FNS™ LongSlide

Photography by Henry Z. De Kuyper and Michelle Cerino

Let it Slide
Competition-Ready Alternative to the G34 or M&P Pro, the FNS™ LongSlide Has Already Notched Up Several Race Wins

Because I have been involved with FNH USA for the past two years, I was lucky to be one of the first people to own and shoot the FNS pistol line. Having been impressed with the other weapons in its portfolio, I wondered a few years ago why the company had not previously entered the striker-fired pistol market. There are so many positives to a striker-fired system, and I questioned why FNH USA was not producing one.

I had the opportunity at the 2011 Bianchi Cup to spend time with Ken Pfau, who is not only a member of FNH USA’s pro shooting team, but also the company’s senior vice president of commercial sales. When I asked him why FNH USA hadn’t jumped into the striker-fired pistol game, Ken flashed a devious smile and began to educate me on the history of FNH USA and its striker-fired guns. FNH USA actually produced the first striker-fired guns in the industry, starting way back in the late 1800s.

The FN Browning M1900 (a single-action, semiautomatic pistol) was designed around 1896 by John M. Browning for FN. It was produced in Belgium at the turn of the century and was the first production handgun to use a slide and internal striker system. Another, the FN Model 1910, incorporated the standard Browning striker-firing mechanism and a grip safety, together with both a magazine safety and an external safety lever (known as the “triple safety”) in a compact package. Offered in both .380 ACP and .32 ACP calibers, it remained in production until 1983. In fact, having been used by Bosnian Serb Gavrilo Princip to assassinate Franz Ferdinand, sparking WWI, it may well have been the most historically significant striker-fired handgun ever produced. FNH USA may have been slow to join the modern striker-fired pistol market, but the company was certainly not new to the design.

After my history lesson, Ken and I moved to a safe handling area where he displayed one of the very first FNS-9L pistols ever created. His particular handgun was the 5-inch version, which has only recently hit the market. Feeling honored, I handled that preproduction pistol and immediately took a liking to it.