(Photo submitted by the author)
October 29, 2024
By J. Scott Rupp
Make no mistake: The Ed Brown FX2 is one bad-ass pistol . A Commander-size 1911 chambered to either 9mm or .45 ACP, it’s got all the qualities you look for in a fighting gun—plus head-turning looks and the high-end construction you expect from Ed Brown Products.
The gun comes with a Trijicon RMRcc red dot installed—or simply optics ready if you prefer —and it features a unique co-witnessing iron-sight setup that I’ll dig into later. Normally I wouldn’t dive right into the aesthetics of a gun, but I think in this case it’s justified.
Both the slide and frame are stainless steel, with a finish the company calls “industrial.” I’m not a good enough writer to describe this as well as I should; thank goodness for photos. It’s almost but not quite the so-called “distressed” finish seen in fashion and even in the gun world, making the new look old. But this finish calls machinery to my mind, like a well-worn hammer or other tool you’ve always counted on.
The forward cocking serrations are quite different from what you see on other 1911s so endowed. They’re minimalistic, a row of six small cuts just below the radius of the rounded slide top. A graceful, thin line runs through these cuts in a dogleg that starts at the base of the slide at about its midpoint.
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Intricate Details The Bobtail frame cut reduces printing, and the Snakeskin texture on the mainspring housing and frontstrap—along with the G10 grips—provides excellent control. (Photo submitted by the author) The rear serrations are another matter. Ed Brown has worked an American flag motif into them. There are seven narrowly spaced, flat-bottomed cuts—stripes, if you will—angling from bottom to top, with a star field at the corner. I’ve seen makers who’ve incorporated the Stars and Stripes into their designs before, and I haven’t been a fan because I thought they were overdone. Not the FX2. Ed Brown hits just the right note here.
The Ed Brown “EB” logo is just forward of the right-side serrations, and the slide-stop pin is serrated and recessed in the frame. The black bushing and recoil plug provide a nice contrast at the muzzle, and they help set off the stainless steel barrel’s target crown.
Similarly, the black G10 grips look really good against the industrial finish, with a matching black three-hole trigger completing the ensemble. The Snakeskin serrations on the frontstrap and mainspring housing are distinctive as well as functional, which I’ll get into later. While the Bobtail cut on the frame—an Ed Brown invention—is eminently practical because it helps to reduce printing when you’re carrying the gun concealed, I’ve always thought it adds panache to a 1911’s looks as well.
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My sample, a .45, weighs 37 ounces with sight installed and an empty seven-round magazine in the gun. Overall length is just shy of eight inches, and height is six inches with the Trijicon on board.
In Control Controls are your standard fare, except of course they are Ed Brown’s parts. They come from forgings or pre-heat-treated steel and are CNC-machined slightly over spec and then hand-fitted by the company’s gunsmiths. All these operations occur at Ed Brown’s state-of-the-art facility in Missouri.
The thumb safety is single-side, and it works with the perfect amount of tension. The memory bump on the grip safety has three lateral grooves, which I recently learned is also an Ed Brown innovation, and they help ensure the safety is deactivated when you have a proper shooting grip.
The trigger is outstanding, probably the best I’ve ever pulled on a 1911. It has a slight take-up and zero creep before breaking at an average of two pounds, 10 ounces with no overtravel.
The FX2 sticks with John Browning’s short recoil system. The only thing you might find slightly different is the recessed slide-stop pin might require a push with a non-marring tool during disassembly.
Fit and Finish The FX2’s parts are all fully machined by Ed Brown and hand-fitted by expert gunsmiths. The three-hole trigger is incredibly crisp. (Photo submitted by the author) Slide-to-frame fit is outstanding. Grab the slide and try as hard as you can to get it to wiggle; it won’t. It’s not unusual for guns fitted this tightly to have hiccups early on, and I did experience three failures to chamber at the bench with the light 135-grain Lehigh Defense load. But everything else ran like a champ from the get-go.
The magazine release is a standard-size button. The release on this sample was a bit on the stiff side, but mags dropped freely.
Speaking of which, two seven-rounders come with the gun. Ed Brown is serious about its magazines. The tubes are 410 stainless steel, and the tubes and the fixed base plate are TIG welded.
Tubes are highly polished inside and out, and the followers are heat-treated steel with an anti-friction coating so not only will the rounds feed consistently into the chamber, the follower will lock back the slide on the last shot every time. The company uses heavy-duty springs for the same reason. I own several Ed Brown magazines I purchased for other 1911s of mine, and I love them.
Accuracy (Accuracy results provided by J. Scott Rupp) The FX2 is incredibly accurate. Take a gander at the accompanying chart, and you’ll see that with the exception of the Lehigh load, everything shot well under two inches at 25 yards. Best groups of the day include a 0.6-inch cluster with Federal Punch and a 0.8-incher with Fiocchi Defense Dynamics.
Confession time. I have not been shooting .45s very much lately, and when it comes to Commander-size 1911s, almost all the guns I’ve spent time with have been 9mms. So running drills with the FX2 .45 definitely presented a learning curve, and in the early stages I struggled to avoid jumping on the light trigger. But in time we got used to each other, and the hits came a lot easier.
My own Ed Brown—a Special Forces I rewarded myself with for making it to 50 years old—has the company’s Chainlink texturing on the frontstrap and mainspring housing. The FX2 has the firm’s Snakeskin texturing, and I like it better. Run a finger across this texture and you can feel it grab, and when you’re shooting, it keeps the gun locked in your hand. The G10 grips have vertical ridges in addition to lateral, angled grooves, and they add to control without ripping up your hands or your clothing.
Another confession: I have a hard time with red dots in terms of first-round hits out of the holster. The hits are there, but I’m slower than with iron sights to the tune of half a second or so. While I still wasn’t lightning fast with the FX2’s Trijicon RMRcc, the fact that it sits low in the slide helped me pick up the red dot quicker than with sights that sit higher.
Closer to Bore Axis The industrial finish on the frame and slide give the gun a no-nonsense yet attractive look. The black bushing and recoil plug set off the stainless barrel’s recessed crown. (Photo submitted by the author) Ed Brown’s Dave Biggers brought up another point regarding low-mounted red dots that hadn’t occurred to me. He noted that because the dot is closer to the bore axis, offset isn’t as much of an issue. Offset is something that’s not often discussed with regard to red dots, but it can matter. If you zero a dot at, say, 15 yards, at very close range, your shot is going to be low—perhaps significantly so. The closer the sight to the bore, the less the offset.
You probably noticed right off that the rear sight is located in front of the red dot, not behind it. This reduces the sighting radius a bit, and I wasn’t sure what the thinking here was, so I asked Biggers about it.
“You don’t have to look past the rear sight to find the dot. It’s less visual clutter,” he said. “It also provides some protection against the carbon exhaust from the ejection port.”
The dovetailed rear sight is an Ed Brown design. It’s narrower so it fits easily on this portion of the slide, and it has a U-shape notch that’s 0.19 inch wide. That matches up with an AmeriGlo front blade that’s 0.14 inch wide.
Sight Picture The AmeriGlo front sight sports a bright orange ring around a tritium lamp for good visibility in any lighting conditions. (Photo submitted by the author) The resulting sight picture doesn’t leave a ton of room on either side of the front blade when viewed through the rear, but neither is it target-tight. While I might argue for just a bit more room in that sight picture, when I shot the pistol with the dot turned off I didn’t have any trouble getting quick alignment.
The AmeriGlo front has a white tritium lamp inside a bright orange ProGlo outline for day/night capability. I think sights of this type are ideal, but if it doesn’t float your boat, the sight is on a Glock pattern. There’s a hole in the bottom of the slide that allows you to access the sight with a Glock front-sight tool to replace it if you want.
As I mentioned, the FX2 can be ordered as a 9mm or .45, with or without the optic installed. And if you don’t care for the industrial finish, which I happen to love, it’s also available in Ed Brown’s Gen4 black.
But this is Ed Brown we’re talking about, so if you want to go full-blown custom, there are a ton of options. Chief among these are a .45 Government slide; an aluminum or light-rail frame; ambidextrous safety in three different profiles; various finish colors; magazine wells; extended or oversize magazine release; solid, short and flat triggers; and different sights, grips and a whole lot more. Just click on “Custom Build” on the FX2 website page and have at it.
Bad-Ass Pistol Me, I like the gun just as it is. As I said at the beginning, this is one bad-ass fighting pistol. The FX2 is accurate as all get-out, and the trigger is outstanding. The combination of the iron sights and red dot gives you the best of both worlds—zero worries about the sight failing due to a dead battery or having been severely damaged due to a strike or drop. If the sight goes down, it’s an easy switch to a terrific iron-sight setup.
The Commander-size 1911 is a great all-around size for a defensive gun. I’ve not extensively carried a Government model concealed, but I do carry a Commander on occasion, and I think people who are used to carrying guns a little on the heavier side will find the FX2 to be ideal. Further, that Bobtail cut really helps concealment, eliminating the sharp frame corner that tends to catch clothing and print.
The FX2 is easy to hit with if you’re well-versed in shooting .45s. And if you’re not, a bit of practice will get you in the groove. Or you can order the gun in 9mm. It’s true that the 9mm has won the war, so to speak, on whether it or the .45 ACP is a better defensive cartridge. However, there are a lot of folks who prefer the bigger round, and while the 9mm has made big inroads in the 1911 universe, there’s some anecdotal evidence the tide is swinging back to the cartridge the 1911 was designed for: the .45.
I was curious about what a high-end maker like Ed Brown was seeing in this regard. Biggers said that while they’re seeing some movement toward the 9mm, .45 is still the king.
If you’ve stuck with this article the whole way, some of you are waiting to pounce on me about the FX2’s price tag. Like the kids say today, don’t @ me. Ed Brown’s guns have always been aspirational, and the cost reflects the high-quality machined components all hand-assembled by top-flight gunsmiths.
There’s an undeniable pride to owning the finest of anything. There’s also a philosophy that says you should buy the very best quality you can afford, because you will never regret it. I’ve certainly never regretted buying my Special Forces. Shooting it is such a rewarding experience, and I know it will never let me down. That’s what you get with an Ed Brown pistol.
Ed Brown FX2 Specs Type: 1911Caliber: 9mm, .45 ACP (tested)Capacity: 7+1Barrel: 4.25 in. stainless w/recessed crownOAL/Height/Width : 7.75/6.0/1.2 in. w/ sightWeight: 37 oz. w/ sightConstruction: industrial-finish stainless steel slide and frameGrips: black G10Trigger: 3-hole; 2 lb. 10 oz. pull (measured)Sights: Ed Brown U-notch rear, AmeriGlo day/night front; Trijicon RMRcc (as tested)Safeties: single-side thumb, grooved memory bump gripMSRP: $4,495 w/sight; $3,995 optics readyManufacturer: Ed Brown Products, EdBrown.com