The Freedom Ordnance FX-9 OWNERS thread.
- Thread starter trailskinpat
- Start date
I had that optic on my 18.5 inch one and it was great
Looks like some time has passed since I last did an update on my 'experiments'
Long story short, if ultimate reliability is your goal,
stick to standard weight buffers and standard AR15 buffer springs.
i.e. nothing to change from stock.
Short story long.
I've been running my FX-9 with an H2 buffer and 308 Carbine buffer spring.
And honestly it has been very reliable.
I didn't have an issue until one day I shot more than 400 rounds through it.
a little after 400 rounds I had 1 fail to eject and within a couple more rounds later I had a fail to chamber.
After clearing these malfunctions the gun was good again and I ran out of ammo at 450 rounds.
I attributed the issue to carbon build up slowing down the bolt.
So, on my next trip to the range I decided to speed things up by going to a lighter H1 bolt (still using the 308 carbine spring).
In terms of cycling the FX-9 ran perfectly for over 300 rounds.
It had a little bit more recoil than with the H2 buffer, but I could still shoot some pretty fast strings.
The problem here is that the lighter buffer is picking up too much speed on the return with the 308 carbine spring.
This is beating up the bolt stop to the point where it is becoming very unreliable for holding the bolt open on the last round.
The bolt was literally starting to slip off of it regularly. (see picture below for how the bolt stop was being defaced)
I have purchased and replaced the bolt hold open/stop and fixed the issue.
But I will be going back to standard weight buffers with standard springs.
You competition guys may think its worth it to go with the heavier buffers and more powerful springs as they do provide a slight edge in follow up shots.
And that's OK.
You do you.
You may have had better luck with warranty work in Canada or you got plenty of spare parts.
My warranty experiences have been horrible and I'm outta bolt stops.
Long story short, if ultimate reliability is your goal,
stick to standard weight buffers and standard AR15 buffer springs.
i.e. nothing to change from stock.
Short story long.
I've been running my FX-9 with an H2 buffer and 308 Carbine buffer spring.
And honestly it has been very reliable.
I didn't have an issue until one day I shot more than 400 rounds through it.
a little after 400 rounds I had 1 fail to eject and within a couple more rounds later I had a fail to chamber.
After clearing these malfunctions the gun was good again and I ran out of ammo at 450 rounds.
I attributed the issue to carbon build up slowing down the bolt.
So, on my next trip to the range I decided to speed things up by going to a lighter H1 bolt (still using the 308 carbine spring).
In terms of cycling the FX-9 ran perfectly for over 300 rounds.
It had a little bit more recoil than with the H2 buffer, but I could still shoot some pretty fast strings.
The problem here is that the lighter buffer is picking up too much speed on the return with the 308 carbine spring.
This is beating up the bolt stop to the point where it is becoming very unreliable for holding the bolt open on the last round.
The bolt was literally starting to slip off of it regularly. (see picture below for how the bolt stop was being defaced)
I have purchased and replaced the bolt hold open/stop and fixed the issue.
But I will be going back to standard weight buffers with standard springs.
You competition guys may think its worth it to go with the heavier buffers and more powerful springs as they do provide a slight edge in follow up shots.
And that's OK.
You do you.
You may have had better luck with warranty work in Canada or you got plenty of spare parts.
My warranty experiences have been horrible and I'm outta bolt stops.
Attachments
Some thoughts about FX-9 'Generations' and Quality Control
Some thoughts about FX-9 'Generations' and Quality Control
If you get a good specimen of this firearm you should be having a ton of fun.
I do think Freedom Ordnance does have some quality control issues but I don't think they are rampant.
From what I can tell Freedom Ordnance does not officially recognize generations in their product lines on their website.
In short, I think there's been essentially 3 changes to the system over the years:
1) A modification to the bolt to resolve ejection issues. (This by far is the most important change)
2) Their enhanced charging handle is now standard.
3) The chamber is now polished and chamfered.
In long, so far I've had my hands on 4, FX-9s.
My 1st one was a bit of a hot mess.
I made a post about it a ways back.
See
https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1809844-Is-your-FX9-Reliable?p=15558945#post15558945
But all of that was before fix to the bolt to help with ejections was known.
The fix is mentioned in the 1st post of this thread and here for easy reference
https://youtu.be/vW1sTC0Mv98
I hope my first FX-9's current owner saw that video and did the fix and is having fun with the gun.
It is a much better solution than run the gun really expletively wet.
Then there are the 2 that me and the girlfriend currently have.
Mine has a S/N in the early 20,000s and hers is in the mid 50,000s
Mine did come with the fixed bolt but had the old school charging handle.
Hers came with the enhanced charging handle and polished and chamfered chamber.
There's a comparison pic of the chambers below and also a comparison of the bolt faces.
I'm betting the chamfer makes feeding a little bit more reliable.
But in theory the casing is less supported so could raise the chance of a casing rupture.
As we don't reload our brass, we aren't too concerned about this.
Regarding the enhanced charging handles, the early iterations were kinda awful.
The latch could get locked in the open position.
Later iterations of the enhanced charging handle seem to have resolved this.
I have since upgraded my charging handle to the enhanced version a second time and it works great.
I've got a picture below of the various charging handles.
The 2nd from the left that illustrates the issue I saw with early enhanced models.
Also has a 3rd party charging handle that I imagine the competition guys would like.
Personally I don't love the larger ambidextrous competition charging handle.
It works fine but makes the firearm too wide and adds snag points I don't like.
(Also, I'm not a competition shooter - to each his own)
Side note, both of the handguards on both of our FX-9s are slightly misaligned to the receiver.
Nothing a few clicks on your sight or optic can't compensate for.
The handguards are otherwise stable and have never come loose.
But this brings me to an 8" restricted model I tried to purchase.
The handguard was obviously, visibly misaligned.
While I'm comfortable swapping out other furniture and buffers and buffer springs I'm less so with hand guards.
I didn't want to try resolving it on my own as I've got limited access to tools and no access to a proper workshop.
Luckily for me I purchased from a store with a good return policy. (Thx Wolverine)
So, I didn't have to deal with warranty work.
Further down there are some pics of this issue too.
The rest of the post is just pics to illustrate the above points.
Chamber Comparison
Bolt Face Comparison (the wear is different with the different chambers)
Charging Handle Comparison (including an early not so good working enhanced model)
A 8" FX-9 with a misaligned handguard.
Some thoughts about FX-9 'Generations' and Quality Control
If you get a good specimen of this firearm you should be having a ton of fun.
I do think Freedom Ordnance does have some quality control issues but I don't think they are rampant.
From what I can tell Freedom Ordnance does not officially recognize generations in their product lines on their website.
In short, I think there's been essentially 3 changes to the system over the years:
1) A modification to the bolt to resolve ejection issues. (This by far is the most important change)
2) Their enhanced charging handle is now standard.
3) The chamber is now polished and chamfered.
In long, so far I've had my hands on 4, FX-9s.
My 1st one was a bit of a hot mess.
I made a post about it a ways back.
See
https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/1809844-Is-your-FX9-Reliable?p=15558945#post15558945
But all of that was before fix to the bolt to help with ejections was known.
The fix is mentioned in the 1st post of this thread and here for easy reference
https://youtu.be/vW1sTC0Mv98
I hope my first FX-9's current owner saw that video and did the fix and is having fun with the gun.
It is a much better solution than run the gun really expletively wet.
Then there are the 2 that me and the girlfriend currently have.
Mine has a S/N in the early 20,000s and hers is in the mid 50,000s
Mine did come with the fixed bolt but had the old school charging handle.
Hers came with the enhanced charging handle and polished and chamfered chamber.
There's a comparison pic of the chambers below and also a comparison of the bolt faces.
I'm betting the chamfer makes feeding a little bit more reliable.
But in theory the casing is less supported so could raise the chance of a casing rupture.
As we don't reload our brass, we aren't too concerned about this.
Regarding the enhanced charging handles, the early iterations were kinda awful.
The latch could get locked in the open position.
Later iterations of the enhanced charging handle seem to have resolved this.
I have since upgraded my charging handle to the enhanced version a second time and it works great.
I've got a picture below of the various charging handles.
The 2nd from the left that illustrates the issue I saw with early enhanced models.
Also has a 3rd party charging handle that I imagine the competition guys would like.
Personally I don't love the larger ambidextrous competition charging handle.
It works fine but makes the firearm too wide and adds snag points I don't like.
(Also, I'm not a competition shooter - to each his own)
Side note, both of the handguards on both of our FX-9s are slightly misaligned to the receiver.
Nothing a few clicks on your sight or optic can't compensate for.
The handguards are otherwise stable and have never come loose.
But this brings me to an 8" restricted model I tried to purchase.
The handguard was obviously, visibly misaligned.
While I'm comfortable swapping out other furniture and buffers and buffer springs I'm less so with hand guards.
I didn't want to try resolving it on my own as I've got limited access to tools and no access to a proper workshop.
Luckily for me I purchased from a store with a good return policy. (Thx Wolverine)
So, I didn't have to deal with warranty work.
Further down there are some pics of this issue too.
The rest of the post is just pics to illustrate the above points.
Chamber Comparison
Bolt Face Comparison (the wear is different with the different chambers)
Charging Handle Comparison (including an early not so good working enhanced model)
A 8" FX-9 with a misaligned handguard.
Attachments
Tman_linkI have you experienced any case bulging just above the webbing of the case? I am going to a 6 oz buffer in an attempt to delay extraction long enough for the bullet to exit the barrel. I have the 18.5" barrel model.
Take Care
Bob
Take Care
Bob
I've not noticed anything with the casings , but I'm not looking that hard.
If the gun is cycling I tend to think all is good.
You may need to also switch to a 308 carbine buffer spring to maintain reliable feeding.
The lighter springs may not be strong enough to push some loads with the added weight of the 6oz buffer.
Probably less of an issue if you only shoot 124gr FMJ
And as per earlier post keep an eye on the last round bolt open as the added weight means the stop has to deal with extra energy.
If the gun is cycling I tend to think all is good.
You may need to also switch to a 308 carbine buffer spring to maintain reliable feeding.
The lighter springs may not be strong enough to push some loads with the added weight of the 6oz buffer.
Probably less of an issue if you only shoot 124gr FMJ
And as per earlier post keep an eye on the last round bolt open as the added weight means the stop has to deal with extra energy.
As I understand it the drum will fit and when loaded with 10 rounds should work just fine. Of course, I have no idea why you would want one other than you can own one. Removing the rivet would be against the law and loading it to 50 rounds would be illegal and I know you would not do that hence my ignorance aa to why you would want one. I think it would be 50 -50 if the magazine will lock the bolt back but that might not be the reason why you ask. Expensive toy though but what the heh we have waisted money on a lot less.
Take Care
Bob
Take Care
Bob
Thanks for prompt reply, Canuck44. Of course, pinned to 10, it's more of curiosity and looks to be honest. Figured I could get away with the weight it being a 9mm.
I don't know if it matters but I'm referring to the Magpul PCC drum, which seems to have a bit of an angle, but also less of a hang as it doesn't fit pistols. Will try reaching out to Magpul directly, see what they say
I don't know if it matters but I'm referring to the Magpul PCC drum, which seems to have a bit of an angle, but also less of a hang as it doesn't fit pistols. Will try reaching out to Magpul directly, see what they say
Agree with this. I think perhaps some folks may want something like this for purely aesthetics. I know a guy who got a 33/10 stick mag and told me it is purely for looks. No different than fake cans/faux suppressors, etc.
I seem to recall, however, that many of these drum mags have feed issues, but then again, I believe these were the full capacity ones allowed in the US (and they were the Magpul ones of different calibers). For the price, though, I personally can't justify getting it just for looks, but then again I have seen whale tails on Toyota Corollas, so I guess to each their own...
I would be mindful of the mags. I will now only buy the Korean 10/32 SHK mags. Unless you have Glock pistols the Glock OEM mags are problematic at best if my experience is indicative of what you can expect.
The SHK mags worked the best for me.
Take Care
Bob
The SHK mags worked the best for me.
Take Care
Bob
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Nope it's definitely not you. Others have made this observation and when I got mine last year, I noticed that as well. Nothing a bunch of G96 couldn't fix.
