Reflex Renovation: The FN Reflex XL MRD

By Dave Merrill & Luke Hartle

If you’ve been following the development of concealed carry handguns for the past several years, the base properties of the FN Reflex won’t be surprising: 9mm, high capacity for its size due to a stagger-stack magazine, polymer construction, and a width of about an inch. To their credit, FN is aware that they’re not the ones currently setting the benchmarks and breaking new ground in this arena, so they knew they’d have to do it right … and do it better.

THE ORIGINAL REFLEX

FN launched the 503 in March of 2020. It wouldn’t be entirely incorrect to say the FN 503 was a single-stack variation of the much larger FN 509, but the striker-fired FN 503 featured a capacity of 6+1. Seven rounds on tap was popular in previous generations of slimline carry guns like Glock’s G43, but in a post-P365 era with magazines nearly double the capacity within a similar size, it fell short.

In the wake of the FN 503, the team at FN America regrouped. The engineers at FN took stock of previous offerings, ultimately deciding it should have a hammer rather than a striker. While we jokingly called the action of the FN Reflex a weird baby between the rimfire FN 502 and the striker FN 509, the real inspiration for the hammer came from the FN Five-seveN pistol.

Like the Five-seveN, the hammer is internal, hidden, and swinging inside a crevice in the slide, rather than outside like the FN 502. The hammer-fired action allowed them to keep the frame only an inch wide and also came with the added benefit of requiring less strength from the user to rack the slide.  

Similarly, the magazine isn’t entirely new because FN already had a nice quasi-stagger-stack magazine design. The similarities in geometry in the FN Reflex magazines and the FN Hi-Power (and newer FN High Power) aren’t an accident. Regardless of the geometry of the magazines, they’re clearly OEM’d by Mec-Gar of Italy, evidenced in part by the high-quality construction, glossy finish, and red followers.

It’s hard to have a good trigger on a striker gun without pre-loading the striker spring. Not only do pre-loaded striker springs require a correspondingly stronger recoil spring assembly to ensure reliable operation, the safety of such systems has been called into question. Not an issue with hammer-fired guns. The hinge trigger has a break hovering right at 5 pounds. It shouldn’t be considered a match trigger, but it’s consistent. 

There’s a considerable amount of pre-travel, during which the wide polymer face can be felt, but the wall before the break is dependable. If you’re the type to take up slack, you’ll like this one.

Instead of trotting out a non-optic model first and then following with an optics-ready model in an effort to sell us the same pistol twice, FN released the Reflex and Reflex MRD at the same time. There are still those out there who don’t want the slightly extra effort running a dot requires, and those people will pay less (about $50 street) for the Reflex. 

Like the FN 509, the FN Reflex has standard dovetails for sights. As shipped, the sights on the FN Reflex include a high-viz orange ring with Tritium insert on the front, with plain white dots on the rear.

Shipping with just a cover plate and two sets of screws, the FN Reflex only accepts micro dots with Holosun K or Shield RMSc footprints. If you have a dot with a different base (and don’t mind a little overhang) the aftermarket has you covered, with companies like SAS Tactical Customs making adapter plates at the expense of a taller optic.

While not everyone is an advocate of carrying with a weapon-mounted light (WML), FN wanted to ensure it was an option: The answer was the G43X/G48 railed model cut. There are indeed many carry pistols that have sold more units than the G43X MOS, but the people who use weapon lights on compact carry guns seem to largely carry guns with that rail attachment method. 

THE REFLEX XL MRD

SPECS:

• Caliber: 9mm
• Weight Unloaded: 20 ounces
• Magazine Capacity: 10, 15, 18
• Length: 6.75 inches
• Height: 5.2 inches
• Width: 1.08 inches
• Barrel: 3.8 inches
• MSRP: $719

As is to be expected with any familial lineage, certain traits carry on for better or worse … and in the case of the Reflex, it’s definitely for the better. After nearly five years of success with the “original” Reflex, FN has added another branch to the family tree with the Reflex XL MRD. 

The XL is a spitting image of its parental template, with a bit longer legs and a touch more in the hips.

 It wears an additional half-inch of length on the barrel — equating to just a touch more than a half-inch in additional overall length. Is that enough to be cumbersome? Doubtful, and remember that a longer slide means a longer sight radius and higher muzzle velocity as well. 

Palmetto State Armory	$600
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Sportsman’s Warehouse	$600

And in regard to width? Well, the XL is 0.08-inch wider than the original. It feels like a safe statement to say that measures a “nothing” on the noticeability scale. 

Most noticeable, however, is the extended overall height of the XL, which is about an inch more than original. Sure, that definitely has the potential to hamper concealability, but as is the case with the longer slide, more grip equals more gun … and that equals easier handling. 

But, hey — it’s an XL. What did you expect?