Continuing our New for 2021 series of firearms and gear, here’s the brand-new FN America FN 509 LS Edge in 9 mm. This is an FN 509-series pistol, but it’s very different. It has an elongated slide with lightening cuts—this is clearly built for speed. The trigger is a bladed-safety variety with a flat face, designed so that the trigger breaks at 90 degrees. This is a super-fast gun to shoot. In addition to the longer slide and cuts, the FN 509 LS Edge has an ambidextrous slide stop, an enlarged easy-to-use magazine release and aggressive checkering along with interchangeable backstraps.
The real key to the FN 509 LS Edge is the sighting system. It has a high front sight with a green fiber-optic insert and serrated front blade to reduce glare. The rear sight is a deep trough with the same serrations. What’s especially notable, though, is FN’s proprietary optics mounting system. This gets the sight real low in the slide and helps it co-witness perfectly with the iron sights. A number of plates and inserts are available to mount a wide variety of pistol-slide optics, and the manual is well-written to describe just what you need to attach your red dot.
The FN 509 LS Edge is a versatile, fast, outstanding pistol for competition, home defense and concealed carry—it’s really not that big of a pistol, compared to other competition models. MSRP on the FN 509 LS Edge is $1,499, and with that price you get three, 17-round magazines (10-round magazines are available in locations that require them), five optics-mounting plates and a soft case.
We’ll have a full review on the FN 509 LS Edge in the pages of Shooting Illustrated later this year, so stay tuned. And of course, we’ll have more new-for-2021 guns and gear here at ShootingIllustrated.com.
