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Browning Medalist

4K views 2 replies 2 participants last post by  Walter 
#1 ·
I am thinking of getting a target 22. I have been doing a bit of market research o various brands and models. There are some Browning Medalists on the market that look to be in excellent condition.

Are these an excellent choice or am I better of going with more recent production guns like the S&W Model 41, etc.?

Thanks in advance for the help and advice.
 
#2 ·
The Medalist was a good Target pistol, as was the older S&W Model 41.
I'm not too sure about the newer S&W's, I don't think they're up to the older ones in quality.
I don't remember seeing that many Browning's in bigger matches, but I really don't know why.

Something else to look at is the High Standard.
"Back in the day" you saw more High Standard's then anything else.
At the Camp Perry level you very often saw the top shooters using High Standard 10X guns assembled and tuned by Bob Shea, who was HS's top gunsmith.
Probably the most popular models were the one's with the "military" grip that had the same angle as the 1911 .45. This gave the shooter the same feel for matches using center fire and rim fire pistols.

The later big Match shooters mostly seemed to use the High Standard Victor with the 5 1/2" barrel, although some liked the 4 1/2 inch because it balanced like a .45.

The current High Standard is not up to the original High Standard when they were still in the original location in Hamden Conn, and before moving to East Hartford in 1976.
During the East Hartford days quality dropped until they went bankrupt.
You can still buy nice Hamden High Standard Victors if you shop Gunbroker.
I used one for years and I much preferred it to the "civilian grip" HS Target model I owned early on.

The current High Standard still sells a variety of 10X models built by Bob Shea.

High Standard - HS 22's
 
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