FNS-9 maintenance

[DIY-Pete]

I purchased my FNS-9 last summer and have a couple thousand rounds through it already. I shoot 400-800 rounds a month with it as part of my pistol league and practice.

So my question is when am I going to have to start replacing springs and other bits and pieces? This is my carry gun so running it until it breaks is not an option.

I have looked around FN's site an was not able to find a acceptable answer.

Pete

 

[Fiv3r]

I have a couple of FNS pistols, and I don't really know when to tell you to start worrying about breakage. You might try the FN forum. The guns are new enough that short of a lemon of a part or someone who is a very serious competitive shooter, there just aren't many broken parts out there yet.

I guess I would get a recoil spring assembly as they can't be ridiculously expensive and maybe a trigger return spring. Maybe a striker spring if you want to be safe. I can't imagine wearing out the rails in less than 30,000 rounds, probably closer to double or triple that as they are pretty thick steel.

As for the round count? I dunno. 3k-5k on the recoil. 5k on the trigger? As for the striker, i really have no idea. A good gun smith might be able to check it over for a nominal fee.

 

[ny32182]

Hard to say; you will have to find people that have shot that specific gun a lot and see if there are patterns in what breaks first.

That said, I doubt very much if anything is going to break that fast on a recurring basis in a modern handgun. Chances are you are good to go for at least another 10k rounds, and then you probably want to do a general re-spring of the whole gun.

If it is a carry gun, maybe you want to replace the extractor every 20k or so.

Bottom line, some parts break sometimes (usually springs), and there is not always a reliable way to predict exactly when it will happen.

My carry guns are low round count, not shot a whole lot, and that is one of the reasons.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

I don't mean to derail here but just a suggestion. If this is your carry gun as well as your league gun, I recommend forgetting about suggestions on when to start replacing parts.

Buy another FNS-9 for carry and shoot the used gun at league only. You'll always have a working carry gun, and when the league gun starts malfunctioning you will have a basis to start thinking about when to replace parts on the carry gun, which will last a long time given this scenario.

 

[Fiv3r]

I don't mean to derail here but just a suggestion. If this is your carry gun as well as your league gun, I recommend forgetting about suggestions on when to start replacing parts.

Buy another FNS-9 for carry and shoot the used gun at league only. You'll always have a working carry gun, and when the league gun starts malfunctioning you will have a basis to start thinking about when to replace parts on the carry gun, which will last a long time given this scenario.

That was sort of my thought as well. If I really relied on a single pistol, I'd just get another as a backup.

 

[Chuck R.]

I don't mean to derail here but just a suggestion. If this is your carry gun as well as your league gun, I recommend forgetting about suggestions on when to start replacing parts.

Buy another FNS-9 for carry and shoot the used gun at league only. You'll always have a working carry gun, and when the league gun starts malfunctioning you will have a basis to start thinking about when to replace parts on the carry gun, which will last a long time given this scenario.

My method as well, hence the two PPQs and the two M&Ps:



Back when I was carrying a 1911, I had a range version with my carry gun set up to match as close as possible:



It had to do with wear and tear as much as cleaning. I sometimes shoot a couple times a week (range out back) and cleaning my carry/HD pistols after every session was a PITA. So I went the duplicate route.

Chuck

 

[DIY-Pete]

Thanks for the responses. I am shooting the gun exclusively now because it is my carry gun and I want everything to be automatic if I ever need to grab it under duress. I wasn't even thinking about the wear and tear on the gun until I looked at my ammo supply and realized how much I had burned up this year.

I probably will buy another one for carry purposes. I have a LGS that is only a couple hours drive where I can get one for under 500 before tax so it's not a ton of money.

Pete

 

[ny32182]

At 2k rounds, it is just getting broken in. In all the guns I've ever shot a lot, every 10K has worked out as a good interval to do some basic maintenance like small spring replacement.

 

[Fiv3r]

Pete if you want to go a little more carry friendly, you might consider the fns9c. I'm my opinion, the compact version makes a great pistol like the fns9 pretty much perfect. Plus you can always use the fns9 mags as a back up to your compact. I have an fns40c that I love. Actually, I shoot it even better than the fns40, so my fns40 is on the chopping block to purchase an fnx45.

The controls, the feel, and the accuracy of the fnsc all mirror the full size.

Just a thought