Fun At The Range - Shooting The FNX-45

Now I'll admit right up front that as a general rule I'm not that fond of .45's.  Don't get me wrong, there's nothing intrinsically wrong with a .45, and I have several friends who swear by their 1911's.  I'll even agree that there is some truth to the old saw that recommends the .45 because "no should have to shoot an intruder more than once".  But the fact is that almost every .45 I've ever shot has a relatively strong kick, and I prefer to use a gun that I can shoot for an hour or so every single day such as a 9mm.  With a .45 after about an hour I start feeling it in my wrist, and my elbow tends to be a bit sore the next day.  But on Monday I got try a 1911 style .45 that makes me forget about how I'll feel the next day, namely the FNX-45.

The FNX line of pistols are the descendants of FN's FNP Full Duty pistol which was introduced in 2007 in response to the military looking for a replacement for Beretta's classic M9.  This piece is no concealed carry pocket pistol weighing in at a full 33 ounces empty and with a 4.5 inch barrel bringing the total length of the gun to 7.4 inches, and oh yeah, the little detail that keeps it from being a true 1911 in the eyes of a purest, the magazine is a double stack mag holding 15 rounds or .45 ammo!  When I first heard that little tidbit, I must admit that my first thought was that this thing must be like the Fosters Larger of handguns, big and bulky.  But boy was I wrong.  It is wide in the hand, but I had no trouble with the grip and it pointed like an extension of my arm.  The 4.5 inch stainless steel barrel gives the FNX-45 tremendous accuracy, and the angle of the grip combines with heavy duty recoil springs and stainless steal slides to reduce the felt recoil to something not much more than you'd feel with my beloved Ruger SR9.  Combine all that, and I was turning in groupings about the size of my palm at 10 yards with no practice shoots at all, and even at 20 yards I was keeping the grouping with in the 9 ring on a full size silhouette except for one leaker that hit in the 8 ring.  In comparison my SR9 had 2 leakers in the 7 ring at 25 yards.  But for me, the best part was the trigger.  Light and crisp, it had just enough pull to keep it from being fired by accident and it broke cleanly with a reset that is almost perfection itself.  The only down side is that I only brought enough cash with me to buy a single box of ammo or else I might still be there 2 days later.

---