The gun is sweet. It's more bulky than a 1911 and I needn't go over all of the differences between this and a more conventional firearm. You will already have read that. Let me get to the meat. It works. It feeds perfectly and is accurate. I have never heard of a stovepipe occurring and I had no failures of any sort - which I occasionally do with my Glocks, and even my Colt Commander including two unclearable stoppages with the Glock during tactical training. The gun had to go back to the factory both times. The FiveseveN is good, but it's not perfect and I'll discuss the downsides first. The sights can be changed from the adjustable white dots to lower profile tritiums - which I am trying to order. However, the sights are not readily adaptable to other sighting systems or optics. In my opinion that was a huge design oversight. If the gun has a fatal flaw, that is it. The rear sight base is integrated with the firing pin safety - so you can't take the rear sight off and replace it with...say...the Trijicon RMR I bought for the purpose without doing a lot of custom machine work that I don't want to do. However, this gun with an RMR will make a VERY formidable weapon - so I am working on a modification. The FiveseveN is not in common enough use to make it profitable for holster manufacturers to add it to their line. I got a Blackhawk Serpa for it in left-hand which I like a lot, but I cannot find a serious ITB concealment holster. Let me digress for a moment and address the 5.7 acceptance issue. The FN is expensive. You can buy two Glocks or S&W M&Ps for the price of a FiveseveN. It's polymer and there is no good reason for holding that price point. It simply costs too much. In addition, the ammunition isn't readily available in a lot of places. The pistol is complicated. In an age of simplicity, the FN has FOURTEEN different springs. That's about ten too many problems. And finally, it has a rap it doesn't deserve. It has been panned by a whole lot of experts as having no stopping power and is thus not acceptable as either a primary weapon or for CCW. The experts are wrong. 'Conventional wisdom' says to carry the biggest caliber you can almost control. The truth is, that doesn't always work. We know it from experience. The 5.56 round is nice - not at nice as it should be. It should have been be a 6.8 Remington SPC to meet the middle between the M1 Garand in 30-06 (or the M-14 in .308) and the .30 carbine. The military now issues 5.56, 6.8, .308, 30-06 and .50BMC rifles...and 9mm, .40, .45, and 5.7 pistols. Even the Secret Service, which technically issues .40 handguns also issues FN 5.7s, both the handgun and the P90 (which replaced the micro-Uzi). I am aware of DEA agents who carry the 57 on duty. My DEA friends have to carry their issue Glocks, so apparently waivers are possible. At the moment, most government and police agencies use either the 9mm or .40 cal. and most officers carry something entirely different off duty. I have no clue why anyone ever chose a 9mm as an issue weapon for either the military or police. It is not a sufficient round for combat and a .40 just BARELY suffices. If you are going to carry an automatic for stopping power, you need a .45 or a .357 Sig with .40 coming in third in my opinion. The best revolver round in the world has always been the .357 Magnum. .38 Special isn't enough and .41/.44 are too much. Calibers like the .500S&W and .45 GAP are... well, they just are. The 5.7 is the right round at the right time and you ought to think of it by analogy. A .45 tosses a cannonball. If you hit someone with it you are likely to knock them down. Unless you flinch and miss. And even with .38s, most gunfights at the average distance of fifteen feet result in no one being hit. Well, occasionally a bystander. This 5.7 doesn't kick and it doesn't make much noise. Why is that good? I know, having done it, that firing your .45 or .357 or 12 ga. inside a house makes you blind and deaf. I speak loudly because I subconsciously speak over the tinnitus which sounds like tiny bee swarms in my ears 24/7. And I also know that all of the safety precautions required at ranges...hearing protection, safety glasses and a range officer are not present when you have to pull that gun and use it. I am not going to be long-winded. Much. A WHOLE LOT of military and police have never been exposed to unprotected live fire. The first time they have to draw and fire without ear protection, the sound of the firearm shocks them - sometimes into inaction. And certainly in a house at night. The noise and fireball, especially if you have been sneakin' and peekin' or just woke up can be stupefying. At the very least you will go into low-grade shock. This is experience speaking - not some macho bullshit. I have been there and done that a bunch of times. I suppose I am as 'expert' as anyone else - I have been in multiple gunfights and spent years as a professional firearms expert, gunsmith and armorer. This little 5.7 round is one of the best things that ever happened to a handgun. If I stop carrying a Kimber .45 4" With 230 grain Winchester Talon JHP +P ammo for a 5.7, you know it's not a joke. The experts are wrong. This round will stop anyone it hits but the same caveat applies to it as to a rock-chunker. You have to HIT the target. It's a lot easier with the 5.7 because there isn't any recoil and not much noise. I tend to toss .45 rounds all over. I have to plan to get a hit with the first one before the adrenaline rush kicks in. I can hit a tin can out to fifty yards all day long with my Model 28 S&W .357 revolver because I carried it on duty and because I like it. But I can hit the vital portion of a silhouette out to a hundred yards all day long with the 5.7. I have a stack of phone books in my house where I work on firearms. I have had two unintentional firearms discharges during my life. Both into safe receptacles. It happens. So even though I check and double-check and triple check, whenever I pull the trigger of a weapon inside my house it's pointed into a stack of phone books. Because when you lose your concentration - just for a second - you are going to cap a round. I have experimented with different guns to make sure I have enough phone books. So when I amazed myself by capping a round from my 5.7 after I tore it down and rebuilt it for the umpteenth time, I was not shocked. I EXPECT a round to go off every time I pull a trigger. I heard the round and saw the hole, but I didn't feel any recoil and I wasn't deaf. So I cleared the weapon and pulled the trigger again and that time it WAS empty. Then I started looking through the yellow pages for 'bullet'. And looked...and looked...and after all six, I looked at the hole in the metal bracket I use to hold them. And then I looked at the hole in the carpet. And then I started probing the concrete under the carpet and the bullet was...and still is...embedded over an inch deep into it. Sideways. Now, I'd like to rationalize that having a live-fire accident every 49 years keeps you on your toes, but it ain't so. It's just a stupid mistake. But since I know it DOES happen, and since I did it 49 years ago (into a stack of wood that time), I do take precautions and they paid off. Except now I am going to get a 20 gallon water drum at least 24" deep and de-cock into it. Phone books don't stop a 5.7. Listen to me. The 5.7 is not something you can laugh off. It is a serious contender. You put one in anywhere in the ring and you get a stop and it's good out to at least a hundred yards and probably two. I give it Four Stars. Go shoot one. You will spend the money to buy it. a hui hou
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