With the number of major manufacturers that have found a way to screw up 22LR semiauto pistols, think I would be holding off on this for a while to see how they do. Have a Ruger with an optic (although is not slide mounted as there is no slide) and a Taurus TX22 that both run flawless, so not really in the need for another 22LR semiauto.

 

500 series with hammers on! A step in the right direction

There are several interesting elements in their photos that differ from 509. One is that it looks like slide, barrel and frame (or is that trigger module?) are all externally serial #'d

 

This pistol isn't even made by FN it's a private labeled Umarex.

I understand those wishing to train economically with 22LR while maintaining the manual of arms of a fighting caliber version.

That said to me this is more a marketing gimmick than a firearm. Ruger makes the best 22LR semi-auto pistol for basic marksmanship training, IMHO!

 

This pistol isn't even made by FN it's a private labeled Umarex.

I certainly saw the moniker on the grip frame, but do you have further info that the rest of the pistol is not FN as well?

 

$500 retail and not even made by FN, no thanks.

Bill

 

I agree, this is a marketing gimmick. It must also be considered that very hot, not so cheap 22LR ammo would likely be required to cycle the slide if an RDS is mounted due to mass and inertia in a blowback system.

 

I, too, have a "Ruger with an optic", as well as a S&W 22A with an optic: neither mount on the slides... So what?

What's the problem with a(nother) NEW 22lr pistol? Obviously, ala S&W & GLOCK, the concept is to provide a pistol for training purposes (as well as general use) that replicates the size, controls, etc. of their standard-sized offerings.

I am more interested in the actual design. It would appear this is a fixed barrel blowback, but I can't find an exploded diagram or a video showing how to break down (field strip, if you prefer) for cleaning. How this actually performs and whether it can live up to some of these initial claims is yet to be seen: the jury is still out! Hades: they haven't been given final instructions, yet...!

Might be a bit early to throw the (new) baby out with the bathwater...?

Cheers!

 

I, too, have a "Ruger with an optic", as well as a S&W 22A with an optic: neither mount on the slides... So what?
[...]
Might be a bit early to throw the (new) baby out with the bathwater...?

As to so what, on your Ruger and S&W the optic is mounted to a fixed part i.e. the barreled receiver vs. here where on the 502 it appears the dot would mount to the, as @SeaMac said, reciprocating slide. So the ammo must be hot enough and the springs tuned right to move all that extra mass. Reliably.

I too am curious to see what comes of it though

 

I ordered one from Eurooptic. My entertainment dollar exploded in my pocket.

 

You do realize you have now obligated yourself to a full review, right?

 

looks like a fun gun to plink with

 

If reports from the field turn out positive, I will be interested.

 

Looks like the 1/2x28 threads are actually part of the barrel and the barrel can be removed from the slide without messing around with removing a thread adapter as required on alot of other popular 22lr pistols. Can anyone confirm this?

 

Threading is part of the barrel and does not/cannot be removed.

 

Mine in FDE should be here next week, I'll do a range report after she gets here.

 

Where did you purchase it from?


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Here’s a great video! I want one!

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I got it from Grab-a-Gun. It arrived today

 

Very nice Congrats!

 

I picked up this 22lr last week and went to the range on Friday. It's a pretty nice gun. Yes the price is a bit steep for a 22lr pistol, but I think it was worth it. I did have a couple of feed issues where it wouldn't go into battery, but a quick tap on the back corrected the problem. After it warmed up a bit, they went away. Is this the most reliable 22lr pistol? Probably not. But it is fun, especially suppressed! I dropped a Sig Romeo Zero for the optic and a Stream TLR-1 HL for the light. After I got it home I cleaned and lubed it up thoroughly. Looking forward to getting back out again soon.

 

I'm supposedly #1 on my dealers list when one comes in. I don't know if I was more excited for the 502 or the LS Edge. Have an old Type 1 RM06 that needs a host.

 

I finally got to the range yesterday, I shot about 300 rounds of Federal Value Pack HP rounds with zero malfunctions. The 502 feels like a 9mm pistol in your hands until you press the trigger. I was able to hit clay pigeons at 40 yards with ease. It's such a fun pistol. I can't wait for it's big brother my 509 MRD LE to arrive!!!

 

Is that the Federal white 333 pack? I bought a ton of that stuff during rona and it will not feed through my sons 10/22 to save my life.

Good to hear on the 502 though. I really want one bad

 

This is the ammo I was using

 

This is the ammo I was using

Thanks. I have some of that too. It's nice that it ran bulk stuff.

 

Which vendors have them in stock?

Thanks,
Bill

 

I got mine from Grabagun.com

 

Just picked one up in FDE from a local gun shop. Trigger is NICE! Cleaned, lubed, attached an AAC Element. Ate through everything - CCI standard velocity & mini mags, stingers, velocitors, Winchester, & even some Remington golden bullet. A few times the slide didn't return to battery all the way, but a gentle nudge was all it took. Typical rimfire break in, no biggie. Just ordered a HS507C to put on it. Gassy with that particular can, but I always wear eyepro anyways. Might try another rimfire can when I sight the RD in later, but the Element will prolly live on it. Me likey.

 

Has anyone had any instances of failure to extract? Just picked one up on Saturday and got it to the range this afternoon. only had time to run 1 mag through it before I had to leave but had multiple instances where brass stayed in the barrel. This is my first 22 pistol so not a lot of experience shooting one. Any help or insight would be appreciated.

 

I had failure to feed, but seems to have worked itself out. It's running smooth as butter now.

 

I would make sure the chamber is perfectly clean with all manufacturer rust preventative thoroughly removed. And get a couple other boxes of ammo to try. If after a hundred more shots that doesn't work, should be FN's problem.

 

So new to the forums, I just bought my 502 last week and was finally able to get out to the range today. Let me tell you the amount of fun pulling the trigger on this gun is just about immeasurable. I bought a 525 bulk pack of 36gr Remington Golden Bullet, and what I did shoot shot flawlessly. I tried a few shots of different types of ammo that my friend had brought with him and had no failures from that stuff either. I was maybe 7-8 mags in while doing some drills and had a failure to extract, and saw something odd go flying when that round went off. Pulled mag and tried to clear the casing out, but nothing was happening. I was able to just manually get the casing out with my fingernail. Got it back to the bench and found the extractor had broke. I went back to the spot where I saw the parts go flying and found a small metal detent and found the extractor spring about a foot away from the metal detent piece. As for the face of the extractor that hooks the round, I'm not sure where it ended up. Going to put in a service request ticket and hope the turn around is decently quick, as I had a ton of fun shooting what I did get to shoot. I hope I just have one of those fluke failures and only have to send it in this once, or at the very least get the parts to have on hand to fix when it does go down. Other than this little hiccup, I really like the gun.

 

Welcome to the Forum!
Congrats! and glad to hear you're enjoying your new FN 502

 

Hi gang,
I'm a California gun owner (I hear all of you telling me to move from here. haha) and I really want to get my kid one of these 502 pistols. She will be 10 and I've been taking her shooting since she was 8, so we are ready to move up from the single shot pistol.
If anyone knows of someone in Southern Cali looking to sell theirs, please DM me (I'm new here, is that a thing?). Just in case none of you are familiar with California's wonderful gun laws, we have an "approved handgun" list here in Cali and I don't know how many years its been since a new one got on.
The laws are so bad here I found a guy in N.C. that was willing to sell me his but in Cali a private party transfer has to be done in person and both have to be Cali residents. So freaking annoying living here as as a gun owner. So if any of you are ultra rich, and feel like adopting me and my family, I'll take that over the FN 502 info! Haha!
Thanks gang!
jerdog3

 

Welcome to the forum and good luck on your future move from CA and being a proud owner of multiple FN weapons.

 

I've been searching for a 502 for a bit now and finally bit the bullet and did a back order. Sure enough, next day I found one locally and just picked it up. Effing Murphy. First FN.

I did have a Ruger 57 for a bit as I've always been fascinated with the 5.7x28mm round but the fact I didn't want to take on reloading duties with that cartridge had me put it up for sale along with all the ammo I had. I'll revisit if things ever come back down (ha!). I've always wanted a PS90 as well.

Anyway...I was looking for black but the local gun was FDE and I went for it. Paid MSRP at Academy Sports and they had the Holosun 507C in stock as well which is the RDO I use on my other hand gun. Really happy the gun comes with three mounts. The included screws, however, are too long for the Holosun. It's somewhat secure, but they're not sunk in and the bevel isn't sitting against the RDO's bevel. So I'll be trimming those a bit to get it installed correctly.


I am not a prolific handgun owner. I have exactly one other hand gun so my initial impressions are strongly influenced by it. My first thought was it's incredibly light and feels kind of cheap. I racked the slide without a magazine and it stuck all the way back. Seems to be hanging up on the hammer a bit so I stripped it down, lubed it appropriately and then actuated the slide repeatedly. Got a bit better and finally seemed to loosen up and function correctly after a light coat of oil on the barrel. I'm sure break-in will improve everything.

Love the grip and texturing, magazine button placement is perfect. The trigger itself, the material, almost feels like plastic but the trigger break seems decent. Did I mention it's stupid light? The magazines feel flimsy but noticed the center portion is metal. I'll likely order a few more 15 rounders.

They had very little to choose from in 22LR at this particular Academy so I grabbed a brick of 500, Remington "Thunderbolt" which was a whopping $40. I laughed while it was being rung up.

Now with all that said, here's my other handgun, an LTT Elite with RDO cut. It's a big, heavy, solid beast of a gun but it shoots so well it's like cheating. With that gun as a reference, it's no wonder the FN feels so light (and cheap) in comparison. It's also about $1K in price difference between them so there's that. My neighbor has the Walther P22Q so I may do some sort of comparison between the two. I like the Walther's ergos and I've heard they have a great trigger out of the box as well. But alas, no RDO cut.




I plan on using this for training and for my wife to shoot. I really bought it for her. Cough. What...? I swear!

 

I had time to hit the range today but before I did, I shortened the RDO mounting screws and got all of that situated/secured. Drove out to the range and brought the LTT along for comparisons. I put about 200 rounds through the FN and it honestly felt gratuitous to shoot more than that. There was a tinge of guilt given the ammo shortage.

I had exactly two failure to fires, both ammo related. Other than that, the gun functioned flawlessly. The Remington 40gr. cycled fine even with the extra weight of the RDO.

The gun did loosen up. After the range session, I cleaned it thoroughly and re-lubed it and it seemed to be not nearly as tight and the slide seemed to articulate more smoothly overall.

Recoil on the grand scheme of things is just not there. I consider myself a rifle guy and I'm not nearly as good with a sidearm. The FN is just stupid easy to shoot and given that it's a full-sized gun, it's easy to get a good grip and just drill an entire mag without much effort.

Transitioning back to the LTT, there's noticeably more kick so I'm not sure, as a training tool, how the FN is going to help my situation other than being able to present and find the same red dot (Holosun on both). It did cause me to re-examine my grip and I feel the light on the LTT is actually hindering my grip vs the FN.

The other big difference between the two is trigger reset. Granted, the LTT, which I purchased from Langdon with their trigger job, pretty much sets the standard. I found myself having to mentally let the FN's trigger return further to fire the next shot. The LTT's trigger resets with about a mm of travel and I'd guess the FN is 4X as long. So it's a definite mental exercise. I found myself not being able to fire the next round a few times as I'd not released the trigger enough to reset.

Love the texturing on the FN. I read a lot of reviews on the 509 and how some complained the grip texturing was too aggressive. I don't see it but maybe the extra kick makes it annoying. Dunno. Not a problem on the 502.

At the end of the range session, there were two flaws that stood out. First, the FN has a small window on top that indicates if a round is loaded. Unfortunately, gas also jets up out of that small hole and onto the front of the RDO. I didn't necessarily notice it while shooting but examining the gun at the end of the range session, it was very noticeable.

The second flaw is this thing should come with at least three 15 round magazines (where allowed) or even a much longer extended mag to hold 20 rounds or so. I'm sure the aftermarket will come up with a solution but it's so easy to burn through a magazine that more than one 15 rounder should be included. It's easy to reload the mags (unlike the Beretta which is a PITA without a speed loader) and extra magazines seem to be vaporware at the moment.

I did briefly run over to the neighbor's house to compare to the Walther. I'll say the Walther feels a fraction more substantial/precise but not enough to make any sort of a judgement. I'll have to shoot both back to back.

Closing notes, no regret in purchasing the gun. I'm a modaholic so it'll be interesting to see what the aftermarket comes up with. I'd like higher capacity mags and a shorter trigger reset. I also need to order a silencer and will likely go with the OSS Rad 22 as I've had such great success with their suppressors on other platforms. The catch 22 is that it's a 22LR and really, how much money do you want to throw at it?

 

I had time to hit the range today but before I did, I shortened the RDO mounting screws and got all of that situated/secured. Drove out to the range and brought the LTT along for comparisons. I put about 200 rounds through the FN and it honestly felt gratuitous to shoot more than that. There was a tinge of guilt given the ammo shortage.

I had exactly two failure to fires, both ammo related. Other than that, the gun functioned flawlessly. The Remington 40gr. cycled fine even with the extra weight of the RDO.

The gun did loosen up. After the range session, I cleaned it thoroughly and re-lubed it and it seemed to be not nearly as tight and the slide seemed to articulate more smoothly overall.

Recoil on the grand scheme of things is just not there. I consider myself a rifle guy and I'm not nearly as good with a sidearm. The FN is just stupid easy to shoot and given that it's a full-sized gun, it's easy to get a good grip and just drill an entire mag without much effort.

Transitioning back to the LTT, there's noticeably more kick so I'm not sure, as a training tool, how the FN is going to help my situation other than being able to present and find the same red dot (Holosun on both). It did cause me to re-examine my grip and I feel the light on the LTT is actually hindering my grip vs the FN.

The other big difference between the two is trigger reset. Granted, the LTT, which I purchased from Langdon with their trigger job, pretty much sets the standard. I found myself having to mentally let the FN's trigger return further to fire the next shot. The LTT's trigger resets with about a mm of travel and I'd guess the FN is 4X as long. So it's a definite mental exercise. I found myself not being able to fire the next round a few times as I'd not released the trigger enough to reset.

Love the texturing on the FN. I read a lot of reviews on the 509 and how some complained the grip texturing was too aggressive. I don't see it but maybe the extra kick makes it annoying. Dunno. Not a problem on the 502.

At the end of the range session, there were two flaws that stood out. First, the FN has a small window on top that indicates if a round is loaded. Unfortunately, gas also jets up out of that small hole and onto the front of the RDO. I didn't necessarily notice it while shooting but examining the gun at the end of the range session, it was very noticeable.

The second flaw is this thing should come with at least three 15 round magazines (where allowed) or even a much longer extended mag to hold 20 rounds or so. I'm sure the aftermarket will come up with a solution but it's so easy to burn through a magazine that more than one 15 rounder should be included. It's easy to reload the mags (unlike the Beretta which is a PITA without a speed loader) and extra magazines seem to be vaporware at the moment.

I did briefly run over to the neighbor's house to compare to the Walther. I'll say the Walther feels a fraction more substantial/precise but not enough to make any sort of a judgement. I'll have to shoot both back to back.

Closing notes, no regret in purchasing the gun. I'm a modaholic so it'll be interesting to see what the aftermarket comes up with. I'd like higher capacity mags and a shorter trigger reset. I also need to order a silencer and will likely go with the OSS Rad 22 as I've had such great success with their suppressors on other platforms. The catch 22 is that it's a 22LR and really, how much money do you want to throw at it?

I had a similar experience with the chamber indicator spitting power on the optics, did you ever find a solution?