If you’ve read any of my other write-ups here you know I’m a fan of unusual handgun designs, and this one is now one of my most unusual. When this was first released in 1991 I was just getting into Glocks so this model really didn’t register much to me at the time, and I was not that aware of the model until I saw one on the EE a month or so ago. I did some research but it was sold before I had a chance to make a decision. Luckily for me, this one showed up a couple of weeks ago and I didn’t hesitate!
The philosophy behind the pistol was to be able to offer a traditional DA/SA mode with decocking safety as well as a more traditional DA mode, hence the "BDM" name, standing for "Browning Dual Mode". This was intended to make it easier for law enforcement agencies transitioning from DA revolvers to semi-auto pistols, and was specifically designed as a proposal for the FBI’s new pistol. By the time this was introduced, though, Glocks and other polymer pistols were on the ascendancy, and earlier DA/SA pistol like the SIG P226 or Beretta 92FS still were popular, so the BDM never really found its niche. It’s too bad, really, because this is a really clever and well-implemented design with some unusual features.
I’ve read that the pistol has a similar appearance to the Hi Power, but my my eyes it only bears a passing similarity. It almost reminds my of the Steyr GB with its tapered frame.
The first thing you notice when you pick up the pistol is how slim the grip is (especially for one design to hold 15 rounds!) and how light the pistol feels. The all-steel BDM weighed in at 878g on my kitchen scale, while my aluminum-framed P226 came in at 895g.
The grip is a one-piece plastic unit, and, unusually, fits flush with the frame—this helps in minimizing the grip thickness. You can see the traditional lanyard hole too. The BDM’s grip is 26mm wide, and 47 mm front to back, compared with a SIG P226 at 33mm wide and 49mm front to back.
There is fairly coarse but nicely grippy checkering on the front strap and the factory grips have the same vestigial thumbrest that my Hi Power’s factory grips had.
The sights are well thought out. The front sight is fixed with a standard white dot:
And the rear sight is made snag-free with a couple of protective wings. It has two white dots, and the sight “blade” is angled backwards a little to help keep the rear sight in shadow.
It’s good sight picture!
The barrel looks to be a two-piece affair, with the chamber area being parkerized and the barrel polished. It has a distinct taper after the chamber that I don’t think any of my other pistols have, and unlike the Hi Power, locking is accomplished using the blocky chamber instead of barrel lugs.
OK, so far everything is pretty standard. Here’s where the interesting part starts:
What looks like a Glock-style slide stop is, in fact, indeed a slide stop and functions exactly how you’d think it should, and the lever above the trigger is a SIG-style takedown lever that also works as you’d expect. The disk above the slide stop inlet into the slide is the secret to the BDM’s uniqueness, and how the “dual modes” are selected. In this picture, the dot is by the “P”, which stands for “pistol” in this mode, and when you rack the slide, the hammer stays at the full-cocked position, and you can either start shooting, or, if you’d like use the safety (the lever to the right of the slide stop) to drop the hammer to a partially-cocked position. The safety stays engaged—there’s no decock-only mode. The safe is engaged by swept it down and released by pushing it up. To my “muscle memory” it’s not quite as natural as a 1911-style safety, but in trying it out around the house it still is pretty easy to slide the safety up while taking a firing grip—it’s definitely better for me that a slide-mounted safety. If the slide is locked back, decocking the hammer also drops the slide, like on my Walther P88.
If you rotate the dial to “R” (for “revolver”) the hammer follows the slide forward to the same partially-cocked position as the “P” mode after being decocked. After you shoot and the slide cycles, the hammer returns to the same position. The trigger pull is not too long, but it is a little “stagey”—it’s certainly not like a S&W revolver pull! I’ve seen this mode referred to as DAO, or double-action only, but what’s cool is that even in “R” mode you can still thumb-#### the hammer, just like a DA revolver. After you shoot, it returns to the partially-cocked position—that’s an unexpected feature!
Here are the three hammer positions:
Fully uncocked: usually you’d only see this on an unloaded pistol or if you’d had a misfire.
Partially-cocked: you’ll see this when the pistol is in “R” mode or when it’s decocked in “P” mode.
Fully-cocked: either from the slide cycling in “P” mode or from thumb-cocking in “R” mode.
Here’s the underside of the slide. I don’t know what I was expecting but I was expecting it to be more complicated! The mechanism that actuates the different modes is on the top part of this picture towards the right side.
That mechanism interacts with the small lever just behind of extractor/slide stop on the left side of the frame. It does not seem to be a super-complex design for the flexibility provided.
The mode-selector dial can be rotated using the small lip on the bottom rear of the magazine floorplate:
If the weather stays good I’m hoping to have it out to the range this week—I’ll update with a report.
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I remember the BDA back from the 1990s but the BDM did not make much of an impression on me.
