FN 502: Best New Optic Ready Threaded 22 Pistol On the Block?!

FN just released their first-ever 22 LR pistol and newest design as of September 1st, the FN 502 Tactical. If you’re lucky it has already made it out to some stores near you. After being all hot and bothered with optic ready suppressed 22 pistols for plinking under night vision, seeing another company jump into the market mostly dominated by the Ruger Mark IV was an unexpected and jubilant surprise! I started calling local stores and FN vendors to see when they may get any in stock but didn’t have any luck the first week. However, after week two of calling, I happened to find the only one in stock around Dallas 10 days after the release. One quick drive later and now it is mine to review.

First impressions have been great. The grip is very comfortable with good texturing. It has stippling where you want it, and molded texture everywhere else you need to keep a very positive grip on the gun when running it. According to FN’s website, the FN 502 will also work with most FN 509 style holsters due to the same style grip, so that is a huge plus to FN fanboys out there who may want interchangeable holsters. I think this would allow someone who normally carries an FN 509 to make a replica setup with this FN 502 for cheaper training when high-volume shooting is involved.

The ambidextrous controls on this pistol are a nice feature as well. Great for left and right-handed shooters, and for all of you competition people who switch between dominant and weak hands. The controls seem to fit my hands just about perfectly and are very intuitive and easy to manipulate. When compared to the Ruger Mark IV, the slide release can be operated without losing your grip. The slide stop on the Ruger is so far forward I had to shift my whole hand to be able to reach it whereas the FN 502’s slide stop sits just where my thumb rests when I am holding the gun with my shooting grip. A huge plus in my opinion and will make a big difference if you are doing reloads where time is of the essence.

This FN 502 Tactical came with both a 10 and 15 round magazine. These magazines are shaped much more like typical mags for polymer pistols than the Ruger Mark IV. Where the Ruger Mark IV has slim mags which seem to be easier to fumble around, the FN 502’s mags have a rounder footprint which is very similar to an FN 509 or Glock magazine. Besides the general shape for grabbing from a pouch for speed reloads, the shape also seemed to play a huge role in how easily the magazine would feed into the magwell. The FN 502 is very easy to align and seat a magazine without even looking, whereas the Ruger was much more particular about the angle and placement when feeding a new mag. The difference between reloading them felt just as large as a standard magwell vs one with a large flared aftermarket magwell. For shooting at night under NOD’s, this will be a huge benefit.

While the FN 502 does come with a 10 round magazine that sits flush with the bottom of the grip, it comes with a 15 round magazine that extends about another inch out of the bottom. These extra 5 rounds are another huge bonus to me because no one should be limited to only 10 rounds, and that is an extra 50% carrying capacity. Extra mags for the FN 507 look to be going for around $30 each so they are pricier than the Ruger’s, but I think all the benefits these mags provide are well worth the price.

Of all the features this pistol provides, so far I have been most blown away by the trigger. FN’s website states that the 502 has a “best in class trigger” which breaks at 5lbs. So far, I totally agree with their claim of best in class. There is a short amount of take-up before you get to the wall of the trigger, but when you get to the wall and pull there is the slightest amount of creep before what I would say is a best in class and clean break. It is much better than any other stock 22 pistols, Glocks, or Smith and Wesson’s I have tried.

After breaking a shot, there is about 1/2” of travel back forward before you get a very positive reset which is right back on the wall, ready for your next shot. While this observation was made after the pistol came straight out of the box, time will tell if it remains as impressive after a couple of thousand rounds have been put through it. As of now, I am still pretty blown away.

The FN 502 Tactical comes standard with a 1/2×28-inch pitch for its threaded barrel which is the most common thread pattern for 22 suppressors. It comes with a textured thread protector and O-ring to keep the thread protector locked in place when firing and vibrations could otherwise knock it loose.

Finally, we have the optic ready slide. While I don’t really have a preference between a slide-mounted optic cut like the FN 502 provides, or a base mounting plate fastened to the breach end of the barrel such as the Taurus TX 22 Competition, having an optic ready pistol is a huge benefit in today’s world. The FN 502 comes with 4 different sighting options. The options are no optic and just plain sights, or either a Trijicon RMR, Vortex Venom, or Shield RMS baseplate all with the rear sight attached. The fact that FN includes all three of these different baseplates with the firearm instead of charging extra for whichever one you decide you need is pretty cool, and an awesome perk since these footprints cover almost any optics you could want to throw on top of this pistol. One thing to note for anyone that wants to mount a Holosun, the RMR screws will not work. The head of the screws is too wide, and the grip length is too long. I read the manual and looked at online forums, but nothing stated what screws were supposed to be used for a Holosun 507C. After reaching out to FN, they stated that the Vortex screws included in the box would work and that they are in the process of making Holosun specific screws available soon. For now, I have just used the Vortex screws, and they fastened down nicely.

As of this time, I only have around 150 rounds of 36gr Remington Golden Bullet hollow points through this pistol. Out of the box, it did have some immediate cycling issues for the first 50 rounds. However, after applying a generous amount of oil, it has been running flawlessly. The FN 502 is a smooth shooter. Due to the full-sized frame and being chambered in 22 Long Rifle, the recoil is almost non-existent.

I had no issues shooting a silhouette at 40 yards with the iron sights for my first couple of rounds straight out of the box. Accuracy-wise, I think the FN 502 will perform better than the capabilities of most shooters. As seen above, I shot a group at about 10 yards standing without a rest, and had a maximum spread of 1.08″ between flyers, while most were within a 0.60″ zone of each other. For cheap 22LR value pack ammo out of a pistol, I am not disappointed.

Out of the box I have been very impressed. This pistol provides all I wanted with an optic ready slide and threaded barrel while including better ergonomic controls, trigger, and magazine capacity than the Ruger Mark IV Tactical. FN managed to do all this at a better price point with an MSRP of $499.99 for the FN 502 versus the Ruger’s MSRP of $619.00 for the Mark IV Tactical.

For more specifications, feel free to check out this pistol on FN’s website here.

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