I finally got to the range today. Temperature was about 25 degrees and we have a bit of snow. The snow is as high as the waist high shooting benches:
The FNS 9c shot well. In 140 rds of 115 gr 9mm Blazer Brass I had no malfunctions. All casings extracted and ejected without issue. The spent casings all had nice primer strikes that were very consistent:
I found the pistol had a natural point of aim and the point of impact seemed to be exactly what I'm used to (covering the desired aimpoint with the front dot). The stock FNS sights are actually quite nice. The dots are recessed with white paint and the front dot is noticeably larger for fast acquisition. The rear sight is also serrated to reduce glare and also features a V notch that I personally prefer on a defensive pistol (similar to what you would find on Trijicon HDs). Glare actually was a bit of an issue (excuse alert) as the glare of the snow was pretty strong.
10 rds at 10 yds standing steady fire with the FNS 9c:
The group above was pretty standard for the day, that being 2"-2.5" at 10 yds. Honestly I'm not the best shot out there and that's about what I can expect from myself on most days. The one flyer to the right was called. The pistol recovered from recoil well and follow up shots were pretty easy, though to be fair I wasn't shooting anything overly hot. I had no issues keeping controlled pairs together or transitioning from target locations. The texture on the grip was pretty aggressive. Now what's important is that it neither hurt my hands as some aggressive stippling jobs have done nor do I find it catches on clothing when carrying concealed. But if you're someone who has sensitive hands you likely won't like this grip.
My hand after shooting the FNS 9c, note the indentations left from the texture pattern:
In the spirit of full disclosure, I have to admit that the overtravel was noticeably different between the M&P 9c and the FNS 9c. I can shoot the M&P faster as the reset is shorter and the return spring also seems a bit stronger, making the reset a bit more forceful on the M&P. I've found that overtravel is one of my biggest pet peeves the more I shoot, as it disrupts my sight picture for the next shot and tends to be less forgiving of weaknesses in trigger control. Case in point, a 10 shot group with the M&P.
10 rds at 10 yds standing steady fire with the M&P 9c (the holes above the red horizontal line at the base of the diamond were part of this string):
