Browning BDM: What a Surprise! A not too objective report...

[Mad Magyar]

I never thought I’d find something as unique in a 9mm than my Daewoo in “fast-action”. This is a “Wundernine” of the 1st magnitude.
Duel Mode: Pistol/Revolver by a turn of a screw. BTW, the mag has a protrusion at the base to act as a screwdriver.
In the R mode, I wanted a DA trigger where the hammer was always at rest after firing. Chamber a rd and you’ll have a nice crisp 9pd pull in DAO & in SA, 4pds by my meter.
The P mode is the conventional type of DA trigger action with a decocker. Completely safe in either mode with a passive firing pin safety. Yes, definitely one in the chamber while in carry. I can see this “puppy” in my cross-draw holster in the near future…
The combination lever is an easy thumb reach & acts as a safety, decocker, and release of slide.
Disassembly is a snap with a take-down lever….Fit & finish was to my liking.…..Inspecting it gave few hints of wear or usage since it was sold with the description as test-fired only. I believe it. Sights are adjustable with a Novak-style housing, snag-proof with 3-white dots. Gripping the BDM is a delight since it is narrow due to the use of a flat wire mainspring instead of the usual long coil type. No long reach to the trigger. I still can’t get over how thin it is for a hi-cap pistol.
One selling point for me was this pistol came with 4 mags, including 2 pre-ban 15rds, hard-case, papers, & manual. However, w/the 15 rd mag, it takes a Herculean effort to load the last few cartridges and I kept it at 13. From my experience, not uncommon with hi-cap mags…
AMMO: FMJ115gr-Lawman & JHP147gr Win. SilverTips.. (100 rds-No hiccups)

How does it shoot? This is the best part….At the 5 yd target, string of double-taps using one hand point shooting, and wheeling to the 10 yd target repeating the exercise using sights, w/2-hands, wide-leg crouch, aka “horse stance”. Gives me better balance and reduces my size as a potential target. Pistol is remarkable in accuracy lining up the 3-dots, performing far better than my capabilities. Where have we heard that expression before? I must admit I was more accurate in the P mode, no doubt due to a lighter pull & use of sights…
The comfortable grip absorbed recoil well keeping muzzle lift to a minimum for follow-up shots.
Any BDM owners, please chime in with your thoughts.

 

[BlkHawk73]

Many times I've considered the BDM. Something about the gripangle or bbl axis keeps me from passing though. Maybe this year I'll look again.

 

[Hoppy590]

BDM is a great gun that came at the wrong time. really its a victim of politics and bad laws

 

[nwilliams]

I had a BDM for a short time, interesting gun but I never fell in love with it so I ditched it for a Hi Power and was much happier.

I did like how slim it was but I didn't like the trigger one bit and was never very accurate with it, compared to all my other guns the BDM was least accurate gun in my collection by far. The only thing that I owned that had a worse trigger was my 1895 Nagant and that was only when fired in D/A. In single action even my Nagant had a better trigger. Sorry I've been down the BDM road, the gun's just not for me, but I'm glad you liked it

 

[ozarkhillbilly]

I had one for several years and liked it, what caused me to get rid of it was that with my 5 10rnd mags it worked great but I had 3 15rnd mags and could not get one of them to go more then one mag full before a ftf. Never could figure out what the problem was. Over all was very pleased with the gun, sold it to buy a sig 229 in .357sig.

 

[yhtomit]

One of these is the first centerfire pistol I bought, and it's still one of of my favorites, even given that *all* of my guns are "favorites" (loosely speaking, compared to the universe of possible guns out there) or I wouldn't have bought 'em in the first place

Smooth, accurate, and (IMO) the trigger's quite nice. Of my small handful of autopistols, I think only my new Cz-75 is quite as nice in the hand (I have smallish hands). I do wish I had a few more mags for it, though -- perhaps next time there's a gunshow in Harrisburg I'll find a few.

timothy

 

[wideym]

I bought one when they first came out. It was a great pistol that shot very well. The price was great at the time, can't remember the exact cost, but it was way cheaper than a Berreta. I ended up giving it one of my uncles who wanted a nine mm for home defence. The only problem I really had with it was the 10 round only mags.

 

[Mad Magyar]

The BDM (Browning Double Mode) has been sold to the Secret Service as the BRM (Revolver Mode only). The Secret Service seems to be nearing final acceptance, which will allow Browning to start on BDM production for the consumer market.

Just ran across this in a 1991 gun mag....Not sure if the Secret Service really followed through with it....Anyone know?

 

[Jim Watson]

They did not. As I recall the followup gunzine article, the Secret Service threw in a last minute requirement for constant use of +P and by the time Browning beefed up the gun to take it, the SS had gone to something else; Sig-Sauer, I think.

One of our regular IDPA shooters here wore out three of them and went to Colt when he could no longer get parts.

 

[Jack2427]

BDM mags, both 10 & 15 round are available from CDNN.

 

[MacEntyre]

Does anyone know if it is possible to convert the BDM to it's cousin, the BPM-D? The BPM-D has a return spring on the decocker, so it cannot act as a safety.

I love the pistol, but cannot use it's upside down safety.

 

[jdmb03]

I had one for a short time. Excellent carry and range piece. It's very slim for a double stack. It was also very accurate. I used mine in DAO. High-cap mags can be a little hard to come by.

 

[1KPerDay]

My brother has one... pretty cool. I like how slim it is.

 

[yhtomit]

For those of you with BDMs and / or BPM-Ds: Can you tell me whether the mags used are identical?

I have a BPM-D, my first centerfire pistol and it's not going anywhere So far, it's been great (bought used in 1999, but like all my guns fired only on the rare chances I get to the range), but it came with only one mag.

timothy

 

[MacEntyre]

I think the mags are identical.

 

[Omaha-BeenGlockin]

Where did you get a target with Dog the Bounty Hunter on it???


Not identical---the 10 rounders had an inch or so plastic plug at the base of the mag.

 

[MacEntyre]

I thought he meant do the BDM and BPM-D use identical mags...

 

[tbreed725]

i had a bdm many many years ago from what i remember a good gun just wasnt my thing.

 

[Omaha-BeenGlockin]

Yes--the mags were common between the 2 pistols.

Sorry---I skim a lot when reading the posts.