I picked up Nick’s FNS-9 earlier this week and I’ve got grand plans to test it out and write a review for this week. In the interim, I put together a short overview video showing some of the features as well as a demonstration of the trigger travel, break, and reset. My first impressions are . . .
It’s a finely made duty pistol that’s managed to handle whatever Leghorn has thrown at it over the last year and 4000-5000 rounds. It is totally filthy and a little dinged up which means I can’t do much more damage to it.
Things I like:
– The Trijicon Night Sights are bright in the dark, but still very clear and crisp in the light of day
– The frame is covered in aggressive checking which makes getting a grip very easy
– The trigger is fantastic. It breaks cleanly at 5.25 pounds and has the loudest audible & tactile reset I’ve ever experienced
– Even after thousands of rounds, it seems to be devoid of rattles and in good shape
Things I’m not excited about:
– The grip is too big for my hands. I’m not going to deduct any points because FNH has done their best to accommodate, but Nick hasn’t. FNH provides interchangeable backstraps. Nick didn’t give me the smaller one. [ED: FN’s sending the smaller backstrap special delivery.]
– It has a manual safety. Some people prefer it, but I’m not one of them.
I’m looking forward to shooting it and may just add it to the list of guns I’d recommend to people for their first defensive pistol…if all goes well. Watch this space.
CTD can go to hell for artificially inflating their prices and selling things for outrageous amounts.
I even spoke with an ex-CTD worker a few months back. He said he quit because of how shameful the company is.
You know… the mere concept of ‘executive privilege’ has always had a shaky legal standing as is. It was originally allowed when there was a certain issue that was time critical. There is no legal standing for President Stompy-foot to just use it every time he doesn’t get his way on an issue. And it certainly doesn’t allow him to label every single piece of legislation he likes as ‘time critical’. Such actions are the deeds of a tyrant. And America has an honored history of throwing off tyrants.
How does the “loaning” of a firearm work if you guys aren’t face to face? Did Nick send it to your FFL for a sales price of zero dollars?
We live close enough to do a face to face. And we’re Texans.
Yeah, but won’t all the “public” be killed now? SC won’t have “PUBLIC SAFETY”, oh well, Randy
he can eat a bag of d!cks
Had one and didn’t like the over aggressive texturing at all. Replaced it with a Steyr M9-A1 and I can say I like the Steyr alot more, really.
Colion Noir, FateofDestinee, Cory & Erika, and a few others that I can’t be assed to remember right meow.
MAC for straight-up firearms reviews, Sootch00 for firearm and other self-defense products, and (I’m going to get flamed for this) FPS Russia because I think he’s funny.
Also, forgot Bigshooterist. I like him too.
“Sexual assault is pervasive because our culture still allows it to persist.”
That is correct … because droves of people and organizations actively encourage and even force women to be defenseless against nearly all sexual assaults.
How many female college students are armed? Effectively zero since most states criminalize anyone under the age of 21 who carries concealed, most states criminalize anyone who carries concealed on a college campus, and a few states (with ginormous populations like California and New York) do not even offer concealed carry licenses to the general public.
How many other women are armed? Almost zero as well for various reasons. We all have to work to change that.
CarniK Con http://youtu.be/HhGih7eWI3E
Regularly Hickock, TN Outdoors, MAC.
Of those not mentioned, I rather like Forgotten Weapons:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ForgottenWeapons
Nutnfancy might be okay, but he’s painful to watch.
Nutnfancy.
His exhaustive testing yields a bunch of results and “data points” the other guys rarely even touch on.
Not that Hickok, IV8888, MAC, and the others aren’t good, of course.
Hickok45 for gun reviews
Mr Colion Noir for political stuff, and just plain smart talk about guns and the culture surrounding them
For just plain shooting videos I like 22Plinkster. KJW (not much love for her in these comments. Come on guys) is always easy on the eyes, but more than that she is always having fun and it shows. Which is a very good thing in attracting new shooters. Then you have the man, Jerry Miculek. That dude can shoot a gun. Any gun. I really enjoyed Bob Mundens videos. Overall I find I watch Hickok45 more than anybody. So I guess that answers the question.
Plinkster is awesome! Should have mentioned him.
The Yankee Marshall. He’s fun and addresses a wide range of topics.
IMHO Hoppes is good for lubing car door hinges, locks, and anything around the house. Too watery for my Glock and Browning Buckmark. Have had good luck with CLP products especially here in the high and dry desert.
If Dirk wont jump in, then I have to ask how are the products on Latex and Lambskin? Especially KG9?
For me, it’s Hickock45, hands down, followed closely by Gunblast and Mr. Colion Noir (pre-NRA spokesman material).
Great news, but the problem is with wording in articles like this…”The legislation would, however, prohibit people legally carrying weapons from consuming alcohol in those establishments” , the wording yields to the permit/privilege mindset of the 2nd Amendment. If the 2A has any chance of remaining intact, we need to be moving the language back to “shall not be infringed”…aka a right, and not a privilege.
By blaming guns for the deaths and injuries that are really caused by gang violence the establishment refuses to address the real problem: poverty, poor economy and the failed drug war.
The vigilantes don’t really have a choice, here. If they turn down this “assistance” the public will believe anything the government says about them. They have to play the government’s game and hope it’s not really in the cartels’ pockets. If they’re smart, they’ll fudge the registrations and keep their chain of command intact as a hedge against the alternative.
The post strikes me as a defensive bit about how velocity doesn’t matter, short barreled .308 is better for military applications than short-barreled 5.56, and why no one needs a more powerful cartridge than a .308, or a longer barrel than 20″, both of which strike me as aburd. But I should be specific:
my area of study has been mostly in making weapons more compact and useable for real-world scenarios.
They’ve been very thoroughly studied by the US and NATO militaries. This isn’t new ground. Neither considers velocity “an abstraction.”
It appears that a large number of individuals are fixated on the concept of velocity and that bullets must be moving at Mach 11 and call the remaining rounds in the magazine ‘Goose’ and ‘Iceman’ to be taken seriously when in flight…… You always want to get more of her, but you don’t really know why other than just superficial attraction. The allure of a high velocity number on your ballistic card is just too attractive for most to resist.
This bit, above, is silly. Those shooting light bullets at distant small game know they need high velocity to stand a chance given wind. Those shooting very heavy high-momentum bullets at thick skinned dangerous game know that momentum and sectional density are much more important than velocity for their purpose. It simply is bad manners (and laughable) for you to assume that other more experienced hunters, snipers, and equipment designers do not know what they are doing, but that you do.
In my personal opinion, the .308 Winchester is by far the best candidate for chambering in your short barrel.
Which is why the vast majority of them in both military and civilian hands are chambered in 5.56. And shame on the Russkies and Chicoms for not chopping back those AKM barrels!
No other commonly available cartridge gives you the ability to push a 168gr .30cal bullet out of about 11 inches of rifling at 2380fps while not wasting powder or barrel life. In other words, .308 is the weakest .30 caliber rifle cartridge, except not quite as weak as the .30-30. Got it.
In point of fact, I don’t think that any rifle of any caliber really ever needs a barrel over 20”. I’m not alone in that sentiment, as many Magpul fans or long range students out there who own The Art of the Precision Rifle will know, cowboy patriot Todd Hodnett states that he will never own another .338 Lapua over 20” again.
No rifle of any caliber …needs a barrel over 20″? Do you live in a cave? Have you ever gone hunting with any caliber larger than .30? Are the militaries of the world simply building all their sniper rifles wrong because they didn’t consult you?
The thing with shorter barrels is that you have to be mindful of what components you use to load them. And handload you must to get the best performance.
It may surprise you to learn that this mindfulness is required when reloading other calibers as well. And remember, your custom load numbers are just averages. You’ll never know if you got a particular cartridge loaded exactly right.
but it’s the truth: velocity is abstract. I’ll give you a few minutes to think about what kind of things you’re going to write me in the comments section. When you get back, I’ll tell you why it doesn’t matter.
The truth is that every shot is different and entirely dependent on a host of external and internal variables.
We never knew. Are you sure of this?
Is running fast an abstract concept? Neither is velocity. Both are a statement of a concrete reality, the distance covered per unit time.
It wasn’t your fault; velocity is just a vain lady. She gets worse, but the thing that you have to remember is that velocity is nothing more than an estimate that begets another estimate.
What’s with all the “velocity is a lady…a bitch….a fair haired vixen? It’s just velocity, how fast the bullet is travelling. There isn’t any sex involved.
Velocity is not an estimate. Perhaps what you meant was that your handload is never perfect, and you will never know exactly the temperature down range?
Yeah, you just made a $7 noise. But don’t worry, it wasn’t your fault. Velocity happens.
This argument says “since your velocity will vary slightly, you should only use cheaper cartridges.” Then you’ll miss by even more, but it will cost even less. Stick with White Box? The more you miscalculate your ballistic data and make your sight adjustments incorrectly, the cheaper the ammo you should shoot? I agree with that. Everybody agrees with that. Don’t shoot expensive ammo until you are ready to be precise.
The effects of temperature are constant, and velocity is constantly affected by the environment. Do you see now how velocity isn’t something that can be used as a marker of effectiveness or efficiency? It’s constantly changing; therefore, the terminal and external ballistics of the bullet in flight are changing, too.
The benefits of higher velocity and a heavier bullet will actually be an increasing benefit when the weather is colder, the air denser: The effect of crosswind will increasingly favor the heavier or faster-travelling bullet (check your advanced ballistics calculator on a few comparisons). Increasing altitude will reduce the benefit.
When you fire your long 26” barreled rifle at 2805fps average, that bullet has slowed down to 2380 by the time it hits 200 yards. If you were to fire your 16” barreled rifle at an average 2610fps, you will be hitting 2380fps at only 100 yards.
Yes, the additional velocity delivers a more effective (more energetic, higher-momentum) hit, whether to a moose or a man, downrange. Unless you consider energy and momentum to also be mere abstractions….
At a range of 540 yards, the 26” barrel yields 3.5 mils of drop from the same 100 yard zero on a 70 degree day. That’s 30% less drop.
Drop, as any long range hunter, sniper, or paper-target shooter will tell you, is not the problem. Wind is the problem. Shooting from a rest (your pack, sticks) in the field at an elk 400 yards away…you can very quickly dial in your drop, especially with a CDS dial, but you’ll just be guessing the wind drift. You won’t be missing due to elevation. You’ll be missing on the lateral, which is why velocity and bullet mass matter. Which matters more, velocity or bullet weight/momentum, depends on conditions and the nature of the target.
I thought you did. You can see that temperature alone can play havoc and make your 26” drop like your 16”, which is now dropping like your 13.5”. Abstract indeed. Temperature plays a huge role in how bullets fly, as does elevation and wind. So let’s close the distance a bit to a range most people can shoot at regularly without much environmental interference, like 300 yards.
Hunters have been taking temperature and elevation into account for well over 100 years. The concepts aren’t abstract. They are calculated based on concrete measures. Abstraction is either a sets concept (mathematics), or means “impractical or vague.” Velocity calculations taking temperature and altitude into account are neither.
So what? That still looks unimpressive? That’s like a million clicks of difference, Right? On a 70 degree day, there is only a 6.4” (2.1 MOA) difference in point of impact between the 13.5” and 26” barrels. On a 10 degree day, the difference is only 10.8” (3.6 MOA). That equates to very little real-world difference. If you happen to run a 16”, the differences are even less noticeable, those being 4.3” (1.4 MOA) at 70 degrees and 7.5” (2.5 MOA) at 10 degrees. None of this is really that big of a deal for real-world applications.
What real world application is it that you keep coming back to in your mind, but do not describe in the article? It seems to me you’re thinking of running through the bush with your rifle chambered for a distance round, in a military situation rather than hunting. In the bush you won’t have any long shots, and with a rifle much heavier than a 5.56, you won’t be running so fast or far, either. If you are walking when you hunt, as surprisingly many of us do, you’ll lose nothing by carrying a barrel long enough to burn more powder in the barrel, rather that outside of it.
What? How is that not a big deal? Let me tell you: all bullets drop, that’s a fact of life. Modern high quality optics can account for it as simply as clicking the elevation turret or looking through the Horus reticule.
Drop isn’t the problem for practical shooters, whether hunters or soldiers. Wind and a stable shooting position are the problems, together with target movement, time pressure.
“But Josh! What about wind?”….. Time, patience, and missed shots are part of the learning curve no matter what barrel length or velocity you shoot with when it comes to wind.
Time and patience offer little help with wind calculations. Velocity and bullet weight ofter plenty of help. Contrary to the thesis of this post. Spin drift? It’s a triviality at the distances mentioned.
That is another reason I encourage proficiency at medium distances, as there’s significantly less wind influence at closer ranges. This might be a given, but it’s a good given in that there is very little significant difference in drift between a 300gr .338 Lapua at 2800fps (.4 mil drift) and a 168gr .308 at 2380fps (.8 mil drift) at 300 yards in a 10mph 90 degree left to right wind. Even though it is twice as much, it’s only a difference of 4.4” (1.4 MOA). The thing is the .308 gets there at less than 1/5 the cost, less than half the powder, and with a weapon shorter than the Lapua’s barrel when folded. If we’re talking semi-auto, the cost of the system alone can dictate choice, not to mention the availability of parts and weight penalties. That extra 1.4 MOA just got a bit pricy, in other words.
With a 20 mph wind at 450 yards there is plenty of difference between the rounds compared. Indeed, that’s why a .308 user in the field will want a 180 grain bullet, or a faster cartridge.
4.4 inches is trivial? Just how wide do you think a Taliban dude’s head is from centerline? A deer’s heart? As for cost, a .338 Lapua bolt-action gun doesn’t cost five times the same quality .308. There is no advantage to a 13″ rifle compared to a 16″-barreled rifle in most actual hunting or soldiering. Running actual behind-the-lines recce in jungle would make it worth the forgone velocity, but approximately no one partakes in that activity.
the average distance for a police sniper to fire at (not necessarily hit. Looking at you, NYPD…) his target was only 51 yards based on a 2005 report summing up over 200 sniper shots. That’s hardly far at all, but well within the realistic expectations of urban combat. At 50 yards, there is literally no disadvantage to having a short barrel. In the military, a shorter barrel isn’t something that’s new. The SCAR 17 with a 13” barrel is in use with the SEALs currently, and is no doubt the primary target of Lapua’s new 170gr offering. A shorter barreled weapon is also far easier to conceal and jump with, bonus if it has a folding stock as well.
Police snipers aren’t distance shooters. For that matter, they are not snipers. They just use that term because it sounds cool. They’re just the guys in the department who are supposed to be able to hit something accurately with a (typically bolt-action) rifle. Nonetheless, they do buy those very expensive scopes. The last time I looked, the longest police sharpshooter kill was at 78 yards. How was this section relevant to the thesis?
Almost no one in any military is jumping in anymore.
2014-01-07 11.48.01
I seriously doubt that most people who own a .338 Lapua east of the Mississippi has had a chance to fire it past 900 yards enough to become truly proficient..
You yourself said you encouraged proficiency at medium range. Is there any reason .338 Lapua people shouldn’t also gain their proficiency at such ranges?
I’m not going to get into the reasons why people buy the guns they do, but I will say that in America, if it can’t be done by a .308Win, it really shouldn’t be done at all. …… If you feel comfortable carrying a hot loaded .357 or .44 mag up north, realize that a 168gr .308Win, even a 13.5” one, has more force at 1/3 mile than a hot 240gr .44 does point blank. And to think, Fred Bear would have been horrified to learn that the polar bear he shot with an arrow back in 1966 could have laughed off a .308 according to some of the experts I received mail from recently. In short, a short barrel isn’t a handicap for hunting. It’s just the contrary.
2014-01-07 11.36.09
My hunting rifle is one of my Scally Hill Systems Mk4Mod7 systems that uses a 13.5” barrel. When folded, it’s just 26.6” long and can maneuver through brush like it’s not even there. Even with the stock in position, it’s only 35.75” overall with a 13” length of pull. It’s smaller than most AR15s out there, uses AICS mags, and it’s still a .5 MOA gun after 4000+ rounds and counting out to 540 yards, and yes, that’s an average of .5 MOA. For hunting anything in America, that’s hard to beat when size and accuracy are concerned. Not to mention, it’s the ideal sized rifle for a guerrilla sniper or armed civilian marksman in a time of unrest.
For most realistic uses, a short barreled rifle isn’t a handicap. Considering that most hunting and shooting is done at around 100-300 yards given terrain, available practice areas, and shot ethics, there isn’t really a disadvantage to speak of. ….. Bigger bullets do not make up for poor marksmanship, nor does more velocity…… don’t get your hopes up about shooting bad guys. Go buy Modern Warfare 3 and learn to quickscope with the MSR. Trust me, it’s cheaper and you’ll only get bruised verbally by 12 year olds. Get something that you can fire comfortably, effectively, economically, and lethally at the maximum distance that you can fire at regularly. My bet is that you won’t need a 26” .338 Lapua or even a 20” .308 to do that. In other words, don’t try to make up for your shortcomings with more power. That will only magnify them.
Can you go longer? Sure, you can. But the real question is why you would want to, knowing that you will probably never wring the full potential out of a short barrel to begin with at your typical range or hunting excursion.
For elk, moose, and sheep hunting, you will certainly want higher velocity and (for moose) heavier bullets. For deer hunting in grizzly and brown bear country you will definitely want to carry a heavier caliber rifle with more velocity. In some hunts (the Delta Bison hunt in Alaska, for example, you’ll have to bring a .30-06 200 grain load. The .308 200 grain load is too low-energy by the Alaska Fish and Game’s opinion. Fred Bear, you will recall, was backed up by a hunter with a heavy caliber rifle.
But why constantly compare a semi-auto SBR in .308 to a .338 Lapua? They are completely different items meant for different purposes, having different virtues. Has somebody with a .338 Lapua been teasing you?
The smaller the better in a woman? Huh?