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Practically Shooting

New FM 90 Pics


JayPee

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Greetings, Gents,

A friend and I went over to our FFL today and picked up our newly purchased FM 90's from JG Sales. We purchased the guns in "excellent condition" for $339 each. Our total investment in the guns, out the door, is $397 per pistol.

Both guns are unissued, unfired, brand spanking new, and only appear to have been racked a time or two for function checking. We field stripped my friend's pistol and wiped it out with a cloth dampened with solvent, and there wasn't enough crud in it to soil the cloth to any appreciable extent. i.e. the gun was totally clean inside. We removed the grips and found oil and clean metal underneath. The photos are of my pistol, which has not even been wiped out. It is exactly like it came out of the box.

These guns do not have the totally smooth exterior finish work of the FN/Browning or FEG pistols, possessing a few places where minor tool marks can be seen under close examination. (But we have to remember that the FM pistols were never intended for the civilian recreational market. They are military guns, plain and simple.) These places are in nooks and crannies around the trigger guard and across the back of the slide. They are minor enough that anyone refinishing the gun could easily remove them.Basically the open expanses of metal are without tool marks and are very smooth. The tool marks I found do not characterize the gun's finish and do not detract from the appearance of the gun at all -- and they certainly do not detract from my feeling that this was a sweet deal. Again, these are hard-service military guns, not BHP's or FEG's intended for the market place of discerning buyers

The interior machine work is impressive. The breech face and surrounding areas are without marks, the frame rails and areas forward of them are also without marks. The undersides of the slide rails have minor brush marks on them. The ceiling of the slide interior has only the most minor of tool marks, and is just darn near completely smooth. The recoil spring tunnel is also nice and smooth, which was a real surprise.

The pistols function very smoothly in every respect. Both triggers were a very clean-breaking seven pounds or so, sayeth my M1A1 Triggerfingerguessometer. The hammer springs are very strong, indicating that FM followed FN in its transition from the 26 pound spring to the 32 pound spring, whereas FEG did not. Both guns have very strong extractor springs as well. The recoil springs feel strong enough, but new ones are enroute from the Parts Department at Browning nonetheless. My pistol's magazine had the gun's serial number engraved into it whereas my friend's did not. Both magazines were brand spanking new as well.

The feed ramp is of the "humped" variety and is still a little rough in its upper half, but a little Semichrome paste and elbow grease will take care of that. Hopefully I can dirty it up with a little copper soon.

These guns have no markings that would specifically identify their intended application, whether military or police. They appear to be a general purpose military/police pistol without specific markings as to which.

The photos aren't the best. It rained here today and it was pretty dark for taking photos, forcing me to use the flash, which I really dislike doing. But there has been so much conjecture about these pistols I wanted to get some detailed photos out for you guys to see. I hope they will make up some minds, but you'd better hurry. I have a feeling these are disappearing fast. Best wishes.

Jerry

PS - The flash really exaggerated the import stamp's prominence. It doesn't stand out nearly as much as in these photos.

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