![]() Traditionally, mounting a red dot to your pistol’s slide required milling the slide itself for a specific optic, necessitating the time and effort of a professional machine shop and all the costs that entailed. Once thought the strict purview of competition shooters and “gamer guns,” red dots are now considered all-but-standard on well-appointed pistols meant for offensive and defensive tactical applications. One of the biggest advancements in self-defense and duty pistols over the last decade-plus is the revolution in miniaturized red-dot optics. To date, there are four separate models available: the original 509, the 509 Midsize, the 509 Compact MRD, and the 509 Compact Tactical. In 2017, FN released the 509 to the commercial market and have been advancing the design ever since. ![]() Additionally, U.S.-based corporate security company Brinks adopted the pistol for all of its armed security professionals. A number of LE agencies have since adopted the pistol as their issued duty sidearm. Between their submission to the MHS trials in 2016 and the FN 509’s commercial release, they took their redesigned fighting pistol and approached a number of law enforcement agencies around the country with test guns to collect real-time feedback from officers, leading directly to the enhanced magazine release, slide and barrel changes, as well as some size and shape input to optimize it for duty holsters. While the Modular Handgun System solicitation was trudging along, FN wasn’t content to rest on their laurels. This process actually alters the surface of the barrel material on its surface layers, as opposed to being an applied finish, offering greater wear resistance over long-term use. ![]() They moved away from commercial PVD finishes and use ferritic nitrocarburation (also known as “nitride”) finish on these barrels. The stainless steel barrel was also redesigned with an 11-degree recessed target crown, and the barrel itself is cold-hammer-forged in the tradition of FN’s other military-grade offerings. These are easily replaced by the end user by simply tapping out a roll pin and sliding off one backstrap, then sliding the new one on and replacing the pin. All commercially available 509 models also ship with two separate backstraps - a curved medium and straight-back small. All of this was to achieve maximum ergonomics and tactile feedback to the user’s hand regardless of hot, cold, wet, or slippery conditions, or while wearing duty gloves. The slide serrations were also enhanced with more aggressive texturing. Additionally, molded guards “fence in” the controls in order to minimize the possibility of accidental activation of the slide-lock lever or magazine-release button. To achieve this, the FN 509 actually uses three separate texture patterns: a pyramid-like block structure on the sides, a scalloped “dragon scale” style on the front and backstraps, and a finer skid tape texture on the high edges. Grip texture was enhanced and optimized for hard use under all conditions. Specifically, they targeted the 5th to 95th percentiles of hand sizes for both men and women, in accordance with MHS program requirements. The fiberglass-reinforced-polymer frame was reshaped and contoured to fit almost every possible combination of hand size and shape out there. The military was also interested in enhanced ergonomic features that could accommodate a wide variety of hand sizes. Other requirements included fully ambidextrous controls, the ability to accept “ targeting enhancers” (lights and lasers) on a Picatinny rail, and a matte finish in a neutral color. No caliber was specified for final selection, but all submitted prototypes would undergo a terminal ballistics test and be expected to achieve 14 inches of penetration into a block of ballistic gelatin. The pistol had to be capable of 90-percent accuracy inside a 4-inch circle out to 50 meters. Many competed, and more were interested in what would come from Fabrique Nationale: The FN 509. This increased battlefield presence, combined with rapid commercial advancements in pistol capability, led the Defense Department to pursue what would eventually become the Modular Handgun System. In addition to the need to retire guns that had reached the end of their mechanical service life, handguns were seeing increased use by both special operations and conventional forces in an age of asymmetric warfare that required more direct-engagement by military personnel with local populations. Air Force announced they’d be undertaking a program to replace the military’s aging fleet of service pistols.
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