Feat of the Week: The Gunsmith’s P90
Welcome to our weekly blog post! Each “Feat of the Week” features firearm(s) we have worked on recently. These are showcases of our repair work, custom machining, Cerakote, or a combination of services. We are excited to share our gunsmithing feats with you!
This week’s gunsmithing feat is my childhood dream gun—the P90. I converted this standard P90 into a suppressed SBR. I usually don’t have time for gunsmithing work on my personal firearms, but I couldn’t resist this one. I can’t wait to share it with you. So let’s get started!
The Gunsmith’s P90
MAKE/MODEL: FN PS90
CALIBER: 5.7x28mm
Suppressor: AAC Halcyon
Optic: Sig romeo 5 with Mout by design MachinE
Flahslight: Streamlight TLR-1 HL
IR light/Laser Combo: Streamlight TLR-VIR II
Dual Pressure Pad by Streamlight
QD Sling mount by Design Machine
The Gunsmithing Story
The P90 has seen way more action in movies, TV, and video games than it has on actual battlefields. Its prevalence in pop culture in the late nineties and modern video games has made it a generational favorite. It holds a close place in my heart—a staple in the show Stargate. As a futuristic-looking gun, it was the perfect weapon for fighting aliens.
Side note: if you haven’t seen Stargate SG 1, you’re missing out on some high-quality 1990s Sci-Fi television.
My PS90 before cutting down the barrel
The P90 was the gun I had dreamed of owning since I was a kid watching Jack O’Neill fight the Goa’uld in Stargate. Well, this past year I was finally able to buy one. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more—especially after I made it into an SBR and added a suppressor.
I purchased a standard P90 with a full-length barrel. After applying for and receiving a tax stamp for a short-barreled rifle, I cut the barrel down from 18 inches to 11 inches. This made it so that the barrel is enclosed inside the receiver. Thus, the barrel cannot be seen from the outside of the gun.
To hold the barrel onto the gun and attach it to the receiver, I used my lathe to manufacture a barrel nut and threaded the inside of it. In order to attach the nut, I also threaded the barrel.
Of course, I had to have a suppressor for my SBR P90. But I didn’t just want any silencer, I wanted something with a quick detach function. So, I added a muzzle device with a QD system which worked with my AAC Halcyon. To attach the muzzle device to the gun, I threaded the outside of the barrel nut.
To accessorize the P90, I added the Sig Romeo 5 optic, a flashlight, and an infrared laser/light combo. I also bought a dual pressure pad which allows me to simply press a button to activate either light or both. With night vision and my P90, I can shoot in the dark. Now that the sun goes down at 5pm, I can go night shooting at Albany Rifle and Pistol Club.
And shooting this thing just makes me giddy. Even more so when I shoot subsonic ammo. It barely makes a sound.
The Design Story
Produced by the Belgian company FN Herstal in 1990, this compact bullpup was developed in response to a request from NATO to replace their standard 9mm cartridge and guns. The popular German submachine MP5—developed in the 1960s—was becoming obsolete because of innovations in Kevlar body armor. FN created the P90—considered to be both a submachine gun and personal defense weapon—as its replacement.
They produced a gun with several features that the industry hadn’t seen before. But the P90’s new design wasn’t just for looks. It was based on functionality and ergonomic research. It took four years of development by FN and Stephane Ferrand to complete the design, and what resulted was unconventional and unprecedented.
The P90 is fully ambidextrous and has rounded edges to prevent snags on clothing and equipment. Spent cartridges eject down through the bottom of the gun, and the bullpup design—with the action and magazine behind the trigger—maximizes the use of the stock. Two of the most unusual features are the thumbhole in the frame and the oversized trigger guard. These function as a pistol grip and a foregrip, respectively.
P90 Spiral Fed Magazine
By ROG5728 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14686165
Another innovative feature of the P90 is its patent protected spiral fed magazine design invented by Rene Predazzer. It is top loaded and sits flush to the frame. This concept alone is new but the magazine design itself is genius. The rounds sit in the magazine perpendicular to the gun, and as they are dispensed into the chamber, they rotate parallel and into position. This allows for optimal capacity, enabling the operator to carry fifty rounds in each magazine.
FN’s Five-SeveN Pistol and 5.7x28mm Ammunition
By ROG5728 - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17071748
Alongside the P90, FN developed the 5.7x28mm caliber and the Five-SeveN pistol. Because NATO’s request included a light and compact shoulder-fire, accompanying pistol, and a cartridge that could penetrate body armor with better accuracy and range, FN developed these three products in tandem.
Both the P90 and the 5.7 cartridge are lightweight—a P90 with a fully loaded 50-round magazine weighs just over six and a half pounds. The 5.7 caliber produces around thirty percent less recoil and travels at a faster rate than a 9x19 round. The cartridge is also half the weight of 9mm. Thus, these lightweight, slim rounds combined with the innovative magazine design allow the user to carry more ammo in a smaller package.
![HK MP7A1By Remigiusz Wilk REMOV - [1], CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=774630](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Heckler_%26_Koch_MP7A1.jpg#/media/File:Heckler_&_Koch_MP7A1.jpg)
HK MP7A1
By Remigiusz Wilk REMOV - [1], CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=774630
But, in 2002, after testing and evaluation, FN was unable to win the NATO contract despite producing two excellent weapons and being the top performer in ballistics. The Germans, salty their new MP7 couldn’t compete with FN’s technology, vetoed the adoption of the P90 as the new standard NATO personal defense weapon. In the end, NATO failed to standardize both a cartridge and PDW.
FN and NATO envisioned this cartridge and these weapons to be used by “rear-echelon troops” who didn’t require a standard rifle yet still needed a personal defense weapon. But only the Belgian military implemented the P90 for its originally intended purpose. Several police agencies and special operations units, however, began using the P90 for both defensive and “offensive” uses. Most notably, it is used by the United States Secret Service because the compact design allows for concealment of a shoulder-fire rifle under a jacket.
Ten years after the P90, FN created the F2000—a gas-operated bullpup rifle based on the P90 design and chambered in 5.56. Heir to the P90’s title of most futuristic, the FN 2000 has become my new dream gun. And still, in 2020, these two FN rifles are some of the most innovative designs on the market. Their unconventional yet functional designs are derived from FN’s long history of firearm innovation. The P90 was developed less than 100 years after FN’s historic partnership with the most renown gunmaker of all time.
The history
FN Herstal was founded in 1889 to fulfill the Belgian government’s order of Mauser Model 89 rifles. Right before the turn of the century, a FN sales manager traveled to the United States to learn about bicycle technology—at the time they also produced cars and motorcycles—where he met John Moses Browning. He returned to Belgium not with bicycle technology but with an incredibly important business relationship. Due to royalty disputes with Winchester, Browning decided to form a partnership with FN instead and contracted with the Belgian company. Browning designed guns and sent them to FN to be manufactured. Together, they produced some of the most notable and influential guns in modern firearm history: the Browning A5—the first mass produced semi-auto shotgun—the Browning Automatic Rifle, and the Browning Hi-Power Pistol.
With Browning on their team FN Herstal became known for their superior small arms technology and design. They continued to carry on the tradition even after Browning’s death. In fact, since World War II, most Western militaries have used FN products.
Their partnership with Browning created a company culture of innovation and design excellence without which the P90 probably wouldn’t have been produced. The culture at FN Herstal isn’t just to manufacture firearms but also to invent and push industry boundaries. For them, research and development is key as FN allocates more than five percent of their budget to R&D.
FN F2000: Gas Operated 5.56 Bullpup Rifle
By 5er at Slovenian Wikipedia - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=36704355
For a company with ties to John Moses Browning—the most prolific gun designer ever—the development of such an innovative and unconventional firearm is unsurprising and even expected. Guns like the P90 and the F2000 can only come from those who are willing, like Browning, to step outside the box. His legacy continues to live on in these futuristic FNs.
NEXT UP
We hope you enjoyed this week’s gunsmithing feat. Thank you for following along! Our next feature will be posted Monday, November 16th at 9am. Comment for any content you want to see.
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Sources:
https://fnamerica.com/why-buy-fn/
https://www.fnherstal.com/en/tradition-and-innovation
https://www.historicalfirearms.info/post/158794097209/fn-p90-prototypes-sources-1-2-3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejkHVAgzQ7U
https://www.gunsandammo.com/editorial/the-untold-fn-story/248546
https://www.americanrifleman.org/articles/2014/12/23/fn-the-first-125-years/
https://peashooter85.tumblr.com/post/164730164152/the-fn-p90-introduced-by-the-belgian-company-fn
https://www.militaryfactory.com/smallarms/detail.asp?smallarms_id=84
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_P90
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FN_Herstal