guys the future is now
this is the fn p90
why yes it has been selected by space force as the official weapon of the space marines to combat aliens
lol
ok so thats a lie but seriously look at this thing
thats some scifi shit right there
so what even is the deal
well it goes back to the late 80s
when nato was getting ready to upgrade their everything to defend against the new computerized commies of the future
during the 80s both sides were putting a lot of effort into fancy high technology for their soldiers
space stuff and lasers and techno everthings
a lot of it ended up being scrapped
but a handful of things went on to finish their development
one big thing nato was worried about was the idea that every single commie was going to have body armor on
now natos infantry were mainly using rifles in either 5.56x45 or 7.62x51
thatll go through soft armor pretty well
but again we run into the issue of the guys behind the lines doing auxillary support
i swear these fucking truck drivers
so like back in wwii we had that m1 carbine
but that was decades ago and it was basically abandoned
so now everybody was just using 9mm pistols
ug
nato had to reinvent the concept of the personal defense weapon
they wanted a shoulder fired weapon weighing like 6lbs
and a matchy match pistol weighing like 2lbs
the rifle had to hit at 200 m and go through level IIIa body armor
no small feat
guys IIIa stops .44 magnum at the muzzle
so fabrique nationale and heckler und koch both submitted designs for guns and ammunition
fn created the 5.7x28mm cartridge
hk made a similarly tiny 4.6x30
both rounds are designed to be tiny and very very fast to get through armor
nato looked at the designs and everybody said the 5.7 was the clear winner
except all the germans oops lol
so whatever nato didnt standardize and both designs are out there
but the offerings from fn are more widespread
the pistol fn made is the Five-seveN
it has a lot of little technical details that are interesting
but overall its much less of a departure from its contemporaries
meanwhile the p90 is unlike anything else
its fully ambidextrous
super short and light
everything is plastic
friggin everything
and its a bullpup
ok so first what is a bullpup
did i talk about this before
well nobody knows how the name came about
but it refers to designs where the action is behind the fire control group
so normally a rifle looks like this
but bullpups are like this
a specific definition could be something like
a bullpup is a weapon where the chamber is behind the fire control mechanism
this has pros and cons
but with the p90 the designers were trying very hard to keep it compact
it has to fit in armored vehicles and helicopters
like no longer than a mans shoulders are wide
and a bullpup is a great way of doing that
another thing they did to make it compact was their crazy magazine system
so normally a long magazine sticks out right
well they stuck it along the longest axis of the weapon
and it has the cartridges do this crazy twist right at the end
its pretty unusual
but as a result everything is super slick and compact
plus it holds like 50 rds
awesome
it has more slick features too
literally everything is ambidextrous
mag release charging handle safety selector you name it
even the ejection is special
the cases dump straight down out the back
and everything is super ergonomic which is why everything looks funky
it definitely seems like itd work well for somebody who needs something light and compact
but they dont train with all the time
and they need to just stay out of the way until suddenly holy shit theyre attacking us
but then the funny thing is it never did what it was supposed to
because the soviet union fell just as the p90 was coming out
but thats ok they still made them
they made probably less than 20000 so far
but they are often used by bodyguards
secret service
special forces guys
antiterrorism units
special police
and so on
one time back in 1997 these peruvian special forces guys used the p90 to take out hostage takers who were wearing body armor
the weapon worked well and helped save a bunch of people
kickass
now
we talked about the weirdness
but how does it operate
well its actually just a simple blowback mechanism
surrounded by plastic parts
it field strips stupid quick
push a button and it falls apart
crazy
the original version had an optical sight permanently mounted to the weapon
they did this a lot in the late 80s
but soon people realized we need rails on everything
if you want to buy one
they do sell long barreled versions in semi auto
and you can get a shorter barrel to make it a semiauto sbr if you want
theyre not super duper plentiful
but they arent impossible to find
if you need one make it happen
live the dream dude
as for ammo
they stopped importing the fancy ammo originally sold and made to go through armor
and nowadays anything you find is probably specifically designed to not pierce armor well
what are they afraid of hmm are the police contemplating misbehavior
but regardless the 5.7 round is pretty cool and people are still actively working on it
so itll be around for sure
and even tho it didnt get to really fight commies
it has definitely earned its spot as the creator of the new style of pdws
any pdw these days studied the p90 hard
its a super cool gun
and really
who wouldnt want to be a space marine
im doing my part
lol
pew pew
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Zinnsee ago
Nice write up.
Had the chance to try one out at the range. Nice shooter, really ergonomic. But the build quality was pretty shoddy especially for what they cost. And speaking of expensive, that 50 round magazine will eat up your money crazy fast.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
so i question what you mean
its a bunch of plastic and is very light
so it might feel like a cheap chinese toy
but that doesnt mean it is
that barrel is cold hammer forged
better than any ar made in america
is the plastic and weight why the build quality felt poor to you
or was there another reason
Zinnsee ago
I shouldn't have said build quality but rather the finish of the gun. There are some details how the plastic parts mount together I didn't like and also the machining of the rail where the optics are mounted was pretty rough at a few points. I remember almost cutting myself at one time because there was a pretty nasty bit that looked as if they didn't deburr it properly. But don't forget that I'm Swiss and I'm pretty spoiled when it comes to nice machining :)
It for sure is a great package that worked great and was fun to shoot. Function wise I have no complaints, well I could be picky and tell you that the trigger isn't perfect. But that didn't really bother me at all and then again with a bullpup it's always harder to translate the same feel since the trigger group is not where the trigger is.
And the light weight I would actually rate as a plus also the fact that the gun balances really well when held in one hand.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
if trigger complaints are you being picky id say they did well
like you say the default assumption on a bullpup is at its crap
plastic finish sucks but on the owr hand you can sand it smooth
its be nice if you didnt have to but im going to modify whatever gun i ever buy so im not worried
thx for the hands on experience dude
Zinnsee ago
No problem, thanks to you for your write up. I'd be happy to read more of those in the future.
It's a great gun and probably on top of my list for a gun that I'd have to operate in a vehicle.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
have you seen the keltec rdb and rfb
very cool
Zinnsee ago
They look great! I would love to try one.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
me too
i ned a semi auto in .308
rfb might be the ticket
then again the new desertech bullpup looks good and the company is active in improving it
inrange did some videos on it
its convertible from 5.56 to .308
Zinnsee ago
Hmm I'm not sure why but I don't really like the looks of that Desert Tech bullpup. But I'll watch the video and see what gun jesus has to say about it.
Here's my .308 a SIG 751 SAPR, obviously not a bullpup.
pic1, pic2
But I guess they're pretty rare and pricey in the US.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
dude that whole family is great
excellent weapons
i just have a couple original kalashnikovs
ak103 and aks74
but id love to have a sig 550
Zinnsee ago
I really like kalashnikovs but I generally have a sweet spot for ruskie engineering.
The sig is kinda the rich mans kalashnikov. It's absolutely clear where the Swiss engineers took inspiration from.
clamhurt_legbeard ago
exactly
its a swiss kalashnikov
how could it not be amazing
i have a sweet spot for soviet shit too lol