A phenomenally crafted handgun at a phenomenally reasonable price
The FNH FNS 9 is truly a phenomenal handgun and one that brought a lot of features to the table far ahead of its competitors.
If you are simply reading this to determine whether or not to purchase this handgun I will save you the read and start off by saying if you find one of these in your local gun store snatch it up. Continue reading to see my in depth breakdown and review of this handgun
Out of the box:
This handgun gives you everything you need to hit the range right out of the box (with the exception of 9mm ammo of course). Included in the high quality FNH branded hardcase is the striker fired 9mm FNS 9 itself, an additional interchangeable backstrap, three 17 round magazines, a gun lock, and your instruction/safety manual. All at the very reasonable price of around $500 U.S, which puts it right in line with many other striker fired handguns.
Overview:
This handgun is beautifully crafted, which is to be expected with anything coming out of FNH's factories, and the FNS 9 is certainly no exception to that. This handgun was one of the first to be designed with a full sized frame and a compact size slide (the same concept behind the Glock 19x). The FNS 9 features a set of fully ambidextrous controls including both magazine release and slide lock. All of the edges on both the slide and frame are rounded off and snag free. I initially thought that the texturing on the grip was too aggressive but overtime I have become very fond of it. While it is an aggressive pattern and texture, it is not so much so that it will hurt your hands. It provides a very solid grip in all weather conditions and handles sweaty hands well. The serrations on the front and rear of the slide are just grippy enough without being obnoxious or getting hung up on holsters. The included sights are one of the biggest pros to this handgun. They are your standard three dot profile but they include the tritium night sight inserts all enclosed in a very strong metal sight housing. On top of all that the sights are angled and serrated to reduce glare. The trigger guard on this gun is very large so manipulation is easy even with larger winter gloves on. The light rails are standard 1913 milspec so they will accommodate most all lights on the market, like the Inforce APL gen 3 pictured below. The barrel profile is a little bit thin for my liking but even when heating it up i noticed very little impact shift so apparently FNH knows more than I do in that department. The trigger on the FNS is nothing super special. Just like most striker fired guns it is a decently heavy pull and features a built in hinge point for the trigger safety (there is no manual safety). The reset is pretty long but very positive. There is a very distinct "wall" on this trigger, which I am a huge fan of, but can be considered a con for some. Field stripping of the FNS 9 is very similar to most striker fired handguns and very easy with the included manual. Overall my opinion of this handgun is very positive but just like every machine it does have its flaws, which I will cover later on.
Accuracy:
As you may know a gun is totally useless if you cant hit anything with it, so accuracy should be a huge factor in the buying process for any firearm. The FNS 9 leaves very little to be desired in the accuracy department. It is by far one of the most accurate handguns I have ever fired and I hate to say it but it puts my Glocks to shame in that aspect. I believe a large part of that is the higher quality three dot sights that come on the FNS 9. The sights are perfectly clear and very easy to align quickly night or day. As I said earlier the thin barrel profile made me hesitant at first but even after dumping six mags in rapid succession i saw very little stringing of shots at 25 yards. Overall for accuracy i have to give the FNS 9 a solid 9 out of 10
Handling:
I will admit that full size/compact crossover handguns are not my favorite profile of handgun to shoot. Despite that the FNS 9 is a phenomenal gun to run. It seems to balance out the slide size difference with a very shootable recoil impulse. The height over bore is a little higher than that of a Glock but the recoil impulse is still very manageable as long as your fundamentals are sound. The gun is very easy to run fast and accurately with very little effort from the shooter. The grip texture makes it easy to drive the gun effectively from target to target even if your grip isn't the strongest. Although if you are coming from a Glock platform the grip angle is more along the lines of a 1911 so that will take some getting used to. The one problem I have run into with the handling of the FNS 9 is that the milling on the side of the slide almost encourages riding the slide with your support thumb. This could partially be due to the fact I have very large hands but I did experience two failure to eject malfunctions which I calculate to be the effect of riding the slide during recoil. This is not a detrimental thing, just a small training hurdle you might have to address while running this handgun. Handling score for the FNS 9 is an 8 out of 10.
Reliability:
I briefly discussed reliability in the last section but lets talk about it a little more in depth. As of the writing of this post I have put approximately 6000 rounds through the FNS 9 (cleaning it at 300 and then again at every 1000) and experienced three malfunctions. The first malfunction I experienced was a full 17 round magazine failing to lock in on a slide forward tac reload. This occurred within the first 200 rounds and I will say i expected this to happen so i do not blame the firearm. I am confident in saying this was because out of the box the magazine springs are incredibly stiff, stiffer than that 5th hour on viagra. So i highly suggest that you load the mags up and let them sit loaded for a couple weeks or put about 200 rounds through each mag. That was about the round count I hit before they started to break in, since then I have had no problems with tac reloads or fitting the full 17 in by hand. The other two malfunctions I mentioned earlier were both failure to eject(also called stove pipes). The first one was around the 300-400 round range and the second was around 750 rounds. The first one is hard for me to tell whether or not it was caused by recoil spring tension or riding the slide. It was still within the recommended break in round count so it is possible the spring was still finding its groove. The second stove pipe I know for sure was the effect of riding the slide grove with my support thumb. I was able to isolate that problem when it happened and consistently recreate the same malfunction by apply heavy force into the slide with my support thumb during firing. Like any mechanical device you have to break it in, keep it clean, and take care of it. If you do those things the FNS 9 will treat you very well. I give it an 8 out of 10 in reliability.
Cons:
So I have covered many of this guns pros but there is one very big con that you should be aware of before purchasing an FNS 9. That con for this handgun is aftermarket support. There are very limited options for sights, red dot milling, custom slide work, and especially for holsters designed for the FNS 9. This could just be because I am used to the cookie cutter nature of the Glock platform and all of the aftermarket support for those guns. The biggest hurdle was finding a quality holster for the FNS 9, especially one that was light bearing because I strongly recommend putting a light on all of your handguns. I spent hours online and in gun shops trying to find a retention holster for the FNS. Eventually I was able to find a Safariland ALS light bearing holster (a holster style that I strongly recommend for any handgun) on amazon that was buried deep in a list of FNH compatible holsters. I am very hard pressed to find any other cons with the FNS 9. If I had to pick one more con I would say the backstraps are very difficult to change, hence the reason I have a paper clip in the case to help push in the little lever for the straps. Here is the link for that holster if anyone is interested https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00L54BCZW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Final thoughts:
In conclusion if you are looking for a high quality duty, carry, or range handgun, the FNH FNS 9 will be a perfect fit. This handgun can serve any purpose you give to it and do so to a very high standard. At a price of only about $500 this handgun is well within the reach of many people and actually cheaper than a lot of alternatives in the striker fired handgun class. While this handgun wont take over the place of my Glocks (mostly because I have always been a Glock fanboy) it has definitely earned its spot in my safe. My overall rating of the FNH FNS 9 is an 8/10 and a definite must buy
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