A bottom metal is a

firearm A firearm is any type of gun that uses an explosive charge and is designed to be readily carried and operated by an individual. The term is legally defined further in different countries (see legal definitions). The first firearms originate ...

component typically made of

metal A metal () is a material that, when polished or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electrical resistivity and conductivity, electricity and thermal conductivity, heat relatively well. These properties are all associated wit ...

lic material (such as

aluminium alloy An aluminium alloy ( UK/IUPAC) or aluminum alloy ( NA; see spelling differences) is an alloy in which aluminium (Al) is the predominant metal. The typical alloying elements are copper, magnesium, manganese, silicon, tin, nickel and zinc. There ...

steel Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon that demonstrates improved mechanical properties compared to the pure form of iron. Due to steel's high Young's modulus, elastic modulus, Yield (engineering), yield strength, Fracture, fracture strength a ...

), that serves as the floor of the action and also helps to clamp the receiver onto the

stock Stocks (also capital stock, or sometimes interchangeably, shares) consist of all the Share (finance), shares by which ownership of a corporation or company is divided. A single share of the stock means fractional ownership of the corporatio ...

. The bottom metal also frequently incorporates the

trigger guard A trigger guard is a protective loop surrounding the trigger (firearms), trigger of a firearm designed to prevent unwanted contact with the trigger, which may cause an accidental discharge. Other devices that use a trigger-like actuator mechanism, ...

, for instance on the Mauser 98 and

M1 Garand The M1 Garand or M1 rifleOfficially designated as U.S. rifle, caliber .30, M1, later simply called Rifle, Caliber .30, M1, also called US Rifle, Cal. .30, M1 is a semi-automatic rifle that was the service rifle of the United States Army, U.S. ...

, although a trigger guard by itself is ''not'' considered a bottom metal. In

repeating firearm A repeating firearm or repeater is any firearm (either a handgun or long gun) that is designed for multiple, repeated firings before the gun has to be reloaded with new ammunition. Unlike single-shot firearms, which can only hold and fire a sin ...

s with internal magazines, the bottom metal serves as the magazine floorplate and contains the spring and follower, either as a fixed solid piece or can be opened like a

hinge A hinge is a mechanical bearing that connects two solid objects, typically allowing only a limited angle of rotation between them. Two objects connected by an ideal hinge rotate relative to each other about a fixed axis of rotation, with all ...

d door. Bottom metals designed to accept detachable magazines are called detachable bottom metals (DBM), and contain a rectangular reception slot called the ''magazine well'', with a

latch A latch or catch (called sneck in Northern England and Scotland) is a type of mechanical fastener that joins two or more objects or surfaces while allowing for their regular separation. A latch typically engages another piece of hardware on the ...

mechanism that securely holds the inserted magazine in place.

Single-shot In firearm designs, the term single-shot refers to guns that can hold only a single round of ammunition inside and thus must be reloaded manually after every shot. Compared to multi-shot repeating firearms ("repeaters"), single-shot designs have ...

firearms (e.g.

SIG Sauer 200 STR The SIG Sauer 200 STR (Scandinavian target rifle), also known as the SIG Sauer 200 STR Match, is a bolt-action rifle mostly used as a Shooting sport, target/competition rifle for national competitions by Norwegian, Swedish and Danish sport shoote ...

) typically do not have bottom metals, and modern firearms with metallic chassis (e.g. SIG Sauer CROSS) do not have separate bottom metals as its function is already integrated into the chassis. Aftermarket bottom metals are available commercially for various models of modern firearms. It is not uncommon to see a firearm with an internal magazine (e.g. a

Remington 700 The Remington Model 700 is part of a series of bolt-action (later semi-automatic 7400 series) centerfire rifles manufactured by Remington Arms since 1962. It is a progressive variant of the Remington Model 721 and Model 722 rifles series, wh ...

rifle) being modified to accept various models of detachable box magazines (e.g. an AICS magazine), simply by replacing the factory bottom metal with an aftermarket one.

References

{{Firearms Firearm components

See also

References