The FNX™-45 Tactical

Photography by Shinnosuke Tanaka

For Taking Care of Things that Go Bump in the Night

Whenever the hated and heated debate of 9mm versus .45 ACP comes up in shooting circles (and please, let’s not go there — we all have better things to do with our time), the nine usually wins the capacity argument. Handguns holding in excess of 10 rounds of .45 ACP are nothing new, but to most shooters they have the ergonomics of a brick. This is a casualty of the larger diameter of the .45 ACP round. But before you conclude that there’s not much anyone can do about it, wrap your hand around the grip of the FNX-45.

Readers of RECOIL should be familiar with FNH USA. The company and its Belgian counterpart have been building quality semiautomatic pistols continuously for more than 113 years and is responsible for a multitude of some of the greatest and most innovative fighting firearms — from the Browning-designed GP35 Hi-Power and the M249 SAW to the P90 and the FN SCAR.

The FNX-45 Tactical model was an outgrowth of the company’s submission to the U.S. Joint Combat Pistol Program, and everything about the FNX-45 reflects that heritage. The pistol features a veritable laundry list of tactical and practical features: a 15-round magazine, polymer frame, fully supported chamber, interchangeable backstraps to better fit the shooter’s hand, a lanyard ring, two interchangeable mounting plates for the shooter to install an optic (like the Trijicon RMR on the slide), a threaded barrel to attach a suppressor, taller sights to see over the suppressor, tritium inserts to allow those sights to glow in the dark, a rail to attach lights or lasers, an adjustable trigger, and ambidextrous safety, magazine release, and slide release.

Field-stripping the weapon is extremely simple and “grunt proof” — just rotate the takedown lever and remove the slide from the frame. The best part of all is that, even with a double-stack 15-round magazine, the grip frame is barely wider than that of a single-stack 1911 pistol.