Browning Safe

The Medallion M28F Gun Safe Review

The Browning Safe, Medallion M28F, is a premium gun safe, offering some exceptional features for a relatively small price. It has great steel thickness, advanced anti-tampering security features and some of the better storage options in the business.

Browning Safe has seven main series of gun safes. Three are what they term “value series” and the other 4 they consider to be their premium offerings. The Medallion Series is one of the premium offerings. From highest to lowest of these premium offerings rank: Platinum Plus, Gold, Medallion and Silver.

There are 4 different sized Medallion Models. The Medallion M28G is the smallest in the series and can hold between 11 and 22 long guns (depending on your internal configuration) and an additional 7 long guns utilizing the DPX door storage system. So, this comes to 18 to 29 long guns, plus room for hand guns and other storage items.

Key Advantages:

1. UL RSC Rating: The safe has a UL RSC rating. As I touched upon in the Silver SR35F review, I believe the Browning security features go above and beyond those found in most RSC rated safes.For example, this safe has multiple steel panels in the door, a reinforced (U shaped channels) door frame, and extra strong locking bolts at the top and bottom corners of the door (the areas most likely to be attacked).
2. Steel: This is the first Browning Safe Series to offer 10 gauge steel. This is excellent, particularly for a safe that cost under $3,000.
3. Locking Bolts: There are 16, 1.25″, locking bolts surrounding the four door sides. The upper left and lower right locking bolts are significantly longer to provide greater strength to the most vulnerable portion of the door.
4. Fire Rating: Browning Safe does all of its fire safe testing in-house. Obviously, this is not optimal. Nonetheless, they do a good job at explaining why their fire safe rating is appropriate. This particular model has 4 layers of insulation in the walls and an additional layer in the ceiling, which is often the most vulnerable area. Ultimately, this provides the safe with a rating of 90 minutes for 1,200° F.

Key Disadvantages:

1. Height: The interior height of this safe is only 54 inches. If you have overly long guns, this may not be enough to accommodate them all and have a shelf space above.
2. Weight: For its size, this safe is relatively heavy at 855 pounds. However, I would prefer it to be at least 1,000 pounds.
3. Extra Add-Ons: This is a bit of a quibble, but it would be nice to have the lighting and dehumidifier thrown in for free. I understand paying extra for the graphics, but some of the “meat and potato” items would be nice to have them thrown in.

Fit and Finish

One key differentiation for Browning Safe is their exterior finish and interior storage options.

1. Exterior Color: You can choose from 6 different colors and two different textures.
2. Exterior Graphics: There are 8 different game scenes that are options.
3. Exterior Heritage Options: Like the NRA? Member of Ducks Unlimited? You can get one of these or two other organization renderings on the safe.
4. DPX Storage System: The door storage system allows you to add 7 additional long guns to the door and miscellaneous other items as well. This extra storage really makes a smaller safe, much bigger.

Bottom Line

If you do not have longer guns and your collection is not particularly large, the Medallion M28F is a great choice. It has great steel (10 gauge) and many advanced security features you really can feel confident with. I generally positive about many safes, given price versus feature trade-offs, but with safe you get great features at a reasonable price.

Medallion M28F – By the Numbers