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GunRover, can you tell me if the one you bought is a blue slide or stainless. I bought the stainless and I do not know if the stainless one came out at a latter date.
New FNS-9 -- notso new
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I happen to have my FNS-9 Stainless Slide waiting at my FFl while the mags are blocked to 15 rounds. I purchased it from GrabaGun two weeks ago. I went to look at it yesterday and noticed a 8/13 date on it's spent casing. Why have these guns been laying around so long? FNS should have included the incentive they did to the black last year to move them. I have my fingers crossed that it has all the updates to the trigger.
It's not that Buds has stock that old...it's that FN has stock that old. They warehoused FNS handguns on full tilt production so the line could be re-tooled for the FNS-LS and FNSc Models.
FN is, not, nor will they ever be, a custom-arms manufacturer...they're a military arms manufacturer. That means product on had in excess of demand. Make a bunch, run low, make a bunch more.
So far as any of us know, only the first runs of the matte and stainless FNS (2012) had the old trigger.
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180 Posts
As the OP, I don't want to leave this thread hanging, without a comment on what I decided. I decided to NOT send my FNS-9 back to FNH; that the trigger issue is a non-issue; that I can either press the trigger back to the rearward position or rack the slide to chamber another round and re-set the trigger. It does appear that lots of older (2013) FNS-9s are in the distribution system, but as long as they are not from 2012, it doesn't matter. I do not know the exact date the mod was made, but it appears to be early 2013. If you have a FNS-9 made in 2012, it may be worth sending it in, if you decide the trigger is a problem. Smarter comments invited, but that is where I am leaving it. Off to the range tonight to shoot another couple hundred re-loaded 9mm... this FNS-9 is one of the best pistols I have ever owned.
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I picked up my stainless FNS 9 from my FFL today. I gave it a good checking over before I did the paper work. The date in the casing envelope was April 2013. That date gave me some worry and I still don't like the fact that there are so many older ones still left out there. The trigger seems okay to me. I tried to give it a test to see if it had the problem but I am not sure if I did it correctly.
Overall I liked the gun in real life and I did the paper work and took it home. I need to give it a good cleaning since its been sitting around for 2 years.
No better of a cleaning that you would if it were assembled yesterday. The grease they coat them with will literally last half an eternity. The Birchwood-Casey Synthetic Safe Gun Scrubber works wonders at blasting it out of the nooks and crannies.
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I have a question concerning this trigger issue that I hope someone can answer. When you do a field stripping of the gun to clean you must pull the trigger to remove the slide. Is this related to the trigger issue that is know about and how does the factory fix the problem?
No, it's related to discharging the striker before disassembly of the firearm.
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180 Posts
Third trip to the range with the FNS-9. Fired rounds 300 — 550. FNS-9 meeting or exceeding expectations.
Learned a couple of things, mostly about my reloaded 9mm ammo. With plated bullets @ 115 grains, using Tite Group powder, nothing less than 4.0 grains worked well. Erratic flyers and four or five failures to eject and two failures to hold the slide open at the end of the magazine when using lighter loads. Important to stress this is NOT the fault of the FNS-9; I am discovering the lower end of the power that it takes to operate it reliably.
I also learned that this gun gets hot. Tite Group is well known for being hot, that is, creating a lot of heat. And so it was with the FNS-9 after 100-150 rounds loaded with Tite Group. Is it possible the thinner barrel, the cold hammer forged steel barrel, does not dissipate heat as well as a less-expensive but thicker S&W M&P 9 barrel? Well, S&W has had their issues with the M&P 9 barrels particularly as it affects 115 grain bullets (changing the twist rate in 2012 or so).
I also noted some of my loads were not particularly accurate (I won’t name powders) while others, like 4.1 grains Tite Group with the Berry’s 115 grain HP round, were very accurate and functioned consistently. My conclusion, for Tite Group, go up into the 4.2 + range with 115 grain plated bullets. Next I will work up a bunch of 124 grain plated bullets to see if they, with a load more towards the middle-to-the-top of the recommended loads for Tite Group and HP-38, work more reliably in the FNS-9.
This pistol is turning out to be a lot of fun. My guesstimate is that it is made for +P “self defense” ammo and will function with it flawlessly. I have a box of +P+ LE ammo — will give that a try next time, too.
Learned a couple of things, mostly about my reloaded 9mm ammo. With plated bullets @ 115 grains, using Tite Group powder, nothing less than 4.0 grains worked well. Erratic flyers and four or five failures to eject and two failures to hold the slide open at the end of the magazine when using lighter loads. Important to stress this is NOT the fault of the FNS-9; I am discovering the lower end of the power that it takes to operate it reliably.
I also learned that this gun gets hot. Tite Group is well known for being hot, that is, creating a lot of heat. And so it was with the FNS-9 after 100-150 rounds loaded with Tite Group. Is it possible the thinner barrel, the cold hammer forged steel barrel, does not dissipate heat as well as a less-expensive but thicker S&W M&P 9 barrel? Well, S&W has had their issues with the M&P 9 barrels particularly as it affects 115 grain bullets (changing the twist rate in 2012 or so).
I also noted some of my loads were not particularly accurate (I won’t name powders) while others, like 4.1 grains Tite Group with the Berry’s 115 grain HP round, were very accurate and functioned consistently. My conclusion, for Tite Group, go up into the 4.2 + range with 115 grain plated bullets. Next I will work up a bunch of 124 grain plated bullets to see if they, with a load more towards the middle-to-the-top of the recommended loads for Tite Group and HP-38, work more reliably in the FNS-9.
This pistol is turning out to be a lot of fun. My guesstimate is that it is made for +P “self defense” ammo and will function with it flawlessly. I have a box of +P+ LE ammo — will give that a try next time, too.
Actually, it was made for NATO combat-grade ammunition. Take a look at what the NATO 9x19mm round is in Belgium and you'll have your answer.
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180 Posts
I wasn’t thinking that the FNS-9 was literally “made for” +P, but I think you’ve got it right. I was just working around to thinking that the +P 9mm Luger probably works very well in a pistol with a fairly stiff recoil spring, based on what I have been learning at the range, and that weaker handloads, with lower power factors, don’t.
9mm Luger is rated at 35,000 PSI and +P 9mm Luger is rated between that and up to 38,500 PSI (e.g., 10% higher). A quick internet search indicates NATO 9X19 Parabellum is rated 36,500 PSI, up in the +P range. Since FNH apparently designed the gun to compete in the US Army pistol trials (and the FNS-9 and FNX-9 have the same recoil spring) then calibrating that spring to the NATO pressure standard makes perfect sense.
It is reassuring the +P 9mm Luger ammo of the type a lot of people buy for self-defense should work quite well in this pistol. "Regular" 9mm Luger, commercially made, should work fine, but some off brands may be a little lighter in the butt than what is needed to make the FNS-9 (at least when new) work reliably under all conditions.
9mm Luger is rated at 35,000 PSI and +P 9mm Luger is rated between that and up to 38,500 PSI (e.g., 10% higher). A quick internet search indicates NATO 9X19 Parabellum is rated 36,500 PSI, up in the +P range. Since FNH apparently designed the gun to compete in the US Army pistol trials (and the FNS-9 and FNX-9 have the same recoil spring) then calibrating that spring to the NATO pressure standard makes perfect sense.
It is reassuring the +P 9mm Luger ammo of the type a lot of people buy for self-defense should work quite well in this pistol. "Regular" 9mm Luger, commercially made, should work fine, but some off brands may be a little lighter in the butt than what is needed to make the FNS-9 (at least when new) work reliably under all conditions.
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Very good information in this thread. I learn a little something about my firearm every time I drop in. Thanks for sharing folks.
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180 Posts
Also want to add that I use three types of primers in my reloads - CCI, Remington, and Federal Match -- and all work fine with the FNS-9. This is important because some primers are "harder" than others -- the CCI primers, for example, have a reputation as "hard" while the Remington primers are considered "soft." The FNS-9 works well with all of them... and I've never seen a gun that puts such a clean indentation in the primers at dead center. This is a good sign; some pistols leave an uneven or irregular striker/firing pin indentation with a sort of tail on it, which indicates a timing problem in the firing cycle.
I took delivery of an FNS-9C on April 30, 2015, had it on order for about 3 weeks. When I looked at the date of the enclosed shell casing it was dated 12/14/14. No matter I love the way it shoots.
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12/14/14 is pretty new! That date seems to conform with previous observations that they "batch" production -- first, they made a bunch of FNS-9's, and at some point started making the current batch of FNS-9C's (since it was introduced this year). Some gun manufacturer's bring a gun out (e.g., at the SHOT Show) and then don't have enough made to stock the distributors who sell to the individual gun shops.
Enjoy the FNS-9c -- it looks like a great gun.
Enjoy the FNS-9c -- it looks like a great gun.
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I would have been thrilled with a date like that.
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