[PJSBuck]

About a year ago I purchased a NIB FNX 45 tactical after renting one and loving it. Got it, shot it lights out (for me) only to quickly start having feeding problems with all three mags. Sometimes stove pipes, sometimes an occasional jam (rare but happened 2-3 times), last round locked up in mag, etc. Took it to my local gunsmith who wanted $100-200 to "tune" it. I got infuriated and sold it. My thinking was/is a $1,100 + NIB gun just should NOT do this, especially when virtually all of my other numerous over the years NIB purchases of various brands didn't do this.

I am now back in the market for a 45acp and am thinking about an FNX 45 (non-tactical) but am leery because of my previous experience. My interest is that I like the way this shot so well - smooth, very accurate, felt great, 15 rnd mags of 45 acp, priced very reasonably. There is a lot to like about this product.

I have read on this forum where apparently mine was not an isolated incident. Soooooo, how often does this happen, is there an easy fix, has the manufacturer addressed this, etc.?

Thanks,

P

 

[Mrguy88]

Buy hk

 

[17heavy]

Buy hk

Well there ya go. Nuff said.:-D

 

[sirgilligan]

Let me tell a story that I think is relevant.

Me and my Dad were in Germany, we arrived by train to Garmisch late and after eating decided to walk around town. The streets and sidewalks were empty and it was nice to be off the train. In the distance a man and woman are walking towards us. As they approach we here them speaking English and recognize them to be American. We say good evening and a brief conversation starts. The man is the head of General Motors light truck division. My Dad has a new Chevy truck that has a loud engine knock (piston slap) and yet the dealership won't do anything about it until the engine completely fails. I felt bad for the GM guy, on vacation, in the middle of no where, late at night, and he has been found by the most upset Chevy truck owner in the world. The GM guy is nice and while my Dad talks with him his wife says to me, "You know how to fix your Chevy problems, buy a Ford." That answer is the right answer for both parties. Once the Chevy is gone there will be fewer complaints (out of sight out of mind) and if the Ford is not better then Ford gets the bad publicity. If the Ford is better Chevy still doesn't have to deal with my Dad complaining to everyone he sees every time he drove the Chevy.

There are a lot of firearms you can buy for around $1,100.00.
What have you shot in .45 ACP?

 

[Cheef]

My FNX45 Tactical is my favorite to shoot.
I personally have never had any issues with about 1500 rounds into it.
I favor shooting it over my NightHawk Custom GRP and that is saying a LOT!!!
Everyone is going to have a favorite but in my own personal experience all my FN guns tend to be first out of the safe on range day.

 

[HK SD9 Tactical]

About a year ago I purchased a NIB FNX 45 tactical after renting one and loving it. Got it, shot it lights out (for me) only to quickly start having feeding problems with all three mags. Sometimes stove pipes, sometimes an occasional jam (rare but happened 2-3 times), last round locked up in mag, etc. Took it to my local gunsmith who wanted $100-200 to "tune" it. I got infuriated and sold it. My thinking was/is a $1,100 + NIB gun just should NOT do this, especially when virtually all of my other numerous over the years NIB purchases of various brands didn't do this.

I am now back in the market for a 45acp and am thinking about an FNX 45 (non-tactical) but am leery because of my previous experience. My interest is that I like the way this shot so well - smooth, very accurate, felt great, 15 rnd mags of 45 acp, priced very reasonably. There is a lot to like about this product.

I have read on this forum where apparently mine was not an isolated incident. Soooooo, how often does this happen, is there an easy fix, has the manufacturer addressed this, etc.?

Thanks,

P

"Hey, I am thinking about buying an F15...." Buy a Mig 23. Not very useful.


Lets start with the ammo you were using and go from there. We will try to assuage your fears as you are looking to possibly buy another FN firearm. I am sure that if your wanted to buy an HK, you would have not posted this thread so some of the previous replies are useless to your query.

Many people have had problems with the ammo being the culprit that was used in the FN 45s. Winchester white box was notorious for being the culprit with some but others indicated no issues what so ever. Slide spring was another issue that some found resolved itself with exercising the slide by just shooting a couple of hundred rounds through the firearm.

Some mentioned issues with their mags as well. Loose or sticking or flopping around, not dropping free, etc...

I have an FNX45T and have not had a single issue with it except for the Burris FF III that I mounted on it, which is immaterial to this discussion. I bought it two years ago. Shoots great, mags are fine, not a single stovepipe or mis-feed. I do not use wally world Winchester white box ammo though. I roll my own and that way I can tune each load to the firearm or I buy the better quality ammo. While I think that all firearms should shoot all ammo of the proper caliber, this is not reality and any expectations of this are simply misguided.

This is a military firearm designed to shoot military grade ammunition or better.

Did you contact FN support for assistance or just go the route of local gunsmith for possible tuning?

 

[17heavy]

"Hey, I am thinking about buying an F15...." Buy a Mig 23. Not very useful.


Lets start with the ammo you were using and go from there. We will try to assuage your fears as you are looking to possibly buy another FN firearm. I am sure that if your wanted to buy an HK, you would have not posted this thread so some of the previous replies are useless to your query.

Many people have had problems with the ammo being the culprit that was used in the FN 45s. Winchester white box was notorious for being the culprit with some but others indicated no issues what so ever. Slide spring was another issue that some found resolved itself with exercising the slide by just shooting a couple of hundred rounds through the firearm.

Some mentioned issues with their mags as well. Loose or sticking or flopping around, not dropping free, etc...

I have an FNX45T and have not had a single issue with it except for the Burris FF III that I mounted on it, which is immaterial to this discussion. I bought it two years ago. Shoots great, mags are fine, not a single stovepipe or mis-feed. I do not use wally world Winchester white box ammo though. I roll my own and that way I can tune each load to the firearm or I buy the better quality ammo. While I think that all firearms should shoot all ammo of the proper caliber, this is not reality and any expectations of this are simply misguided.

This is a military firearm designed to shoot military grade ammunition or better.

Did you contact FN support for assistance or just go the route of local gunsmith for possible tuning?

Now that's a useful way to reply to a post.:gojobkb8: I have the older FNP45T so my experiences with it might not apply to your particular situation. I can only say that mine has never had an issue, but it does not get a lot of range time. I do know that there are many members here that are very happy FNX45 owners.

 

[10auto]

FNX45T is the single most accurate pistol I have ever fired in my hands. The sights just worked well for me. That said, I ended up selling it due to a couple other concerns I had. These concerns were mostly psychological / familiarity in nature are were not due to functional shortcomings. Coming from the Glock world, I have probably been locked into a mentality that every pistol should be serviceable to a similar level as a Glock. The FNX series trigger module / Decocker configuration was much harder to maintain (in part obviously due to be two completely different firing mechanisms). In the end, it was a phenomenal pistol to shoot, never had a problem with it. But I ended up just buying a Glock 34 due to simplicity and maintenance over the long term. Almost as accurate and I can strip it down to nothing. Parts are everywhere as are mags.

 

[45tactical]

. Took it to my local gunsmith who wanted $100-200 to "tune" it.

Thanks,

P

Just curious, why not contact FN and send it in for warranty?
I believe that would be free.

 

[Shap]

Love my FNX 45T, I've had one failure to fire which I'm nearly sure was the fault of the ammunition. Otherwise it has been flawless. My only complaint is the magazine release is a little tough, I still wouldn't trade it for any other pistol, it's exactly what I wanted

 

[BWM243]

Well boys I have the FNX 40 and it is no trouble to take down to clean. It is a shooter.

 

[BhmJeep]

I have a new FNX-45 purchased about 2 months ago. I agree wit the WalMart white box federal ammo. Mine shot great for about 500 rounds and then I started having the stovepipe issue. After reading thru the posts here I did the following:

Selected better ammo
Totally stripped down the gun for a full cleaning and then oiled it up
Racked the slide back for and left it for a week
filled all of the mags and left them for a week

Since then I have shot almost 800 rounds thru it without a problem (I shoot IDPA so the matches plus practice time = lots-o-rounds) and also have thousands of dry fires for practice which means I rack the slid back alot.

I think the key to these little puppies is: over-stiff return spring and finding the right lubrication combination.

My $.02 YMMV

Jeep

 

[six-n-twins]

My first was a dog. My second eats everything without a single issue. One of my favorite pistols. My 45 stable includes a mk23, usp and glock 21

 

[Hank Hill]

It should have been chambered in 10mm.

 

[Reathe]

have been on the fence for a long time for a fnx45t, and if there was a 10mm, my run for it would have splintered the fence

 

[Troublesx10]

I love my fnx45t, and I loved my fnx45 usg. Both are awesome and without a single issue.

 

[djv38]

Mine hasn't had any issues aside from a couple of issues I caused (I reload as well, had a couple out of spec rounds early on when I was new to loading). My gun has over 2000 rounds and is very accurate and very fun with the Osprey (runs great suppressed).

I think you just got a lemon. The issues of the mags sticking should be checked before you take possession/buy the gun. Mine is good except when it's really cold, but I usually don't let any of my mags drop to the ground anyway (I really hate cleaning dirt out of mags...)

The functional issue: no idea what ammo you were running, but if it was early on and weak ammo that could have caused it. My FNX 45 runs crap ammo just fine, although I mostly fed it Federal American Eagle in the first 500 rounds (a couple boxes of Rem UMC as well). If it doesn't work with good ammo, send it back to FN.

 

[PJSBuck]

Guys - mostly thanks for the responses so far. For those of you NOT in sales, you obviously are not recognizing that I am trying to find buying reasons to go forward with the purchase of the FN, and not for reasons to NOT go forward. As far as ammo goes, I fed it (all new and no handloads); Winchester (WB and Ranger T), Federal (multiple products), Underwood, DoubleTap, Fiocchi, Corbon, etc. I never use bottom line ammo

I DID call customer service - another low point in my life. They finally said I would be without it approx. 4-6 weeks. While certainly reasonable with shipping time and such, it unfortunately pissed me off further - the idea of paying $1,100+ AND waiting perhaps up to six weeks while they fixed my new gun. Yes, I know I am impatient and there are times when a product just doesn't come out of the plant right. In fact, I am partially banking on this being the case if in the end I decide to get the FNX, which I am strongly leaning towards. There were also several "complaints" about similar issues on this forum, which first time around I mostly dismissed.

I am simply trying to collect different experiences here in hope they can help solidify this upcoming purchase. Like I said, I shot the gun really well. Just trying to figure out if mine was an aberration or if this happened to too many others as well.

Thanks again,

Pat

 

[Epeeist]

My first FN pistol was an FNP 45. I liked it very much and ended up getting a two tone FNX 45 which is now my night stand gun. It replaced my G20 in that role. As a matter of fact, I like it so much I have an FNX Tactical on its way from High Planes.

I have never ever had a jam or issue and I am 100% confident in it. I mostly roll my own ammo but have shot Tula, Federal, Winchester and Hornady with no issues. It will even shoot my powder puff target loads that my HK USP does not like to feed.

 

[sirgilligan]

Guys - mostly thanks for the responses so far. For those of you NOT in sales, you obviously are not recognizing that I am trying to find buying reasons to go forward with the purchase of the FN, and not for reasons to NOT go forward.

I got that you want reasons to buy it. I would bet that an FN product is considered above average in reliability so therefore any one having problems is in the minority. In your posts you were upset it didn't work out of the box, and upset that you would have to send it in. I am just imagining how upset you will be if you are unlucky yet again. I bought two Sigs, a 556 and a P238, clearly two completely different firearms, and my first two Sigs, and guess what, both had issues, so yes you can be unlucky again. Just saying.

What other .45's do you like or think have less issues or what other .45 would you be less upset with if it had issues? That is what I am asking you to think about.

By all means get the FN product. But remember, you wanted brutally honest, and that is what I am giving.