Press release:

FNH USA is pleased to announce the introduction of the new FN FNS-9 and FNS-40 striker-fired autoloading duty pistols to the American law enforcement and commercial market at the 2012 SHOT Show in Las Vegas. Built in the USA by a company with over 100 years of experience in the design and manufacture of striker-fired pistols, the FNS lineup represents the pinnacle of handgun performance, reliability and accuracy . . .

“The new FNS series of autoloading pistols was designed to be the most operator-friendly autopistol available intended to give America’s law enforcement officers a decisive edge,” said Ken Pfau, Senior Vice President of Law Enforcement and Commercial Sales for FNH USA. “After five years of design development and nearly a half-million rounds of testing, the FNS stands ready for duty with any agency, large or small.”

The new FNS features a highly-ergonomic frame design that includes an ultra-low bore axis to reduce felt recoil and two interchangeable backstraps to personalize the grip fit to the user. A MIL-STD 1913 underframe rail is standard for light attachment and an aggressive checkering grip pattern improves control under the harshest shooting conditions.

The new FNS is fully ambidextrous, allowing the user to access and activate the manual thumb safety levers, slide stop lever and magazine release button with either hand from either side of the pistol. This ambidextrous design not only helps adapt the pistol to the user it makes the FNS easier to train on, qualify with and use effectively under stress.

Standard features on the FNS include a hammer-forged stainless steel barrel, a forged stainless steel slide with front and rear cocking serrations, a full-length stainless steel recoil spring guide rod and FN’s exclusive low-profile Deep-V™ three-dot night sights. The FNS-9 offers a 17-round magazine capacity and the FNS-40 holds 14 rounds, both come standard with three magazines and a locking hard case.

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41 COMMENTS

    • Sad.

      The FNX actually gives you something unique: a reasonably priced polymer pistol with a hammer that can be carried cocked ‘n locked right out of the box.

      What does the FNS offer over other striker-fired pistols? An extraneous thumb safety? And a flexy articulated trigger that’ll never feel good? I’m sure it’ll be reliable and accurate enough. But in a world that has the Walther PPQ in it – with its utter simplicity, amazing trigger, very crisp and positive ambi controls, and even some nice cosmetic touches like serrations on the top of the slide – this is just kinda’ depressing.

      C’mon, FN. You can do better.

  2. i have an fnp 45 tactical. it is a great gun, the fnx?…..not so much. this may be why FNH has replaced it the fnx with this new fns, aside from the fact that this new model is striker fired and the older models have hammer?

  3. I have a FNP45 tactical too, it would be nice if I could ever get the trigger to work, or if FN would sell me a replacement, or acknowledge the walking pin issue.

    I dont think the FNS is replacing the FNX, it is just a striker fired version. The FNX replaced the FNP-9/40/357.

    • Curious, Matt, are the FN 9 and 40 comparable in size to your 45? I’m wondering if you or anyone has any thoughts or experience on its concealability. I saw an FNP 9 on the web somewhere the other day for under $400, and being easily dazzled by new firearms, would like to know more, though I don’t think it was striker fired.

      • The 9/40 are smaller than the 45. If it was a FNP then it was the hammer fired model that was discontinued. Technically the FNX’s are smaller versions of the FNP45, FN has a great naming convention. I dont have concealed carry around me, but people on the forums say they are able to conceal a 45, so i’m assuming you should be able to conceal a 9/40 if you can do it with other full sized pistols.

  4. “or acknowledge the walking pin issue.”

    could you please elaborate, I’m curious, does it come out when you are firing it? i have not experienced this.

    • Yes it does, not everyone has the issue, but some do. Mine does it almost every time I take it out. The pin will rub against the frame, but due to the beveled edge it will only go out so far, it wont jam against the frame, just ruin the pull. If you goto fnforum.net there are a bunch of threads on it. If they dont get triggers back in stock soon, i’m going to try to make my own pin from some drill rod blanks.

      People have tried sending them back for warranty, but the problem never was fixed, no one knew what the techs did, FN claims they dont keep service records.

      Also most FNP-45 magazines are undersized and will have issues with ammo near max length and brands like Winchester white box.

      • Thanks for the heads up on these issues. I haven’t had the trigger issue but I did run into the Winchester white box issue recently. I normally use PMC ammo and I have run almost 1K rounds through my FNP-45 Tactical and YHM Cobra suppressor without and issue until using Winchester. I guess I need to visit the forum more often.

        • thanks for the response matt, i usually run federal 45 and tulammo 45 occasionally as this is the most affordable option when i have to drive out of my own county to buy ammo at a decent price. i was un aware of the wwb issues as well. while i have not experienced the walking pin issue but i am really glad i know about it now. i second cmd about needing to check out the fn forum more often.

  5. Wow! Another plastic, striker-fired 9mm! And a .40, too! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

    I’m beginning to think that “innovation” is a dirty word in the firearms business. I know that’s it’s better to be bored to death than banned to death, but really, do we want either?

    • I’m with you, Ralph. We’ve been saying ‘been there, done that’ to polymer-framed striker-fired automatics for at least fifteen years. I’ve already got a polymer-frame 9mm, with an old-style DA/SA trigger, and I’m in no hurry to replace it.

      But FN isn’t making these for us, after all. The world’s police and militaries are replacing their older-design service pistols with the newest Glock clones, and every manufacturer wants a piece of that action.

    • The reason we don’t see innovation is that it is legislatively discouraged.

      Historically, innovation was spurred by the occasional genius who tooled around in his garage until he came up with a working prototype, at which point he marketed it to manufacturers.

      The problem, is that the government has made it so costly to do this legally, that those who do it openly are few and far between.

      • That’s partly it, but from what I’ve seen the average firearms consumer isn’t particularly open to radical change in firearms either. This is actually pretty understandable. Bleeding edge tech is often fairly unreliable and unreliable isn’t a desirable attribute in something you might try to save your life with.

    • You folks all realize that from an engineering perspective there really hasn’t been any thing revolutionary with respect to firearms in the past half century……Right?

      You know this….right?

      • Meh, call it 30 years. Gock’s plastic striker-fired pistols were just as revolutionary in the 80s as drop-safe double-action pistols were in the 60s.

        Personally, I think parallax-free red-dot sights and wallet-sized 9mm’s could be called revolutionary. Maybe not as revolutionary as 1776, 1791, 1911, and 1917, but still game-changers.

      • You know this….right?

        Weknow this all too well. And when it comes to ammo, there hasn’t been any innovation since the first smokeless powder cartridge.

  6. I’m with Ralph.

    I can probably summarize the issue of G&A that will hit the news stands next month.

    It will have, in no particular order:
    – A 1911 Review with much Praise to Saint JMB. (this will recite the Gospel of the 1911 and how its The Best Thing Ever right before the summary where we learn that it costs 1000$+ and the accuracy table shows that the thing shoots no better than a 500$ Tupperware gun and there were two or three FTF and FTE in the first few hundred rounds).

    – An AR15 derivative Review. (again, it will be praised as The Best Thing Ever despite the fact that it costs 1800$ and isnt really any better than a 700$ Used Delton)

    – A Mauser derivative rifle review. (Price tag 900$ + and Gushing about its accuracy while the summary table states that it averages 2-3in at 100yds)

    – A Glock Clone review. (Much talk about the grip angle, front and backstraps, shape of mag release button and the other minute variations that differentiate it from the current offerings on the market and thus make This one the Best Thing Ever. Oh and its still a 9mm/.40 or .45 with between 12 and 19rounds in the mag.)

    – And last but not least, some business about the UN trying to take over America.

  7. Practicality aside, FN usually makes some very interesting pieces, like the P90, F2000, and the Five-seveN. And when they go more “normal,” pistols like the FNP are no slouch. Still, as has been mentioned, I’d wish they and the industry in general would think outside the box a bit more.

  10. Oh! Look at me! I’m bitching about guns that are similar because I have nothing better to do with my life! Bitching about lack of innovation when I’ve never had an origional design idea in my life! Aren’t I so special!

  11. If it offers something over a Glock or an M&P (Or XD for the fans of that) I don’t see any issues with this guns existence. I’ve liked the FN handguns I’ve seen thus far and I imagine this will be a well designed hand gun. If the price is right and it offers something the folks will like I imagine this will sell well.
    Personally I’ve got my eyes on the Walther PPQ.

  12. I bought the FNS-9 today & I LOVE IT! Night Sights, smoothest lightest trigger I have ever squeezed, 17 rounds, thumb safety, simple breakdown, no hammer to catch on anything during a draw. The price was right, $629.900, less $200.00 credit for my Taurus AF99.

  13. I’m a gun nut so anything “new” and that includes cosmetic changes to current designs, gets my attention. You certainly don’t have to buy everything you see but it sure is fun to see, touch, and shoot different weapons. It sounds like some of you have spent way too much time playing video games featuring futuristic weapon systems designed to kill zombies. Maybe if you guys were buff soldier types that could leap tall buildings and withstand multiple explosives rounds to the body, a space gun might be well suited for you. For the rest of us mortals, give me something else to play with and I’m all warm and fuzzy.

  14. How many of those pistols mentioned above include all the controls for southpaws? The FNS looks like a winner for me.

  15. Bought an FNS-40 two days ago, put 100+ rounds down range without a single problem. I’ve shot a lot of different handguns, and this is by far my favorite one to shoot. It will be my “go to” to carry. I love that it came with 2 extra mags, and as soon as I get the chance, I’ll pick up another one for the wife since she liked it too!

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