TGO David

Alas, it is gone and he has replaced it. I just don't think he's been back yet to update this thread.

Whenever I am dialing in a dot optic on a handgun I print out a stack of Lucky Gunner's 5x5 drill targets and take them with me to the range. They are pretty much perfect for getting a gun's POI and optic's POA printing together without much hassle. This is the first serious 15-rounds from the 509 MRD after getting it dialed-in, grouped around the 1-inch aiming point of a 5-inch target, slowly and deliberately at 7 yards.

The front strap texture can be brutal on the dominant hand if you grip it as firmly as you should. My fingers hurt like hell yesterday after a few hours at the range and several hours of dry-fire at home. I already have callouses on my hands from daily use of a rowing machine and lifting weights, but this thing tenderized them and is going to put callouses on top of callouses. I figure I will either toughen up, or lightly knock off some of the edges of the front strap's knurls with some very fine grip sand paper, or just send the frame out to someone and let them do a full make-over on it. Yet to be determined. Right now I'm sucking it up. For a fighting pistol, you want a grippy texture. Blood, water, sweat, slime, goo of questionable nature... all of those things make it hard to hold on to your blaster. So, the 509 is perfect for the job under dire circumstances and that is why part of me says I should just leave it alone. At extended sessions at the range or an all-day, all-weekend class... you're going to feel it.

My FN 509 MRD arrived this past week and I wasted no time popping a spare Trijicon RM07 red dot optic on it and taking it to the range. This is my second 509, having purchased the non optic-ready midsize 509M earlier this year and being very pleased with it as well. As I have commented elsewhere on TGO lately, I am quickly coming to the point where I am not interested in a handgun for daily carry if isn't set up for use with an optic. I began the red dot journey a year ago and am fully converted to the religion now. If you had asked me about it two years ago, I would have told you I was greatly skeptical. This one of those things where personal exposure and experience are the greatest persuaders. As for the 509 MRD, there is is only one reason that this gun could could fail to put a hurt on the sale of more well known 9mm handguns for duty or serious concealed carry: lack of marketing exposure. FN doesn't have the marketing budget of Glock or Smith & Wesson, I'm sure. But they have a superior firearm in the 509. There. I said it. Buy one before the rest of the world figures it out and you have to wait to find one.

Exactly right. And as he said, thanks for supporting the community.

Sold! Thanks TGO!

Good stuff here.

Double yep.

Yep.

Shooters Nation has given me a rare opportunity that I frankly don't deserve to sit among people inside the industry and listen to what they're saying. I've heard and seen things that have later come to pass, and likewise things that fizzled and never manifested. That's the way "insider" information works. In the last 72 hours, some of what I've been privy to has been leaked elsewhere on social media by other people eager to outdo each other. I guess to prove that they know cool people who know cool things, or whatever. I'm not keen on betraying the confidence that some of these folks have shown in me, so I'll continue to keep my mouth shut. I will say this... we've got some smart folks on TGO and a lot of common sense present here. Naturally we come to some pretty accurate conclusions all on our own. But we've also got some loud voices on TGO that people are listening to at their own peril just because they're loud on TGO. Like I said, some of what I've seen and heard in advance has fizzled out or changed. What I've heard in the last 48 hours from people in the industry who generally know things in advance has changed directions twice and two people that I've come to trust are now diametrically opposing each other's statements about what the government might be ramping up to do in response to the recent spree killings. I'd just buy whatever you want to buy with the thought in mind that nothing is guaranteed tomorrow. AR pistols and pistol braces have been a finger in the ATF's eye for a while and it's only logical to assume that they might be low-hanging fruit for a President that wants to be perceived as having "Done something". Don't assume there are too many of them to do anything about. Some things can be made legal to own but illegal to transfer, effectively halting the propagation of them beyond the current generation of owners. And that's not insider info... that's just me thinking out loud.

I haven't held one yet but nothing I've read says the grip angle is different than the Glock. The circumference of the grip is smaller and re-contoured, but no angle changes from what I can tell. Which is good for me because that's what screws me when I move between platforms.

Sold this evening! Thanks to all of the interested parties and of course to the ultimate buyer.

SB Tactical is one. There may be others? I only know of them. Everything I have with a brace is SB Tactical. They went through the effort to get an ATF determination letter a while back. Several other manufacturers copied their letter under the assumption that the ATF's opinion applied to them too. In principle, it may have - for a time, but if times change those manufacturers might find themselves on the wrong side of a new policy shift.

If I were going to buy things right now it would be pistol braces from manufacturers with determination letters issued specifically to them by the BATFE and steering away from others. Call it an educated hunch.

There is a deal pending right now and it should close this evening. If that falls through for some reason, I'll gladly let you know!