Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats ADL or BDL?

Your thoughts please.

I have never cared much for a floor plate. So ADL is what I would choose. Just my 5 cents…

Do you have any ADL style rifles, are you familiar with them?

Adl with a stock designed as adl - ks, montana, ula/nula.

Is there any reason/theory why ADL would not feed has well as a BDL?

Absolutely, I have a Remington 700 SS, 5 NULA’s, 1 Forbes, 2 rebuilt CLR’s, a Kimber Montana, and an OutKast Arms Kimber custom.

I also own at least 4 rifles with floor plates, a pre-64 Model 70, a Ruger 77, Christensen Ridgeline, and a Weatherby MK 5.

There have been many others of both flavors as well, particularly the Kimber Montana and Mountain Ascent.

I just like the ADL style better. No worries about dropped shells and no metal plate to make your hand colder.

AKwolverine makes a very good point about stock design.

Either. Unloading an ADL is more time consuming.

Good point. An ADL on a stock that is "squared off" on the bottom to handle the BDL bottom metal doesn't feel right in the hand in ADL configuration. A bunch of Manners' stocks are like this. On the other hand the stocks you mentioned are more rounded under the action and carry nicely in the hand.

To me, often when I open a floor plate, multiple items land on the ground, including spring and follower,

I’ve never owned a gun with ADL setup, Don’t mind BDL, just don’t see the usefulness of it.

Often?

“Often”, I don’t open the floor plate often, but percentage wise, when I do, it happens too often.

All my rigs are ADL and that is what I started with in the 70’s. I won’t go into why they might be better as it will start the “fire”. To each their own. There are some states that don’t allow travel with ammo in the belly. If I lived in one of these states I would consider BDL for ease and speed of unloading.

Adl. Every time.

ADL every time for a huntin' rig....at least for my stuff. I've converted several BDL stocks to ADL style. It's too bad Greyboe doesn't offer an ADL....I talked with them about it but their molds don't work for the ADL's. -Al

I’m glad 10 round dangling dbm wasn’t an option.

Prefer ADL. Simpler and lighter. Plus, I don't care for Remington bottom metal. On other rifles I don't mind a floorplate. In fact, I've become a fan of a DBM.

ADL vs. BDL isn't a big deal in my book.

It's easier to dry out a BDL-style rifle after it's been out in heavy rain and ADL-style rifles tend to be less expensive.


Okie John

Given the choice of 2 identical rifles on the shelf, I'd nab the blind bottom every time. That said, I live and hunt in areas that allow one to leave rounds in the belly in or out of the vehicle, so, its actually pretty rare that I DON'T have rounds in the magazine during season. Meaning I don't have to empty the magazine until season is over and the rifle is headed for the safe for a while.

I've only "mag-dumped" a hinged floor-plate once. I had a dead elk that decided to un-dead itself. I had the rifle sitting on the toe of the stock and a set of bipods. When I picked up the rifle, I tripped the release button on my M70 Classic SS. In the grand scheme, the elk died for good a few seconds later but it made things more sporting than they needed to be for a quick second.

If your spring and follower are landing on the ground often, there may be other issues to address. That shouldn’t be happening.

I don't know that I prefer one over the other. Have both. Seems my favorite riles have seldom had floor plates And I don't find them good or bad. Never had a floor plate fall open on me and never had one fall out unloading a rifle. Then again I keep one hand on the floor plate and don't allow it to fall open. I think if you just let it drop open your asking for trouble. Also if it falls open then the ammo in it all goes on the ground! I hate it if a case hits the ground! Even when I shoot an animal I use my free hand to catch the mty coming out.