Hi, I've been asked to check a gun over, it's a Hilton gun co O/U. I'm led to believe these were made by Sabatti, when I stripped it, I found it had olimpo stamped on the inertia weight so I figured its a re branded Sabatti olimpo.
Now the fun starts, the safety/selector spring is broken and needs replacing , spares don't seem to be readily available after doing a quick search, so I thought maybe an early-ish Browning medalist part may fit. I believe the majority of these were made by Sabatti /FIAS , the actions look very similar so the big question is...
Does anyone out there know if parts are interchangeable ?
I figure it'd be easier to source Browning spares as there may have been a lot more sold.
Thanks in advance for any replies.

You might check with "Salopian" who used to post here and is often at shootclay.com If he doesn't know he may well know someone who does.

have a day

Dr.WtS

Am told that earlier guns differ from later ones .BWM have some parts but supplies are spasmodic . I have been trying to get Sabatti parts from the current importers Range Right for months with no luck . Best just junk it and have done .Save yourself a lot of headaches .

First thing I would do is contact the manufacturer directly.

With kind regards,
Jani

You could probably make the spring in less time that it takes to find one.

Thanks for your replies Gents. I think it'd found a replacement, phoned a spares firm here in the UK, they asked me to send a picture of the part, they promptly dug one out and have sent it in the post. They said it should fit so sent it free , asking if I'd send payment if it's ok or to send it back if not, it should be here in the next day or so. A good service indeed.

I've read since that Zoli made the first medalists but the job was later given to sabatti. I thought about making a spring but to be honest, I've not made many so thought best try and find a replacement before making one that may not be reliable. I'll let you know if it all works out ok.

Browning Medalists were made in Belgium by FN. Not Italy, not Sabatti, not Zoli.

Where on Earth you ever got the idea that a Browning pistol spring might work on an Italian o/u is hard to fathom.
JR

They were both called medalist, the pistol and the shotgun.
I'm in the middle of fixing the shotgun.
Maybe the shotgun wasn't available in the USA or possibly had a different name. As far as I know it was a model introduced to compete with cheaper European makes in a certain price bracket.

http://www.shootinguk.co.uk/gunreviews/shotguns/126690/Browning_Medallist_shotgun_review.html

Who makes it?
The Medallist is made not, like the majority of Brownings, by Miroku in Japan, but in Italy by FIAS. FIAS is an abbreviation for Fabbrica Italiana Armi Sabatti, which is part of the Sabatti Armi group based in the Gardone valley, near Brescia in northern Italy. It is run by brothers Emanuele, Antonio and Marco Sabatti, whose family - like those of so many current Italian manufacturers - is steeped in the history of gun making in the area. They make shotguns and rifles in a modern and well-equipped plant.

Thanks for the link, it explains it better than I could.

The Medallist does not actually have any thing to do with Browning's or FN . It was a budget gun distributed by the then Browning UK [A company set up to distribute the Browning range ] as an additional line . It is actually wrong to call it a "Browning" at all and it was never sold as such the name Browning attached its self to the Medallist by default . When Browning took over the company Browning UK and changed the name to BWM [Browning Winchester Miroku ] they did consider dropping them altogether as they were not a Browning product .

Would it have been a UK only gun then ? I read that it was introduced to compete in the sub £1000 gun market at the time. Oddly enough, many of the guns it competed against were also made by fias. I usually take pictures for reference when I strip actions, found a set this morning of a lanber, hey presto, olimpo stamped on the block. I'd heard that some of these guns were made there too but hadn't checked until now. This particular one was more like the medalist action than the Hilton gun Co gun that I'm fixing
I'd heard some of the Lincoln guns were built by fias too
It'd seem that the practice of firms selling actions or complete guns to other firms is still as common as it always was.