Gun Review: FN 510 and FN 545 Big Bore Tactical Pistols

With the FN 510 and FN 545, Fabrique Nationale d’Herstal has expanded on their striker-fired tactical pistol line by introducing 10mm and .45 ACP versions of their already well established and varied FN 509 model. In this case, more really is more. FN has delivered high quality duty-sized guns capable of delivering the bigger bore rounds Americans love.

If you’re familiar with the FN 509 series, you’re already familiar with both of these guns. Essentially nothing has changed between the 509 Tactical and these two guns other than the caliber.

The barrels on both the 510 and 545 are the same outside dimension. Only the internal dimension has been increased. The recoil springs also appear (and measure, as far as I can tell) to be the exact same.

I know what you’re thinking and no, although either barrel will fit inside the slide, it won’t mate up against the bolt face and allow the slide to attach to the frame, so no barrel swaps between calibers.

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Both the 510 and 545 feature 4.7″ barrels with target crowns and .587″x28 threads. I used the same ancient and massive AAC .45ACP can on both guns without issue.

Both guns handle recoil extremely well. Part of that is just good geometry and a little bit of weight, but design helps, too. There’s no doubt the wide range of textures used throughout the frame and slide help keep the muzzle down and a solid grip on the gun.

Although all those different textures, (four on the grip alone) don’t add much in the way of a flowing aesthetic, they work great for long shot strings. I was pretty grateful for that with temps above 103 and high humidity (how is that even possible?) here in Texas. With sweaty hands and a 22-round 10mm magazine, I found the need to put quite a bit of “input on the gun,” as the competition nerds say.

Yes, you read that right. The extended magazine for the 510 10mm holds 22 rounds of big boy ammunition. For the 545, it’s 18 rounds of God’s caliber. The flush fit magazine on the 510 holds 15 rounds of the best millimeter and the kinda-sorta-flush-ish 545 mag holds 15 as well. Both guns ran just fine as +1, and that’s how I ran them for most of the review.

Note the differing baseplate shapes.

That’s a hell of a lot of pistol caliber muscle in a duty-sized gun with any of those magazines. The only drawback to those payloads, other than the size of the extended magazines, is the shift in weight.

For either the 510 or 545, the gun recoils differently on the first few rounds than it does on the last few. If you’re shooting relatively slowly or with two hands on the gun, you’re unlikely to notice. But switch to fast fire with a single hand, especially with the heavier 10mm loads, and you’ll feel the difference between the beginning of the string and the end.

More noticeable is the draw with the full extended magazine vs. when it’s nearly empty, although the likelihood of that scenario actually mattering beyond academic curiosity is beyond slim.

The feel of the 510 and 545s trigger pull is squishy on the take-up, followed by a not entirely crisp break. The reset is short, but not particularly precise or crisp either. The 510’s trigger broke at an average of 5 lbs. 7.5 oz. averaged over five pulls with my Lyman digital trigger scale, with almost 4oz of extreme spread. The 545’s averaged 5lbs. 8.1 oz., with 3oz of extreme spread.

Other than the capacity, the standout feature of this entire line of pistols — 509, 510, and 545 — is the sight set and optics mount. FN leads the pack here, with very high quality tall tritium tubed night sights and its MRD system, the best mounting platform offered bar none. Just like the FN 509 LS Edge I previously reviewed, both the 545 and 510 include a wide range of mounting optics for all of the major optics on the market.

Somehow these FN guns come up putting the red dot right in my sight line better than the SIG P320 I’ve been EDCing for about two years now. This is the same thing I experienced with my previous FN pistol reviews that use the FN’s patented low profile mounting system. I don’t understand why it works better than anything else on the market…but it works better than anything else on the market.

The entire line features ambidextrous magazine releases and slide lock/release levers, a four-slot Picatinny rail, swappable backstraps and a color-matched soft case.

Even with a mediocre trigger the 510 and 545 both scored very good groups on paper. I had a fairly limited range of rounds for the 510, but the best shooting commercial round of them was the Armscor 180gr FMJ, printing 1.7″ 5 shot groups at 25 yards using the iron sights and bags. No round shot worse than 2″.

The same goes for the 545, which slightly outperformed the 510 in the accuracy department. The .45 ACP shot 1.5″ groups with the 185gr Remington HP, and no round I could find shot worse than 2″ groups at 25 yards.

As far as reliability, both guns ran absolutely perfectly. The 545 ran even better than perfectly, as I forgot to lube it prior to the review. I just ran with it and didn’t lube the gun until the 460 round mark when it was time to shoot groups. I did remember to blast some CLP into the 510 prior to shooting it, but it had the exact same result as the 545.

For the 545, the vast majority of the rounds I fired were Remington’s 185gr HTP hollow point round, but I also shot 100 of my own home-rolled 230gr FMJ’s and a single box of Winchester’s 230gr Train and Defend HPs.

For the 510, I shot 200 of my own 200gr Hornady FMJ reloads moving as fast as my reloading manual said I could, a single box of Remington’s Golden Saber 180gr HP, and the rest were Armscor’s 180gr FMJ.

If it was a .45 ACP or 10mm within SAAMI spec, neither pistol had any issues at all. I ran 560 rounds through each gun over a week of ludicrously hot Texas weather. I used the AAC suppressor with each gun for at least one large magazine for each round type, again, with no problems at all.

FN has really delivered with the 510 and 545 pistols. When compared to the other factory options on the market, there’s little to compete within the striker-fired 10mm and .45 ACP space, especially if you consider the feature set of being optics- and suppressor-ready right from the factory.

I’m very interested to see which caliber sells more, but in the meantime, I’m just happy FN has embraced the civilian market the way they have with this entire series, giving American shooters just what they’ve been asking for.

Specifications: FN 510 Tactical

Caliber: 10mm Auto
Operation: Striker-fired semiauto
Mag Capacity: 15/22
Barrel: 4.71″
Thread Pitch: .578″x28
Height: 6″ (with smaller magazine)
Weight: 31.4 oz.
Finish: polymer frame, PVD-finished steel slide
Grips: Textured polymer w/interchangeable backstraps
Sights: Suppressor height, 3-dot tritium; optic ready
Sight Radius: 6.1″
MSRP: $1,139.00

FN 545 Tactical

Caliber: .45ACP
Operation: Striker-fired semiauto
Mag Capacity: 15/18
Weight: 31.0 oz
Finish: polymer frame, PVD-finished steel slide
Grips: Textured polymer w/interchangeable backstraps
Sights: Suppressor height, 3-dot tritium; optic ready
Barrel Length: 4.71″
Overall Length: 8.3″
Twist Rate: 1:16 Rh
Height: 6.3″ (with smaller magazine)
Width: 1.45″
Sight Radius: 6.1″
Thread Pitch: .578″x28
MSRP: $1,139.00

Ratings (out of five stars):

Style and Appearance * * *
All the textures. A quality PVD finish is applied evenly throughout the slide. Colors mostly match (Someone really should introduce whoever is in charge of this to the people that make the SCAR.)

Customization * * * *
There’s not much on the market for these guns yet, at least compared to the more established lines, but the MRD optics mounting platform and the threaded muzzle more than make up for it.

Reliability * * * * *
Perfect with any round, even when I forgot to lube one of them.

Accuracy * * * *
Everything I shot was between the 1.5″ and 2″ mark.

Overall * * * * ½
As usual, FN doesn’t sell discount guns, but it’s pretty hard to argue you’re not getting a solid value from either of these pistols. They shoot as accurately as my Colt Delta and Combat Elite pistols and are just as reliable as any GLOCK I own. The sight set is excellent and the optics mounting is best-in-class. Beyond all that, the guns both just shoot, carry and handle very well.