Fn Forty-Nine

American Handgunner, Annual, 2000 by Massad Ayoob

This pistol, with second-strike capability, is not just another entry in the plastic-pistol sweepstakes!

Shooters looking for a Glock with a revolver like trigger and a second- strike feature, stop here! Enter the FN Forty-Nine, the newest handgun offering from Belgium's premiere gunmaker, Fabrique Nationale.

The FN Forty Nine, unlike some of the new polymer breeds, doesn't give you two or three trigger pull options. There is one: full length, full-pull weight, double-action only. Bill Forson, formerly of Remington and Browning and now director of law enforcement sales for FN Manufacturing Inc. (FNMI), says the trigger system is patented. FN calls the fire-control mechanism "RSS" for Repeatable Secure Striker. Unlike the Glock or the Sigma, if the chambered round misfires on the first pull of the trigger, you can pull the Forty Nine's trigger again and get a second strike, a third strike, or ...

Also, unlike the Sigma and Glock pistols, there is no trigger-mounted safety catch. In keeping with those two guns, there is no manual safety, per se, but the internal design keeps the gun "drop safe." That is, the design prevents the pistol from discharging by firing-pin inertia, no matter how hard it is struck.

The Forty-Nine also has replacement frame rails that can be swapped out by a factory-trained armorer. Armorer's schools are now being established by the company, says West Coast FNMI representative Rocky Green.

The frame, of course, is polymer, with the now universal accessory rails to take laser and light attachments like the Wilcox unit. The sights are fixed and blocky, giving a good image for the shooter. Tritium night-sight inserts are optional from the factory. The top end can be had in stainless or the Tenifer-like Mellonite.

What It All Means

I'm not sure of the merits of the replaceable frame rails. There are a couple of popular police/self-defense semi-autos that could use the feature, but the polymer-frame guns don't seem to be among them. Maybe it's a "belt and suspenders" thing for me. Since it takes an armorer to replace them, it's not a big concern for the civilian buyer who will have to send the pistol back to the factory or to a warranty station if the frame rails crack. In the long run, this feature probably saves more time and money for the manufacturer.

The absence of a safety on the trigger? It doesn't bother me on a Beretta or SIG or traditional Smith & Wesson auto-loader of the double-action-only style. It doesn't bother me on a revolver. It certainly doesn't bother me on the Forty-Nine pistol. One is reminded of Jeff Cooper's comment on the Glock from years ago: "It seems to us that putting a safety catch on a pistol's trigger is rather like printing a safe's combination on its door."

The long, heavy trigger pull doesn't bother me, either, at least, not on this gun. All double action only autos are not created equal. It is not fair to compare it to the glassy smooth, short stroke of a Smith & Wesson or Kahr Arms DAO. They have more mechanical advantage to play with. I didn't like it quite as well as the full-length stroke on a Beretta DAO, but it isn't as bad as the pull on the double action only HK USP. (I think the HK is a great pistol; it's just that the double action trigger pull is not its strong suit. I prefer the DA/SA variants.) The Forty-Nine's trigger is OK. Good, but not great. You can do good work with it-- it's not likely to fire unintentionally-- but you probably won't beat Tom Yost with it for his National IDPA Service Pistol Championship.

The designers of this pistol listened to the people in the marketplace who bought Glocks, Sigmas and USPs. They also, apparently, listened to those who hadn't. The big concern with many traditionalists-- those who buy guns one at a time for themselves and those who buy them hundreds or thousands at a time for governmental agencies-- is short, easy trigger strokes that can lead to unintentional discharges. This gun solves the problem. The factory lists a trigger pull of 8-10 lbs. Rocky Green rates the trigger at about 11 lbs. pull weight.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. The pressure is distributed over the entire length of the trigger stroke. It's much easier to shoot fast and straight than the New York Plus option for the Glock, sometimes called the NY-2 trigger, as adopted by the NYPD. That also comes out to about 11 lbs. and change, but most of the weight is at the end of the Glock's pull, with only a 1/10" compression distance. Most people tend to move the sights a little when applying that much pressure all at once over the last short part of the stroke. It's something double-action shooting aficionados call "stacking," and most don't think it's a good thing. The regular New York Trigger (NY-1) is the way to go on a Glock. It's much more controllable. The Forty Nine is between the two New York Glocks in controllability: not quite as good as an NY-i but better than an NY-2.

The Forty-Nine's second strike capability is important to a lot of shooters. It's a legacy of revolver training: If there's a click instead of a bang, you just pull the trigger again. On a revolver, that brings another cartridge under the firing pin. On a semiautomatic pistol, however, it merely allows the firing pin a second chance at the same cartridge that has already failed to fire once.