[Fabius]

I would like to see the posters who have reported cracks in their trigger groups provide more information, such as the date of manufacture of the affected weapon, the number of rounds fired before failure, etc. Seems like the problem has cropped up in the last month and it would be nice to see if the reported problems are limited to guns manufactured recently or in a certain time frame. I have an FNP-40 that, according to the spent cartridge envelope, was test fired in September of 2006. I have 1,000+ rounds through it with no problems.

I have read on various message boards that Glocks go Kaboom, M&P's drop mags, 1911's are notoriously unreliable out of the box, etc. All of this had led me to believe that each gun has one or more design weakness, but in most cases the rate of failure caused by those weaknesses seems small. If the FNP trigger group problem is limited to a few guns or to guns of recent manufacture, then that would help all of us put the reports in perspective and decide if we need to take any action to ensure the reliability of our weapons. If it is widespread, then those who are concerned can use the information in dealing with FNH.

 

[ironman0311]

Several have asked the same question with no result for some months now. ::FF::

I guess it's a crap-shoot as to whether you have gotten a good one or one of the lemons?

Good Luck getting an answer from them, though.

 

[Fabius]

I'm not expecting an answer from FNH. I'm hoping that the posters who have reported problems will provide additional information that might be helpful to the rest of us.

In reading the posts here and on other forums, it appears that there have been 3 or 4 reported cases of trigger group cracks and only one report of a sear tilt problem. The trigger group reports starting surfacing a month or so ago, so that might suggest that the problem is of recent origin and that older guns don't have the problem. The sear tilt problem does not seem to have repeated itself, so it may be an anamoly.

If the problem is more widespread, then a forum like this is a good place to collect information and make it available to the public. Just trying to move the discussion from anecdotal to empirical. How many failures have there been and is there any pattern? That question has been asked of FNH, but I haven't seen anyone ask the owners who have reported problems to provide that type of information.

 

[batakgt]

My firearm that had the issue was purchased in Aug 2007. I got it from Tanner's Guns (I am assuming it was one of the Dealer Pack guns) hence to lower price 389 vs Bass Pro wanting 490. I noticed the cracked polymer a few months later in November.

Was replaced with New firearm from FN 3 days ago. So I am assuming the new one is a fairly "new" weapon.

I'll keep an eye on it

 

[Fabius]

Thanks for the reply, batagkt. Can you tell from the fired casing envelope when the gun was manufactured? Just wondering if the cracks are showing up in guns manufactured around the same time.

 

[batakgt]

Now I wish I looked the casing of the old (broke one). But the new one I got shows a date of 12/20/06

ill look around the house and see if I took it out of the case of the old one - if I didnt it went back to FN with the broke gun and the world will never know.

UPDATE - found the shell casing from the original pistol. It shows a date of 01/08/07. The "new" pistol they sent me shows a date of 12/20/06. So I don't know what to make of it.

 

[lika1]

UPDATE - found the shell casing from the original pistol. It shows a date of 01/08/07. The "new" pistol they sent me shows a date of 12/20/06. So I don't know what to make of it.

That's interesting because it's been said before that these issues have just recently surfaced. I wonder what the shell casing dates are on the other pistols with the same issues? I'm really gonna watch this unfold because my shell casing shows a date of 07/03/07; of course mine is brand new with only 106 rounds through it so no problems as of yet. I sure hope this is not a trend with the new (07) batch.

 

[Fabius]

As I said above, mine was manufactured in Sep of 06 and has been fine through 1,000+ rounds. If the problem is limited to a very small batch of guns or to a batch of guns manufactured during a particular time period, then that would seem to be good news because FNH could simply replace those pistols with ones manufactured before or after.

I also noticed that the posters who have reported problems seem to experience the problem within the first few hundred rounds and all of the reports have surfaced with the last couple of months. Many other posters have reported thousands of rounds fired with no problem. It may simply be a bad batch of trigger group components that can be replaced to fix the problem.

 

[Spyvie]

The test date on my FNP-9 is 11/02/06. The gun has over 600 rounds with no problems and no cracks after careful inspection.

 

[Setzer77]

Has there been any report on what round count (roughly) these things are starting to crap out? I have well over 1k rounds through mine now and it looks for the most part brand new.

 

[BlitzPig]

My FNP 40 test date: 12/7/06

500+ rounds, no problems.

 

[Fabius]

Has there been any report on what round count (roughly) these things are starting to crap out?

Seems like the ones that cracked did so within the first few hundred rounds.

 

[FNPniner]

FNP-9 test date 9/13/06

2300+ rounds so far.

I had a couple of FTF's within the first 200 rounds (break-in I guess), but has been running like a champ ever since.

BTW, this gun is awesome. :shock:

 

[Rugerdude]

My FNP-9 just got back this week from FN. Actually, they sent me a whole new gun instead of fixing my old one. This is good because I was really going to doubt the pistol that broke, I'm glad to be getting a fresh start with them.

All in all, it took almost exactly two months (they quoted me a factory time of 3 weeks) to get my new gun. I don't know why it took them so long to decide to just send me a new pistol, but whatever.

By the way, mine lasted 150-200 rounds. The trigger pack crack DID NOT inhibit single action firing, only double action.

I'm sure FN is aware of this problem by now, and I'm really wondering what's causing it.

Let's try to narrow it down. My FNP-9's trigger pack cracked, I also:
1. dry fired it extensively (says nothing about it being bad in the manual)
2. decocked it in the process of dry-firing extensively
3. dropped it once onto carpeted floor from height of 4 feet.
4. dry fired it with the slide removed unintentionally

Let's try to find common factors here. I read the manual and there is nothing saying that any of the things I did would be harmful to the gun (except dropping, but if a gun made by a military manufacturer can't stand up to a 4 foot drop onto carpet......)

 

[Fabius]

Good information, Rogerdude. Do you remember the manufacture date of your original pistol?

 

[FNHC]

1. dry fired it extensively (says nothing about it being bad in the manual)
2. decocked it in the process of dry-firing extensively

4. dry fired it with the slide removed unintentionally

I have done above 3.

The 4 feet drop did not happen to me and if there is one thing California testing does is proving that a gun can survive such drop.

Mine cracked inbetween 110-160 round using FMJ 115gr rounds. Don't know the test fire date as it was sent with the pistol, but if I recall correctly it was somewhere between July and October 2007.

edit: I'm redacting my test fire dates. According to the envelope it was 03/30/06

 

[Fabius]

Starting to get some useful data. In reviewing the past threads, it looks like 5 owners have reported trigger group cracks. Three report discovering the crack after having fired between 100 and 300 rounds and one had less than 500 rounds. The latter's weapon could have cracked earlier than 500 rounds, because he didn't discover the crack until reading about the issue on this forum and inspecting his weapon. No report from the owner of the fifth weapon on the round count.

Only 2 owners have provided test fire dates, and both indicate that the weapons were manufactured in 2007.

So far no one has reported problems with weapons manufactured in 2006 or previously. Starting to sound like a batch of bad plastic used in some 2007 guns rather than a design weakness. If it were a design weakness, then you would expect to see failures in the guns with high round counts, not brand new guns. Not much data to work with right now, though, with only 5 failures identified.

 

[Rugerdude]

Well, guess what everybody......MY SECOND FNP-9's TRIGGER GROUP CRACKED! This is freaking ridiculous.

The problem is dry-firing, I'm dead certain. The gun lasted all of 30 hours. Zero rounds fired, not a single one. I inspected the gun upon it returning and it was indeed free of the crack.

I had purchased a 20 dollar set of snap caps to use when I did dry-fire practice this time around. Well, after much dry-firing with snap caps and magazine changes, all was well. After removing the magazine and dry firing twice on single action I heard a pop, louder than the click of the hammer. So I took the slide off, and what do I see? You guessed it!

I couldn't believe it. I read the manual twice more, in addition to the two times I read it after the first gun broke looking for some warning against dry-firing. It's not there, and really, it shouldn't be. I have done nothing to this pistol that I haven't done with my browning buckmark, or any of my other 10 firearms.

This is absolutely unacceptable. The FNP-9 might as well be called The F'ing P-9.

I'm going to see what the gun shop will do, but I will not be getting a replacement FN. This is insane. I could buy a 120 dollar Hi-point 9mm and while it may be ugly, I'll bet the trigger pack won't crack.

FN...you have a problem.

I'm also willing to bet that both of my pistols were made in 2007.

Seriously, dry-firing on an empty chamber twice?!?!?!

I waited 2 months for this gun, I was ready to give it another chance. I will not be buying another FNP.

 

[Rugerdude]

Upon further inspection, I'm going to say that the reason these frames are cracking is because of dry-fire with the magazine removed.

Break down your gun with a magazine in it, and see how the rear of the magazine supporst the front edge of the trigger group.

Now, if you wish to have a frame crack, go a head and dry fire with that magazine removed and no round in the chamber.

Looking at mine, it is clear that the magazine is a crucial support of the trigger group. The manual does not address this.

Has anyone else with a trigger group crack dry-fired their FNP without the magazine installed?

 

[batakgt]

I did not dry fire my FNP 40. I usually never dry fire my weapons (except my Glocks since its required for breakdown). What I did do was use the decocker on a daily basis.

Load weapon in morning, decock - unload in evening, decock.

Fired only 200+ rounds through it - never dry fired and used the decocker often.

So maybe it has to do with the decocker? On my replacement I will manually decock using my thumb.