Frag Out! Magazine

The FN FNX-45 has its first official presentation at the SHOT Show 2013, as FNH USA's entry into the Joint Combat Pistol program, meant to find a replacement for over 100 000 Beretta M9's (license-built 92FS), the standard pistol of the US Armed Forces. So far, the JCP program has fizzled, but neverthe- less we used an opportunity to get acquainted with this pistol a bit closer. Just the look of that handgun (and somehow the medieval predecessor of the word, the "handgonne", seems more ap- propriate to describe it) is imposing. It is American to the bone – everything about it is either "big", "large" or "great". Starting with the .45-sized bore, thru boat paddle-sized controls (hold open release notwithstanding – that one is more humane, Glock-sized), all the way to the cavernous magazines. Other than that, though, it is just another sem- iautomatic pistol, polymer-framed, steel-slided, short-re- coil operated with a tilting barrel. Just a tad – OK, make it two – bigger than the others. Unlike Ford Model T, you can have an FNX- 45 in as many as two (and a half ) colors, and then in two variations: Standard and Tactical. The latter has a longer barrel (5.3- inch, opposed to the Standard's 4.5-inch), and an external thread for a suppressor (plus matching oversized sights to clear the "can"). Plus a pre-fabricated RMR sight cut on the slide. The Standards are only "two- tones", with either black frame and stainless steel slide (that's the "half " color mentioned above), or black slide over Coyote Brown frame. The Tacticals are uniform color: all- black or all-Coyote Brown. Both FNX-45 Tacticals look VERY martial. We had a black-and-tan Standard available for the testing. Well, good enough for us – we took it to the shooting range for a little shake-down and write-up. In ActIon

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