New for 2020: FN America 509 Compact

FN America continues to shrink its 509 line of 9 mm polymer, striker-fired handguns with the introduction of the 509 Compact. This line expansion introduces the smallest FN 509 yet.

With a 3.7-inch barrel compared to its 4- and 4.5-inch siblings, the 509 Compact has a standard capacity of 12 rounds, but can use the 15-, 17- and 24-round magazines available for other 509 pistols. Sleeves are available so that the larger magazines completely and comfortably extend the grip of the Compact. This can become important because the Compact’s grip is so short that with the flush-fit magazines, even very small hands cannot get full purchase on the gun. Fortunately, a Pearce-style magazine extension (shown in the picture above) also ships with the gun and makes it possible to get more hand on the grip.

In actual dimensions, the Compact is half an inch to an inch shorter than the other 509s in both length and height (that’s what she said). While that might not seem like a substantial dimensional difference, fractions of an inch can be significant when it comes to successfully concealing a gun.

The most interesting feature of the 509 Compact is the FN Low Profile Optics Mounting System included on every model. That’s a fancy way of saying that FN makes it easy for the shooter to add an electronic red-dot sight to the slide with co-witnessed iron sights that line up with the dot. Instead of needing expensive aftermarket customization or being limited to a few red-dot brands and models, all 509 Compact buyers can drop one of a variety of commercially popular and available optics onto the gun using included hardware.

Otherwise, the only choice that a 509 Compact buyer needs to make is what color they want: black or Flat Dark Earth. MSRP is the same for both at $799.