My only FN so far is a Hi-Power.

Thinking about a larger capacity .45 acp with the option of mounting a red dot.

For those who have or had the pistols in question how much bigger does the FNX/FNP grip feel compared to the Smith.

The M&P feels great for me.  Sometimes I want more than 10 in the grip.  The 14 round mags are OK if you want to nail up wanted posters but they are rather large for carry.

How are the FNPs holding up? My only concern is the barrel wear I have read about.

FNX grip is thicker at the sides and shorter front-back… almost square-ish like a length of 2x2 lumber. I’ll try to get some dimensions. Love my FNX, but natural in the hand it is not.

M&P full-size grip is far more natural feeling. My wife doesn’t like either of them, so there’s that.

Thanks for the feedback.  I think I need to handle one to be sure.

I wear medium size gloves and I think it feels fine in the hand. If you're used to CZs it'll feel a little blocky but it's not bad at all.

The FNP was discontinued around 8 years ago or so and the FNX has a different barrel lug profile so there shouldn't be any concern with barrel wear. My FNX has no unusual wear, and my FNP hasn't worn past the point it wore in at. The FNX is very reliable and doesn't have the OAL sensitivity issues the FNP had.

I used to own the M&P 45 full size and currently own the FNX-45. I mostly agree with with description above.

The FN feels blocky and square and the grip texture is very aggressive. With the flat back strap, the grip angle feels pretty good though. More about the FNX later....

The M&P is much more contoured of a grip and the back straps have built in palm swells. Most people will say the grip on the m&p 45 is more comfortable than the fnx 45 but for me, the m&p 45 had its curves and contours in all the wrong places and kind of felt like a big, round, slippery turd. Stippling the grip helped with the traction but the hand fit just wasn't there for me. I also didn't care for the recoil impulse nor the trigger.

After taking the FNX 45 to the range for the first time my opinion of it really changed for the better. While at the gun store, my initial impression of the FNX was that it kinda felt like a blocky cheese grater yet pointed well and looked cool.

Once I got to the range, almost everything changed. The rather heavy double action trigger pull now seemed very normal and expected for a DA/SA pistol. The recoil impulse was very soft for a 45 and my groups were tiny.... I was not sure how I was shooting the FNX 45 so well but I was hitting everything and even shooting a 6" drop plate at 25 yards was very easy, especially for how fast I was shooting. After shooting the drop plates so well at 25 yards, I put the FNX on paper at 25 yards. Sitting at the shooting bench with my hands on top of a sand bag, I shot 1.25" group with silver bear ammo... I tried again with my 45 carry ammo which is 230 grain Federal HST and got a .75 inch group... Those are the groups I get with my 1500 dollar CZ shadow2, holy shite... The grip that I described as a blocky cheese grater was really keeping the grip planted in my hand and I never once had to re-adjust my grip like I did almost constantly with the m&p 45.  

On top of all the above, my FNX 45 is the only 45 I have tried that reliably feeds wolf, tula and brown bear ammo, plus every other load I have tried including buffalo bore +P, underwood ammo =P, underwood ammo 45 super, every hollow point I have lying around and all the common off the shelf stuff. The 15 round magazines are great and just about every other aspect of the fnx has been great. I upgraded the stock sights to Trijicon HD XR's, added a Streamlight TLR-1 and the FNX is now my winter time and woods carry gun.  

If you are on the fence about an FNX 45, buy it and try it. If you don't like it, the re-sale value seems very good on them too.

I finally got to try the feel of the FNX at the local Sportsmans.  Trigger DA/SA seemed good.  Felt like holding an unfinished 2x2 to me.

Taskmaster is right though.  How it feels is a personal judgement.  The FNX looks good but does not feel right for me.  M&P grip is longer than wide that seems to fit me well.

M&P fills the bill for a .45 double stack.

The intent of my post was more to point out that how a handgun feels in your hand is only a very small aspect of how well a pistol will suit you.

The m&p 45 didn't fit my hand too well but nor did the fnx-45 really.

After firing both of the pistols, the fnx-45 worked so much better for me.

My recommendation is to keep your m&p 45 for now but really try to get a hold of an fnx-45 (or any other blaster you think you might like) so you can shoot it, preferably side by side with your m&p 45 in order to do a head to head comparison. That is really the best way to find what pistol will work best for you but it isn't easy to setup a head to head range trial like that.

I decided I 'needed' a .45 acp with a dot.  Considered milling the M&P.  Then would probably need a new barrel without the loaded chamber indicator.  Looked at all the other possibilities and went back to look at the FNX online (all gone locally).

I noticed they had four backstraps and the smooth one with more arch might work instead of the cheese grater one.  Ordered it and replaced the backstrap.  Much more comfortable.  The arrow points to the grater part of left grip I filed down slightly to stop grinding on fingertips.  Shot a few magazines and it works fine for me.  Not quite as comfortable as M&P but 15>10.  Topped with Trijicon RM-06.

Shot a magazine of carry and reload HPs with B&T suppressor I got 20 years ago when I had my first double stack - HK Tactical.  Pistol shoots better than I do.  A little haze on the optic from the suppressor after 15. Attached File

Nice! The FNX-45 tac is one of the better out of the box red dot and suppressor hosts out there. The cheese grater grip of the fnx can be smooth down with 320 grit sand paper if it really is too aggressive for you.

I just got the FN FNX tactical 45,Im used to CZ75 grip ,so Im still trying to find the right back strap plate.Ive tried the smallest one thought I needed more grit.So I tried the second smallest.May go back to smallest.Im used to 1911 so the SA/Da is a world of difference.Also trying to get used to the suppressor height sights.Gun is more accurate than me so its a learning curve.

I shoot different DA guns- SIG and Beretta and the FNX trigger is not as good as either one. Heavier and some stacking,  but when shooting at speed it is not really noticeable.

I did get used to it though and shoot it pretty well after 500 rounds.

Put a dot on it.

Same here as far as shooting different DA/SA pistols. I actually find the beretta 92 with the 16 lb hammer spring to be the best out of box DA/SA trigger system because the SA is so crisp. Next would be the cz 75 series with a 13 lb hammer spring installed and then a worked over Sig trigger. To me, the original hk usp has the worst DA/SA trigger. The Ruger P345 and FNX series triggers are about middle of the road.

The FNX trigger system is one of those very strange systems that feels downright horrible at the gun shop or during dry fire but then suddenly seems pretty good while actually shooting.

Dot all the non-classic pistols if you can afford it!

It's a duty trigger, not particularly bad or good, just sort of "meh." It's not why you buy the gun; the capacity, optic cut, and threaded barrel are.

I agree with you on the Beretta, my M9A4 has the best out of the box DA/SA trigger I've used aside from my CZ Shadow.

The M&P 2.0 .45 trigger (just on the one I bought) wasn't bad at all.  If I had not already put an Apex trigger on my 2.0 9MM I might have been happy with it.  After putting the Apex trigger kit in it I'm more than happy with the trigger pull.

The 2.0 grip is rough vs. the 1.0.  First few times I carried the 1.0 9MM it felt like it made the skin on my sight side (IWB carry) raw.  After a few days the grip and my skin got used to each other and I no longer noticed it.

The grip feel and trigger were always important to me.  I always felt like both contributed to how well I shot a handgun.  I no longer believe that.  A 2.0 9MM taught me that.  Feels so good in my hand.  The Apex trigger is awesome.  Still shot like shit with all the ammo I ran through it.  Put an Apex barrel in it and it brought it closer to my idea of shooting well.

Oh, did you know you can get 14 round M&P magazines?  Makes the grip longer (hangs out of the bottom of your gripping hand pretty well) but gives you 14+1 of .45 goodness.  I never carry mine that way.  I put a 10 round mag. in it for holster carry and carry a couple 14 round mags for spares.