Friend has one I may do a trade on.   I have something he desperately wants; a Smith 39-2.  I have two other Smith mines so the 39-2 is somewhat excess to my needs.   Two tone night sites three mags and safariland holster.

Read about the recall.  This one hasn’t been through it.  Don’t need another nine.   Don’t need another polymer striker.   But I am curiously intrigued.

What’s the good, bad and ugly about these?

Pros:

My favorite polymer striker handgun behind my Walther PPS M2. I like the straight backstrap and mine came with the curved one as well. Accurate, reliable to the point of being boring with everything I have fed it, which is a good thing. WWB and four different brands and weights of defensive ammo to the tune of 400rds through mine without a hiccup. Midwest Gun Works has a nice stock of OEM parts if you want to put together a kit for it.

ETA: I forgot to mention the aggressive texturing on the grip. Excellent stick-to-it-ivness.

Cons:

Made by FN, which has a history of making a good gun and then dumping it for the next model. Not much aftermarket for it (Does not need any for me). Mags are expensive, best I could find online was $38 per. I picked up two extra, good thing it came with three. Oh yeah, the recall. Have not sent mine in yet, but I will.

I take mine to the range every time I go now, and I see no change in that habit coming. I spent a bit over $100 with MGW getting replacement springs for all my mags, a extra extractor, recoil spring assy and pretty much all the small springs in the gun. I think I have about $600 in this all told and I already find it to be worth the money. I have had a Springfield XD that was "meh", a SAR B6c that is pretty good and will make a great "truck gun", and I have tried Glocks which I can't stand. This FNS 9 is going to be my nightstand gun with a TLR-1 on it.

Don't have one in 9MM.  Have two in .40 S&W.  Full sized with an extra Long Slide (5" barrel) top end and a Compact.

I want to like them, a lot.  The only thing in the way is group size.  The Long Slide it almost there (load development in progress).  I also have an extra 4" top and the used one actually shoots better groups than the one that came with the frame (when I bought the new 4" FNS).  Guns are funny.

Anyway, I can't find anything to really dislike.

No trigger return spring to break.

Fits/feels good in my hand.

Trigger pull is not light and cannot be made light.  Due to the design of the pistol it actually does cock the striker when you pull the trigger.  If you take the slide off you can see the trigger pull actually moves the striker to the rear (to cock it) before it releases the striker.  Trigger pull is up around 6.5 lbs. on mine but it really doesn't feel that heavy.

Reset is both audible and tactile (you can feel it in your trigger finger).  When you teach yourself to stop trigger forward movement at reset the rearward trigger pull distance to release the striker for the next shot is very short.  The striker is catching on the sear while it's still to the rear some so the striker is farther back and less trigger movement is needed to cock the striker and release it.  Very little distance.  It's actually pretty nice if you do it that way.  Doesn't lessen the trigger pull effort, it's till 6.5 lbs. but it's a short fairly crisp trigger pull that way.

The pistol is truly ambidextrous.  I bought the thumb safety models.  Ambidextrous thumb safeties.  Ambidextrous slide release buttons/levers.  Ambidextrous magazine release buttons.

The magazines have a travel/insertion stop made into the side of the magazine.  I can use the 14 round magazines (.40's are 14 round in the full size pistols) in the Compact (normally 10 rounds) without having to worry about the magazine/feed lips slamming into the bottom of the slide.  Meaning, no over insertion worries as the magazine stop catches inside the pistol prior to insure the longer magazine can't be over inserted.  No idea why they did that but you can see the little lip/step on the side of the magazines.

It's basically the same size as my P07 .40 but carries 2 more rounds in the magazine.  But the P07 shoots much smaller groups so that's what I carry.

The slide is really easy to take apart (removing the striker assembly).  I put Apex forged/milled strikers in two of my slides and it really was easy.  No roll pin punch, no hammer.

It has a loaded chamber indicator - the extractor.  It has a visible red dot on it (when viewed from the top) and if it's too dark to see then you can feel it with a finger tip as it sticks out to form a small ledge on the side of the slide if a shell is in the chamber.

You can tell if the striker is cocked.  The trigger will be forward.  I like the striker position indicator on the XD/XDM pistols.  I had a lot of issues with an M&P a few years back (sear flutter was one) and I didn't know if it would fire or not till I pulled the trigger.  The striker would miss the sear on the slides way forward and you couldn't tell till you pulled the trigger and nothing happened.  The FNS trigger stays to the rear unless the striker contacts the sear and pushes it forward.  No cocked striker = trigger stays to the rear.  Easy to see/feel if you have an issue.

I know, sounds like I'm a big fan.  I will be if I can get one of the 4" slides to shoot like my P07 shoots.

Not so sure I can do much for the Compact.  I like the size of the compact (darn thing is small comparted to the 4" FNS and the P07) but the groups are the worst of the four barrels I have shot.

If I can get a 4" or the Compact to shoot well enough to suit me I'll get the slide milled for a red dot and taller sights and it will be a carry gun.

Good luck with yours.

I think the FNS is a good pistol. FN has been making guns for a little bit and i believe they have a pretty good idea how to machine metal.

The only FNS currently in my stable is a 9L. Love the gun.

A tip: FN 509 mags fit the FNS 9 and lock in without changing the base plate. I haven't checked feeding but I don't see why it wouldn't feed. I'll try it friday and report back. FNS base plate mags do not lock into a FNS without changing the base plate to the 509 version. Dimensionally the mags are the same. I have a ton of 509 mags so I'm happy about that.

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