Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

For many reasons (history, experience - military/civilian, stories from older relatives and friends of WW1 and WW2) I've always been a 1911/45 ACP guy. Never had a desire to own a 9mm.

A few months back I saw a strange looking pistol in a local gun store. I asked to look at it and that was the first and only Browning BDM I'd ever seen/held. I went home, did some internet searches for description/history/parts availability and then went back and bought it.

Its a neat pistol. It has features usually found on customized pistols (rounded edges, countours on the slide to aid in pulling it to the rear, ribbed gripping surfaces on the frame, extended ambidextrous thumb safeties, etc.) Its the slimmest double stack 9mm ever made, its lighter (even with the steel frame) than many aluminum frame 9's. It's got both external (thumb) and internal (have to pull the trigger) safeties for the hammer to hit the firing pin.

It's easy to field strip and holds 16 rounds (1 in the chamber, 15 in the magazine). One of these days I'll convince my wife its a good pistol for her (due to the light weight and small grip size).

Its not particularly accurate (that's been my experience with other 9mm in the past) as compared to my 1911's but its accurate enough.

Anyone else have/had a BDM 9MM?

Pics please! Never even heard of one before.

This is the only one I have right now. It was in pieces as I always take'em apart to see what they look like and how they go together.



Here's another one. I forgot to mention (a lot of things) the little screw visible on the side of the slide. Turned one direction the pistol operates in double action only mode, turned the other direction it operates double action or single action. One neat thing is even in double action only the hammer does not fall all the way to the slide. It stops at about half cock so when you do pull the trigger it only travels a short distance instead of all the way back.

The Browning BDM was a 9x19mm pistol designed for (but never adopted by) the FBI and instead sold on the civilian market from 1991 to 1998. It looks like a Browning Hi Power but is an unrelated design. Honestly I think that the fact that you can switch from DAO to DA/SA is one of the coolest things in a pistol design.

Looks like a S&W 6906 / Beretta hybrid!

It certainly is very reminiscent of the HiPower, visually.

I bought one back in the mid 90's. Quality piece, but I never really warmed up to it completely and traded it off after a few years. No faults in it really, althou I found the DA/SA "switch" kinda gimiky.... Back then I was more infatuated with aquiring and carrying 1911's and Hi-Powers (come to think about it I still am).

Congrats on finding a nice one. Your's is the "Practical" model with the 2 tone frame/slide and snag resistant sights.
Will