FNH FNX 9mm

FNH FNX 9mm

Many people have never heard of it, and if you’re not careful, just saying the name “FNH FNX” can sound like you’re mad or something is wrong. In the case of this polymer 9mm duty pistol, however, almost everything is right.

A little bit of history: European firearms manufacturer Fabrique Nationale (FN) has been producing legendary firearms since the late 1800s, including collaborative products with the late John Moses Browning. In 1977, FN acquired Browning Arms and in 1989 FN became The Herstal Group.

During the late 20th century, the company would produce weapons such as the M249 Squad Automatic Weapon, the M240 machine gun, the P90 machine gun, and the Five SeveN pistol. In more recent years, the company would create and deploy the FN SCAR 16 and 17 globally. In addition to these and other military and law enforcement weapons, the company also created the pistol you see here.

The FNH FNX design includes a polymer frame with a serious gripping surface, a trigger guard that’s large enough to be used with a gloved hand, a tactical rail, a larger ambidextrous magazine release, and an ambidextrous decocker/safety.

In double action mode — available only if you use the decocker to lower the hammer — the trigger stroke was still smooth but very long, so much so that some of the shooters who were helping me wondered if something was wrong with them or with the gun.

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The decocker/safety was easy to engage, fairly positive in its travel, but too easy to decock when merely trying to take off the safety. This would result in the need for the long, double action stroke to fire the gun. Of course, a shooter could manually pull the hammer back and return to Condition 1.Chambering a round resulted in the gun having the hammer back, ready to fire in single action mode. Those who would want to carry in Condition 1 would at this point push the decocker/safety up to activate the trigger safety. To fire, the user would thumb the decocker/safety switch down and the gun would be ready to fire, a very 1911 feel.

When decocking the FNH FNX, the right side of the ambidextrous decocker/safety switch would at times push against my hand, which was annoying. The decocker/safety was not as crisp as other levers or switches I’ve used and let down the hammer with a fairly loud thud.

Regardless of the position of the hammer, a shooter could activate the safety. With the safety on, the FNH FNX allows a full trigger stroke but with no activity in the fire control system. In other words, while some safeties prevent any trigger motion, the FNH FNX’s safety actually disables the fire control system, allowing the shooter to pull the trigger all the way back in single action or double action mode.