FNP-45 Magazine problems, and hopefully fix.

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Zaydok Allen

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I own a FNP-45 that was manufactured in late 2009. I had heard rumors on the internet that there were problems with the magazines on these guns. Since I had about 800 rounds through mine without a single problem, I thought I got away with a good one....... Wrong

About two months ago I was firing it for practice, after having it loaded on the bedside table or about 5 months, when it jammed on the 3rd round. :eek: Not something I'm looking for in a HD gun. I poped the magazine and looked what was going on. The slide cycled, but no cartridge was chambered. The bullets were all jammed down in the magazine, and I had to rattle it upside down to get them out. After convincing myself I had to have had one cock-eyed when loading it and that it was user error, I reloaded it very carefully, fired, and the same happened. Next magazine, the same thing happened, and again on the third.

So frustrated I went home, cleaned everything, stripped and inspected the magazines, and noticed that the magazine springs seemed a little miss-shappen. This seemed to be the trouble.

Well I finally got around to ordering some new springs and they came yesterday. When comparing them to the old ones, the new ones are an inch longer and more uniform in shape.

I also had heard on the FN forum that the magazine tube for the 14 round mags is the same as the 15 rounders, and the only difference is the butt plate. So on a whim I ordered three extended butt plates too.

Last night I stripped lightly oiled and reasembled all the mags and loaded one up. They do in fact fit fifteen rounds now, and the followers seem to be feeding ammo properly now when I cycled the gun through a full magazine. I just wanted to share that.

I had planned on ordering a 15 round magazine, but at $40 I wasn't thrilled. Since my FN is an older one, it came with three 14 round mags. Not that wouldn't suffice, but you guys all know how it is. So instead, I spent $5 a piece on the springs, $5 a piece on the butt plates, and now have (hopefully) 3 functioning mags again that are all 15 rounders. If your springs are in good shape, all you need are the butt plates to convert your 14's to 15's. I just wanted to share that with any FNP-45 owners, who were wondering whether the conversion thing was true. It is. I hope this is helpfull info, and I hope it isn't just a big duplicate thread from the past. I did a search and didn't find anything quite the same in this forum. Info sharing

I'll be heading out saturday to test it out. I also added a Wolf recoil spring to my 1911 so I want to see if the reliability has increased, and I have a brand new XDs to try out. So saturday will be 45 day!!!!
 
I feel your pain! No FN in my collection, may remedy that soon, but I can attest to the fact that good magazines are the lifeblood of any semi auto.

I've had Glock replace a double handful over the years when new followers and springs did nothing, I now have ten magazines for my KP90 and am awaiting four back ordered plastic followers to replace the split metal ones, Wolff +10% spings have already been installed in all ten because the "factory fresh" Ruger OEM springs simply wouldn't work, half of my Ruger 22LR magazines had to have the "fix" applied , and so on and so forth and on and on.

All of my magazines work fine now, but getting there has been a journey. And going el cheapo can be a bad thing.
 
I had an FN FNP .45, i was using Winchester white box and had the same problem you were describing, slide cycled but no round in chamber. turns out it was the lack of attention to detail from Winchester. the cartridge overall lengths were not all within the specs that the magazine would allow for. and the longer cartridges would bind in the magazine body because they were slightly to long.
 
I went to the North American service center for FNH / Browning in Arnold, MO and spoke with someone about the mags for the FNP 45. Around 2009 they (whoever made them) had a problem with the weld seam in the inside of the mags. There were a ton of them released out in the market. It's a myth that WWB ammo is the problem, although if they do have a little longer OAL, then the rim will hit the seam and hang-up.

I would just send them ALL back to FN and get new ones.
 
I really don't mean to drift on this thread, but I really wanted an FNP in 45, particularly the USG version. But there were enough people reporting problems on the FN forum that it caused me to go another route with a SA XDm. When I see all the problems resolved I would like to revisit the FNP. When the military came close to conducting trials again, but for a .45 ACP pistol, I really thought the FNP met all of the criteria. ;)
 
I stand corrected, I remember hearing about the magazines possibly being the problem, I emailed FNH about it, but never got a reply. I traded it away shortly after that. Now I realize I should not have done that.
 
Don't throw those flat base plates away, some people like them. Me for instance. I haven't had any problems with my black USG model, but I only have one flat base mag out of six.
 
They are sold out right now unfortunately, but this is where I ordered my parts. $39 for the 15 rounders, when in stock.

Google and/or Amazon finds lots of them out of stock for $35-40, but when in stock its more like $50-55 :(
 
Don't throw those flat base plates away, some people like them. Me for instance. I haven't had any problems with my black USG model, but I only have one flat base mag out of six.

I certainly won't throw them out. I actually prefer the look of the flat plates, but since this gun is strictly a tool for me and not a looker, I want all the ammo I can get. It's a home defense and open carry hiking gun in lion and black bear country.
 
Well I managed to get out Saturday and shoot my FN. The springs appeared to be the issue. After putting 30 rounds through each one without any failures of any kind, I'm satisfied I've solved the problem. I'm back to having a great shooter again and a reliable home defense gun.

Any owners of older FNP-45's: Be advised that you should check your mag springs.
 
Thanks Rockyriver. Those are helpfull. I was actually shooting Federal Champion target ammo, but it may be the same issue since it is cheap target ammo. The springs seemed to help regardless.

I guess the good thing is that when loaded for HD, I have it loaded up with Hornady HP's, so I'm guessing those are all in spec. I've never had a problem with those feeding.
 
"Around 2009 they (whoever made them) had a problem with the weld seam in the inside of the mags."

Maybe my USG and 6 mags are too old to have a mag problem. The test shot was fired 5/21/08.

John
 
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