Detachable mag or hinged floorplate. Pros, Cons??

Rule3

Rule3

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Looking at some bolt action rifles. Some with a mag, some with a hinged floor plate and some with neither. Guess it's internal. They all hold 4 +1. Can not see the one that has neither. What a pain to unload.Must be a cost cutting move.

Is there an advantage to the box mag other than ease of reloading if you have an extra and shoot a lot?

I have hinged floor plates on higher calibers and mags and tubes on rimfire and carbines.

Does a box mag feed better or just something to loose?:)
 
Definitely go with the hinged floor plate, self contained magazine.

All the high end Winchester, Remington, Ruger, etc. bolt actions use the Mauser style magazine.

Even though the Lee-Enfields had detachable mags, they were mostly treated as a fixed magazine rifle.

On this type of rifle, I think the detachable box magazine would just be something to lose and would be more vulnerable to damage.

You don't need it.
 
I'm not too keen on detachable magazines on a bolt action rifle. The inevitable finger grooves that are cut into the stock just don't look right to me. I guess I just can't see the point of being able to reload a bolt action repeater fast, if I need the speed I'll go with a high capacity autoloader.

I prefer the Mauser style hinged floor plate on my bolt guns over the blind magazines as it makes for quick unloading after the hunt.
 
I have a Ruger 77 MKII with hinged floorplate, and my dad hunts with a Remington 7600 with detachable mag, both in .30-06. We always look forward to our annual trips to deer camp together and often spend weeks getting our gear ready for trip.

Last year, after all our preparation, we got to camp and dad had forgotten his magazine and the spare magazine in the drawer of his gun cabinet. Basically, he spent all season with a nice pump action single shot rifle.
 
Remington 700DM

The Remington 700DM's had a detachable box magazine. I never could warm up to it on a bolt action rifle and eventually sold it. I much prefer the hinged floor plates.

Rem. 700DM .300 magnum...detachable box

351306330.jpg


Remington 700's with hinged floor plate...much cleaner looking

375630574.jpg


354499431.jpg
 
Great pics! I have a older 700 30-06 with hinged floor plate also and agree it is much nicer looking. The box did not make sense to me either and was wondering what advantage if any there was. I can not see one.
 
Worst thing about the detachable box mag is that it is right at the point of balance on the rifle, right where your hand goes when you carry it with one hand.

It is a rare big game hunting situaton where one would need more than 4 or 5 shots. I would think the box mag is most useful when the hunter is in and out of a vehicle an needs to frequently load and unload. A hinged floorplate is fine for that for me.
 
Some hinged floor plates have been known to open under heavy recoil or accidentally pushing the release slide, dumping all your cartridges on the ground. Not good when hunting dangerous game.
My Browning has a hinged floor plate with a box magazine that attaches to the floor plate. I can't think of any advantages that design offers.
There's no dangerous game around here so I prefer the hinged plate.
If I were going into combat I'd want a detachable box magazine. There's good reason that military rifles use box mags.
 
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I'll be the minority voice: I prefer detachable magazines. I find them faster to reload and safer to unload. I've always found the hinged floor plates to be flimsy. I don't trust them to stay closed.

Out
West
 
I have rifles with each type. I have never had a problem with the detachable floorplate. I have had mags fall out on a couple of occasions. If you do not notice that happening and do not have a spare, your shooting for the day is done.

There is no difference in shoving a round into a rifle with a hinged floorplate than into a detachable mag. Accuracy is not going to be changed using either. The only factor is do you want something to go wrong with a mag or the release/catch pins or possibly lose a mag, forget a mag or have a mag spring break.

For me the advantages of a hinged floorplate are great and there is no advantage to a detachable mag.
 
I'm going to side with Out West. I have both and have always loved my Remington 700s with the hinged plate. However, I don't look at a detachable mag as a faster reload as much as a faster switch in case I want a different load. It sure beats the heck out of staggering them and needing two of one or throwing one on the ground.
 
Ol' Murphy jest luvs detachable magazines...He got one of mine somewhere's along the trail on the North Fork of the Flathead river.
Another one down on the Pine Ridge Res. in S.D.
 
It doesn't matter much either way to me but in a perfect world I would prefer a well designed detachable magazine. Faster and easier to load and unload if you have to get in and out of a vehicle, going to different hunting locations, and you can have extra loaded magazines with different loads for different occasions. My buddy lives on a farm and there is always a M-70 .243 in the middle of the front seat of his truck with the muzzle in the floor board. He picks up other kids when he takes his son to play baseball, so it may not be wise to leave them with a loaded gun, but there is always a loaded magazine on the dashboard in case a coyote or bobcat pops up. I don't like the design of the detachable magazine on some guns(like the Rem 700) and some make the gun look ugly, but the Beretta Tikka has a pretty decent one.
 
A box magazine is great for a truck gun. You cant drive around with a loaded rifle legaly. A box magazine will put you in action quick! That said, I only have one. A remington slide action 760. On my bolts when wanting to unload I usualy drop the floorplate and remove the shells rather than run them all through the action. Maybe I am by myself in that practice.
 
I'm no fan of detachable mags on sporting rifles because they're easy to lose. Finding replacements can be nearly impossible, especially for older models. Just ask anyone who owns a Winchester Model 100 or Model 88. The mags are nearly as expensive as the guns.


Okie John
 
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