FN 502 .22 LR Handgun Review

Fabrique Nationale Herstal, colloquially known as FNH or simply “FN” is a well-known, historic arms and munitions company located in Herstal, Belgium. FNH has produced some of the finest firearms in the world, including what many would consider the most elegant and finest example of 9mm handguns in existence, the Browning Hi-Power. That said, FN is far from a “one hit wonder”, producing the famed FAL (Fusil Automatique Léger or Light Automatic Rifle) affectionately known as “the right arm of the free world”, to the Minimi/M249 SAW and the MAG-58/M240B General Purpose Machine Gun.

FNH seems to not miss when it comes to producing and endorsing top flight, high-end firearms across the board.With this said, how does the .22 LR FN 502 pistol rank against not only the FNH breed, but also such well-established and proven semi-automatic .22 LR handguns on the market? Does the FN 502 live up to the FN name? To find out I purchased the review gun seen here locally at full retail. I did not contact FN America and they do not even know about this review.

The FN 502 handgun is a double-stack, scaled-down, hammer fired .22 LR variant of FN’s insanely popular 509 handgun. Being hammer fired, however, it would be best described as a hybrid variant somewhere between the FNP/FNX and the striker fired 509. The handgun is immediately noted as FN, with its styling ques, features, and finishes that mirror its centerfire brethren. The 502 comes feature heavy, with a threaded barrel, optics cut slide, forward cocking serrations, suppressor height sights and fully ambidextrous controls. It includes several optics plates (with attached suppressor height rear sights), thread protector and two magazines with different capabilities.

The first magazine is offered in the standard, and oh so boring, 10-round capacity that everyone is used too with .22 caliber rimfire pistols. The second however, is a 15-round double-stack, offering the user capacities closer to that of its centerfire counterparts. Being so used to traditional magazine capacities, and noting the fact that .22 Long Rifle ammunition is a rimmed cartridge, my first thought and concern with the 15 rounder was “reliability”. When taking it home, there were visions of stovepipes, failure to feed, double-feeds and I expected the 15-round magazine would ultimately be relegated to some deep, dark corner of the safe where a broken SCCY CPX-2 lives.

Overview

Upon initial inspection, I noted German proof marks very similar to those found on SIG Sauer’s Mosquito, GSG Firefly and GSG 1911 .22 handguns. My initial assumption is the FN 502 was produced by the same company and affiliates with Umarex Germany, and was produced for FN to FN specifications. This is somewhat typical, as this company (or companies) produces several .22 handguns for other companies with mixed success.

Upon disassembly, it was pleasant to see that the barrel assembly was not “fixed” into the frame like many strictly blowback handguns. The barrel assembly, guide rod and recoil spring are separate, and housed in the slide. In fact the 502 disassembles and reassembles just like its 509 counterpart, offering an assembly closer to that of Browning’s tilt barrel locking, recoil operation system. This is a nice design change over the typical “modeled after” handgun offerings from the Umarex based German manufacturer.

Fit and finish is quite nice, smooth and uniform. It mirrors what a person expects from FNH, both inside and out. The frame has three types of textures which grips to the user’s hands quite well. With a nicely textured front and back strap, along with sharply pebbled sides and a sandpaper type finish for thumb and supporting hand, you will not lose traction, even in high heat or cold weather wearing gloves. This was well thought out and a nice carryover from the FN 509/FNX handguns.

The trigger pull I would rate as “good” overall, but I feel could use some improvement considering the $559.00 MSRP of the 502 handgun. The single-action trigger pull is a crisp and decent 5.5-6 pounds but suffers from the same “light switch” feeling break found on FN’s Five-Seven pistol. This takes some getting used to and unfortunately, we all know dry firing is not the healthiest for rimfire handguns. This equates to range time and rounds down range to smooth out the trigger.

The 502 has great ergonomics and points quite naturally. For those familiar, it points much like the famed Ruger Mk series of rimfire pistols and has a grip angle similar to that of a 1911. The 502 just feels good in the hand and that seems universal. Even with the heavy Silencer Co Sparrow .22 suppressor, the 502 feels quite nicely balanced in the hand, still pointing well and naturally. For a suppressor host, the 502 in terms of aesthetics, fit, feel and finish does not disappoint. With or without a suppressor, it is a nice, lightweight, quite ergonomic little rimfire handgun with great capacity from the factory.

Range Time

The initial range trip was overall positive. Just getting used to the handgun, it shot well, accurately, reliably and offered everything that one would expect from an FN handgun. Initially being purchased as a strict suppressor host, needless to say very limited shots were performed without the use of my Silencer Co suppressor. With a mixed bag of ammunition ranging from CCI Standard Velocity Standard Velocity round nose, to Federal 36-grain High Velocity hollow point, the unsuppressed 502 shot quite accurately at 10 to 15 yards.

I did note that it shot around an inch high and right, grouping all rounds in the upper right quadrant of a Dirty Bird target. This unfortunately was exacerbated with the introduction of my Sparrow rimfire sound suppressor. The point of impact shot to 6 inches high and an inch right with most standard and high velocity loads at 10 yards. With Winchester Suppressor Ready, CCI Quiet 40-grain and other subsonic offerings, the POI (point of impact) was substantially closer to that of unsuppressed, but correction and compensation were still needed.