The stop is a punched-out, semi-cylinder on the front face of the magazine, and there's a similar stop on the top right that prevents you from jamming the mag in too far. Here you can use thumb or index finger interchangeably, and the buttons are right where you'd expect them. Often, the "easily" in "easily reversible" is open to debate. The magazine catch has an operational button on either side, a big improvement over pistols that have a reversible catch. Bilateral slide stop levers are protected by a molded fence that helps keep them from snagging during the draw. The slide stop seemed to work as easily from either side this in contrast to competitor pistols where the right side requires much more pressure. The lower end of the backstrap has a hole for installing a lanyard if you want to go high-speed, low-drag.īoth slide stop and magazine catch are bilateral. Some manufacturers have made this process easier, but in reality, how often do you really change backstraps? The backstraps are affixed to the frame with a very small roll pin that is driven out to switch them. The civilian version of the 509 comes with flat and arched backstraps, while pistols for law enforcement add a beavertailed version optional for civilians. If you have huge paws, but don't carry a badge, the beavertail style is available at extra cost. Unless you are playing at the very bottom of the market, you can't fail to offer some mechanism for accommodating different hand sizes, and FN does that with interchangeable backstraps that it calls small, medium and large, but that the rest of us will characterize as flat, arched and beavertail.Ĭivilian versions will come with the arched and flat backstraps, while pistols sold to law enforcement will come with all three. The grip is relatively slim and 1911-like, and is textured within an inch of its life, with molded-in knurling front and back, truncated pyramids on the sides and a surface Guns & Ammo writer Pat Sweeney calls "skate tape" on the thumbrest areas.
That pistol of course, was a lot heavier and bulkier, but the ratio between length and height is similar. The pistol's proportions immediately reminded me of the long-defunct Astra A-100, which was a Spanish version of the SIG P229. What FN apparently has no plans to do is to offer the 509 with a magazine disconnect safety, providing California citizens yet another reason to leave.
Fn 9mm 509 manual#
The instruction manual illustrates a bilateral thumb safety that FN plans to offer at some future date for those who still cling to that idea. The protruding front of the extractor lets you feel that the pistol is loaded in darkness. This is a red line exposed under the rear of the pivoting extractor when a cartridge is chambered. FN has, quite understandably, decided to make a version of its contender available to the shooting public, and it is a worthy addition to the very crowded market of plastic-framed, striker-fired pistols.įinally, there's a loaded chamber indicator, as required by several state laws. That effort produced a winner that was not the 509, but rather the SIG P320. The short answer is that it is essentially an FNS, modified for competition in the Army's Modular Handgun Program.
Fn 9mm 509 code#
So, for better or worse, it's 509, which coincidentally is the area code for Walla Walla, Wash. Numbers proliferated with those to the point S&W issued a circular slide rule to help dealers ID them. Numbers are great when it's something like "1903 Springfield," less so when they get complicated, as with Smith & Wesson's second generation autoloaders. The importance of a name, I suppose, is not how convenient it is for those of us who already own guns, but how much it attracts those who don't. Remembering was easier when it was just "Winchester Model 94," but now we see evolutions like Beretta's, where you start out with Silver Snipe and go to 686 and then to Xtrema and then A350 Xtrema. Three digits sell well, numbers starting with 5 sell well and odd numbers sell well. So where did the 509 come from? FN rep Kristina DeMilt says it was all marketing. Obviously, there have been plenty of three-digit numbers applied to guns in the past: think H&R 999 or Remington 788 or Savage 340. The first thing everyone I know asked when FN's new 509 pistol was introduced was "why a number?" FN's pistols have previously traveled under letter codes like FNS and FNX why the switch to something more along the lines of "Porsche 911" or "Boeing 787"?
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