Of course, nobody has reported on whether or not the 545 mags will work in the FNX.
So the day after I ordered the FN 545 Mag, someone posted some good comparison photos over on
FNForums.net.
A couple of the photos make it obvious the 545 (and presumably 510 mags) will not work in the FNX45 without modifying either the mag or the frame of the FNX. It looks like the FNX mag
may work in the 545, but I’m not certain on that.
However, I was able to confirm the mag body is the same, and the follower appears to be the same as well. The spring appears to be slightly longer and has one more coil than an FNX45 mag spring.
I swapped base pads and was able to load 15 rounds in the mag (545 mag body & guts / FNX basepad) and it locked into the gun. I haven’t had a chance to shoot it yet, but I expect it to work as well as any factory mag.
And I can buy aftermarket base pads from Apex for extended capacity. I haven’t looked, but I expect I should be able to buy a factory FNX basepad for the 545 mag as well.
So why bother buying and using 545 mags for the FNX? I can think of two reasons:
1) if the 545 mags worked, that’s the least cost approach to getting extended capacity factory mags. It would be less expensive to buy a 18-round 545 mag vs. buying an FNX mag + aftermarket extended basepad. But that only works if the (unaltered) mag would have worked in the FNX. Or, it does appear that one could modify the base pad to work, without affecting function or reliability. I may try this, as I have no use for the 545 base pad.
2) The 510 mag should have the same external dimensions, with the correct internal dimensions and fees lip spacing for the 10mm cartridge. If FN won’t give us an FNX10, we can use these mags and then just convince one of the aftermarket barrel makers to build a conversion barrel, and we can make our own FNX10.