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7.5 FK BRNO

I pulled apart a round of the F5 designates ammo, the 95 grain copper hollow point. It was in a rather caveman like fashion I'll admit so the bullet is no longer pretty. Here's what I found though, just so it's documented somewhere

The bullet itself
.747 in length from base to an unmolested edge
.306 in diameter
94.7 grains (was probably exactly 95 but it lost some material in the plier teeth)

The powder is a very fine ball powder it looks like. It was packed solid in the case and required agitation to remove, not much was lost but is worth noting that I did lose a few granules. There was 15.4 grains of measurable powder when I was done, likely 15.5/6 after loss.

The bullet sets pretty far down past the neck, shoulder, and into the case.
 

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Imagine this round in a APC style SMG.

I would love to popoff a few Rounds of them . Was shooting at the action range recently here, and these Cases caught my eye immediately laying in the pea gravel, so I know there is someone local around here who has kicked out the bread-$ for one of these badboys .

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BRNO.jpg

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Prices have shot up $300 on the pistol, likely for stock they already had on hand. :cautious:
Sad, I like the gun and the round, seems perfect for backcountry carry, but I'll only buy into it if I can reload it. I don't want the single source of ammo to dry up.
While I don't care if they push for SAAMI, they should have made dies available and they would be selling more guns.
 
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Agree 100%. I like "interesting" cartridges but got rid of my 5.7 and ammo lot due to how difficult and how much of a pain it is to reload that cartridge. The FK round looks interesting and I believe Sierra is making the projectiles for some of the loads aren't they? So there's at least hope! Threaded barrel would be nice too.
 
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I bought one with the 10mm barrel combo, because I use 10mm heavy loads while out in the woods a lot. On the first outing, somewhere between 50-75 rounds of the 95gr load, the rear sight went airborne. Seems the screws weren't tightened in place. Fortunately I found all the parts.

It was fun to shoot and I'll be putting an RMR on it next.

I'd really like to find the 100gr solids for woods use over the 95hp's.
 
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Anyone else have one? I have one and love it. Also does anyone know a reliable place to order bulk 7.5 ammo from?

Yes, I wanted a PDW that was concealable enough for daily transport, that had far greater terminal ballistics than your standard 9x19 PCC.

What really intrigued me about the 7.5 FK was the design of the cartridge, and it's original application.

Some information from the FK BRNO International website.

Although the basic case design and the concept of the cartridge was finalized in 2011, more than 250,000 rounds were fired with at least 15 different case design variations and over 30 different bullet designs were tested over a four-year period before the final cartridge design form was approved for production.

1200(5).jpg

The main design parameters were as follows:

  • Cartridge must be short and small enough to be used comfortably in magazine fed / in grip magazine, size of firearm.
  • Ballistics must be designed for a max barrel length of 150 mm (5.9"), and projectile must be supersonic at 150 meters.
  • Recoil force should not exceed power factor 230, [ .45 ACP +P ]
  • Accuracy/ precision at 100 meters must be less than 100x100 mm rectangle (4-MOA).
  • Projectile must create hydrodynamic shock at impact range of 100 meter (110 yard) in targets with a weight of up to 150Kg (330 lbs).
  • Projectile permanent wound cavity in ballistic gel at 150 meters must be minimum 35 mm (1.4") diameter and 300 mm (12") in length.

While the 7.5 FK cartridge is primarily marketed for hunting after the contract closed, that was never the intended role of the cartridge or the platform.

Ballistics wise, it's performance in gel is very impressive. Massive hydrostatic shock, heavy penetration, large permanent wound cavity; all attributes we would expect from an intermediate rifle round (300 BLK / 5.56x45 / 7.62x39). TopShotDustin on YouTube had a great comparison of 7.5 FK & 300 BLK Supers, which both performed nearly identical in gel testing, there was little to no difference between the two.

Being this is Snipers Hide, I've shot a single 8" / 8-round group at 100-yards with my PSD, standing, offhand using the F5 / 95gr. HTE round. I was a bit in disbelief overall, no spotting scope, just using binos, couldn't necessarily see where the rounds impacted. My typical group size at 50-yards, is around 4.5-5", standing, offhand.

Most reviewers have shot 4-MOA from a rest, sled, or bag. I'm not a handgun ballistics expert, but that is very impressive accuracy.
 
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I just need go find someone with a couple cases of the ammo laying around.
F5 is in-stock now, from both Big Daddy and the Firearm Depot.

Finally acquired a 10MM / .40 S&W conversion barrel last month for $230. FKBRNOUS hasn't had the conversion kits in-stock for six months now, watched them when they were in-stock, and went OOS within twelve hours.
 
I bought a FK BRNO PSD, with 10mm, 9mm and 7.5 FK Barrels. The 10mm barrel shot flawlessly, the 9mm barrel (with cheap 115 grain), stovepiped a few times - I suspect it needs stronger 9mm ammo, but the 7.5mm barrel, oh my. Out of 40 rounds fired, at least 10 light primer strikes.
My pistol is serial number AB 08XX, so it is below 900 mark. Are the newer ones shooting better?
I'm going to send it in to IFG as I'd really like it to work well, just don't have confidence it will fire if I'm hunting a pig out in the brush or whatnot.
Was firing the green box 95gr F5 cartridge out of it?
Anyone have any suggestions so I don't have to send it in?
Thanks much
 
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I bought a FK BRNO PSD, with 10mm, 9mm and 7.5 FK Barrels. The 10mm barrel shot flawlessly, the 9mm barrel (with cheap 115 grain), stovepiped a few times - I suspect it needs stronger 9mm ammo, but the 7.5mm barrel, oh my. Out of 40 rounds fired, at least 10 light primer strikes.
My pistol is serial number AB 08XX, so it is below 900 mark. Are the newer ones shooting better?
I'm going to send it in to IFG as I'd really like it to work well, just don't have confidence it will fire if I'm hunting a pig out in the brush or whatnot.
Was firing the green box 95gr F5 cartridge out of it?
Anyone have any suggestions so I don't have to send it in?
Thanks much
I've got all the barrels too and my gun is good and broken in. Eventually it will cycle most decent quality 9mm in common bullet weights.

As far as the 7.5 ammo, both the S95 and F5 ammo had notoriously hard primers back in the early days. The red box stuff is better but I've had a few needing a second hit. The new reduced velocity stuff seems to light off reliably but if your gun is brand new it won't cycle reliably. Again my gun is broken in and cycles fine.

There's a guy on one of the Facebook sites that had a firing pin channel reamer sent to him by FK. It will put a very light chamfer on the channel at the bolt face, supposedly improving function in regards to the primers. All new guns are getting this treatment as of a month ago I think.

Overall they are very nice, well finished guns, they just have some teething issues
 
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MY FK BRNO PSD 7.5 has turned out to be a massive disappointment.

I was so intrigued by this handgun, and excited to acquire it. I forgot to check a very basic fact: How long is the warranty?

January 27, 2023:

My BRNO PSD,...comes with a second barrel to accommodate 10mm. Same magazine is used for both.

(in another venue I had a photo here of the PSD next to my Desert Eagle 1911)

On the BRNO, the enclosure below the frame between the trigger guard and the crown contains a recoil mitigation system that uses a rod, spring and 5 ounce weight to reduce the felt recoil. In my opinion, it works very well.

Fun guns for sure. BTW, both extremely well made. Smooth but not loose. Well fit, no hint of unwanted contact. A joy to shoot, both of them.

I was looking for a 10mm pistol to use as the backup for hog hunting and discovered the PSD. It shoots the 10mm round, but also shoots (using a different barrel; it comes with both) the 7.5 FK, which is an even stronger round.

10mm ammo with 180 grain bullet @1,250 fps muzzle velocity yields muzzle energy of 624 ft lbs

7.5 FK ammo with 95 grain bullet @ 2,000 ft/s muzzle velocity yields muzzle energy of 850 ft⋅lbf

In my experience the PSD "tames" the 10mm to feel a bit less than shooting .45CP from my 1911. The 7.5 feels about like what you expect from a 10mm in typical platforms.

After a few months and several trips to the range:

Sadly, nothing but grief from the BRNO, using the 7.5 round. With the alternate barrel and 10mm ammo, no grief whatsoever. Let's just say that FK BRNO is still trying to establish its office here in the States. The on in Florida gave up. The one that took it over (Italian Firearms Group) don't work on PSDs that they did not import and sell, so I am on my own. 20-30% failure to fire, some of which could, by their own admission, be faulty ammunition. However, I also now have the photos from recent testing to show extremely light strikes on unfired rounds, including some that you could mistake for fresh out of the box. That ain't ammo.

October 31, 2024:

Sadly, the BRNO PSD has turned into my biggest disappointment ever among firearm acquisitions. The 7.5 round simply will not reliably fire. I get very ratio of FTF events. I have run this firearm through a gunsmith here in Houston who has done smithing for officers from just about every law enforcement agency in or near Houston or Harris county. He has been unable to find a combination of springs or adjustments that guarantees firing the 7.5 without the risk of puncturing the primer. The chief problem remaining is the light-strike issue that leaves round after round unfired after a trigger pull. It is almost always true that after a light-strike/FTF I can manually "kick" the slide forward with the heel of my palm and get a detonation on the next trigger pull. Occasionally it take more than one kick. So far, even if it takes a few rounds, I have always been able - eventually - to get any given round too fire.

I have never had one moment of trouble with the 10mm barrel. This thing eats 10mm like candy and sends it downrange and you simply cannot believe that you are actually firing a 10mm round, the recoil is much reduced. That's fine, and for the future it will be my 10mm handgun, but that's really an unacceptable outcome.

If I had noticed - and this is embarrasing to admit because I "always" study and look for this, except apparently this time - if I had noticed that the warranty was 2 years only, I would never have touched this. I confess that I am so spoiled by today's very common lifetime warranties that I think I did not look at all.
And, when I look back, and I note that there were massive delays in customer support response and one attempt to make it right by sending me rounds of ammo, it looks an awful lot like they were trying to run out the clock rather than accept it back for repair. Perhaps they already knew that this problem is unfixable. For a while there was a theory that there was a bad batch of ammo, or perhaps several, but unless I just happen to have acquired nothing but bad batches, that theory is in the trash bin.

I'll use it happily for 10mm ammo, since it handles that so well, but is a massive disappointment to shell out over $1700 for a firearm and not be able to use it for the advertised and intended ammunition.
 
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MY FK BRNO PSD 7.5 has turned out to be a massive disappointment.

I was so intrigued by this handgun, and excited to acquire it. I forgot to check a very basic fact: How long is the warranty?

January 27, 2023:

My BRNO PSD,...comes with a second barrel to accommodate 10mm. Same magazine is used for both.

(in another venue I had a photo here of the PSD next to my Desert Eagle 1911)

On the BRNO, the enclosure below the frame between the trigger guard and the crown contains a recoil mitigation system that uses a rod, spring and 5 ounce weight to reduce the felt recoil. In my opinion, it works very well.

Fun guns for sure. BTW, both extremely well made. Smooth but not loose. Well fit, no hint of unwanted contact. A joy to shoot, both of them.

I was looking for a 10mm pistol to use as the backup for hog hunting and discovered the PSD. It shoots the 10mm round, but also shoots (using a different barrel; it comes with both) the 7.5 FK, which is an even stronger round.

10mm ammo with 180 grain bullet @1,250 fps muzzle velocity yields muzzle energy of 624 ft lbs

7.5 FK ammo with 95 grain bullet @ 2,000 ft/s muzzle velocity yields muzzle energy of 850 ft⋅lbf

In my experience the PSD "tames" the 10mm to feel a bit less than shooting .45CP from my 1911. The 7.5 feels about like what you expect from a 10mm in typical platforms.

After a few months and several trips to the range:

Sadly, nothing but grief from the BRNO, using the 7.5 round. With the alternate barrel and 10mm ammo, no grief whatsoever. Let's just say that FK BRNO is still trying to establish its office here in the States. The on in Florida gave up. The one that took it over (Italian Firearms Group) don't work on PSDs that they did not import and sell, so I am on my own. 20-30% failure to fire, some of which could, by their own admission, be faulty ammunition. However, I also now have the photos from recent testing to show extremely light strikes on unfired rounds, including some that you could mistake for fresh out of the box. That ain't ammo.

October 31, 2024:

Sadly, the BRNO PSD has turned into my biggest disappointment ever among firearm acquisitions. The 7.5 round simply will not reliably fire. I get very ratio of FTF events. I have run this firearm through a gunsmith here in Houston who has done smithing for officers from just about every law enforcement agency in or near Houston or Harris county. He has been unable to find a combination of springs or adjustments that guarantees firing the 7.5 without the risk of puncturing the primer. The chief problem remaining is the light-strike issue that leaves round after round unfired after a trigger pull. It is almost always true that after a light-strike/FTF I can manually "kick" the slide forward with the heel of my palm and get a detonation on the next trigger pull. Occasionally it take more than one kick. So far, even if it takes a few rounds, I have always been able - eventually - to get any given round too fire.

I have never had one moment of trouble with the 10mm barrel. This thing eats 10mm like candy and sends it downrange and you simply cannot believe that you are actually firing a 10mm round, the recoil is much reduced. That's fine, and for the future it will be my 10mm handgun, but that's really an unacceptable outcome.

If I had noticed - and this is embarrasing to admit because I "always" study and look for this, except apparently this time - if I had noticed that the warranty was 2 years only, I would never have touched this. I confess that I am so spoiled by today's very common lifetime warranties that I think I did not look at all.
And, when I look back, and I note that there were massive delays in customer support response and one attempt to make it right by sending me rounds of ammo, it looks an awful lot like they were trying to run out the clock rather than accept it back for repair. Perhaps they already knew that this problem is unfixable. For a while there was a theory that there was a bad batch of ammo, or perhaps several, but unless I just happen to have acquired nothing but bad batches, that theory is in the trash bin.

I'll use it happily for 10mm ammo, since it handles that so well, but is a massive disappointment to shell out over $1700 for a firearm and not be able to use it for the advertised and intended ammunition.
The problem causing light pight primer strikes is a combination of a poor quality spring for the firing pin block, as well as poor timing of the block. If you pull it, you will see that it is marred on the ledge, and corresponding marks on the firing pin. I messed with mine and am up to 98-99% success with no indication of OOB detonation being capable.

Additionally, if you do dryfire or end up with a decent round count, the trigger reset spring will become weak and fail to reset the trigger. CZ customs sells a CZ75 spring that can be easily modified to work as a replacement since IFG and FK are useless. I made a how to post on AKfiles at one point, I can find it again I'm sure if that's something that anyone here is needing

For what it's worth, the 9mm conversion is awesome once you get broke in and run +p ammo.