last year was the cocking cam in the forend breaking. Although the area that contacts the cocking levers is quite chunky, where it locates into the forend iron is quite thin. New one of these I tend to make as I can then make them a little thicker and so as strong as possible to prevent a recurrence.

There is a screw just behind the safe that secure the trigger plate to the action frame strap, which can come loose on occasion, but this is easily remedied by tightening, and prevented from happening again with a little loctite or similar.

Woodwork is usually pretty plain and simple, though very functional. The stock has a nicely shaped pistol grip that is slim and comfortable in the hand. The forend is the popular schnabel shape and is a very attractive shape. Again it is very comfortable to hold.

The stock and forend are finished with a light varnish or laquer. This will mark very easily, and usually the guns appearance can be much enhanced by stripping this off and oil finishing.

Perhaps one small minus point with the stock is the comb height, which for most is a little too high at approx. 45mm; nearer to 55mm is better for most shooters. But this can be easily adjusted in most cases.

As an all round, more affordable type of gun the Medallist offers excellent value for money, and compares well with guns such as lanber and Lincoln.

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