I actually do not own one. Have plenty of vintage Pflueger bait casters and ultra light modern trigger spinning reels. Enjoy them all but they are not fly reels.

Doing a little research and realizing I don’t know much about them.
I have an Olympic Cortina Hurricane that I have been told is a Japanese knock off with a better designed drag mechanism.
I am looking for something in a 5/6 range and see that there are new versions that claim to be better than the originals. I am a bit skeptical, but looking for feedback from those that have used both the modern and originals.
Are these basic clicker reels? If so, the Olympic with its nylon clamping drag on a reversible clicker is clearly a superior design based on my observations.
I also have a Pflueger Monarch 5/6 that looks a lot like my Martin LM 45 but has a smooth drag with nice adjusting knob.
Thanks in advance.

The hurricane I had was much heavier than the comparable Medalist, and has a different style drag.

The hurricane drag was made from a plastic that didn't age well. It becomes brittle and will snap.

I used to think the Olympic drag was comparable but clunky, but after having a couple snap I now consider them only useful as a priest.

There is enough written on Medalist on this and other forums - for 50 years, America's Best fly reel - there's no excuse to write an OP like this one.

BD’s post caused me to do a quick search on this forum.
5,670 Medalist posts.
Amazing!

You'll enjoy it. And check out the Orvis Madison version as well.

I think I can safely call my feelings for Pflueger Medalists a "Love/Hate" relationship. My first 2 reels were Medalists..one I still have a 1494DA model that is used for parts these days. The second one my wife bought me as a part of my first graphite outfit in the late 70's....the rod was a Pflueger as well.

That is the "Love" part of the equation, going back to the sixties and seventies...nostalgia for a time when those reels were really the workhorses and basic options for many fishermen who could not afford Hardy's, Bogdan's etc. I believe they were about $20 retail, which was a bit of money for a reel back then. A Hardy cost $100 new, which was a lot of money, considering a brand new Orvis cane rod was $150 or so out of the catalogue. The Medalist had mainly disc drags that worked well

The "Hate" came about while running a fly shop, long past the time when they were "Made In The U.S.A." and we frequently spooled lines on them, occasionally switched from right to left hand retrieve for customers. Hint: use "Loctite" when replacing the screws that hold the frame together, so they don't come apart again. Switching the line guard was often necessary. The disc drags had some small parts, but doable , even for those of us who are not very adept at such things.

The full frames of Medalists somewhat precludes the palming of the spool on a running fish..but there is a way with ones finger tips on the edge of the spool. The drags are remarkably smooth, being a well designed disc drag (the disc can be removed and flipped over to change retrieve direction), but the bad part, in my thinking, is all the small parts involved. They are amazing...but for me the less moving parts on a fly reel the better.

I have a few intact Made In USA Medalists...a 1495, a 1495 & 1/2..and an unfished 1492 click drag Medalist I have yet to find a use for. I prefer the simplicity of the click drag Medalists, but they all work. Oh, and about 6 spools that inevitably show up in vintage tackle boxes at yard and estate sales. The pot metal is soft bends easily, so can be bent back with ease as well.

The 1495 (&1/2) series are a good size for 6 wts..and I would leave a Made in USA Medalist right hand rrtireve if that is how you find it.

The Madison has a different color scheme... be on the lookout for that.

No need to ever use LocTite on small pieces, in my experience, all that is needed is to clean the mating parts with a solvent like lacquer thinner or acetone. Something a couple of old mechanics taught me sixty years ago that still seems to work.

Sounds like a perfect pair to me , my first non-beginners outfit (back early 70’s somewhere) was a 7’-6” Feralite for 6wt , with a 1494 1/2 , I still fish it a couple times a year , very little if no maintenance over the time , keeps on tickin !

Over ten years ago on eBay there was a dark blurry picture of what looked like a 1495 1/2 medalist with the sculpted pillars and round metal line guard. It also had along side it another cheaper reel, a two for one purchase. I wasn’t 100% sure it was what I thought it was but it had a buy it now of around $20. I bought it and when it showed up sure enough it was that medalist in excellent condition. I almost felt guilty getting such a deal. I really regret selling that one after a year or two

Great looking reel! That may be original paint. More photos should answer your questions.

As for date, reel foot would put it around 1939 or after imo. Earlier would have been painted brass, earlier yet cast. Hard to pin down Pflueger by parts definitively though.

IMHO 1939-1942. I think the combination of the plated square foot and the non-brass spool bushing fit it right in there somewhere. Someone else might know more precisely when the brass spool bushings first appeared.