Owner’s Manual 2020

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unlocked from the slide after a short distance and stopped. The slide then
continues rearward under inertia compressing the recoil spring and ejecting
the fired cartridge case. As the breach face of the slide passes the back of
the magazine in its rearward travel, the cartridges in the magazine rise
under spring tension until the top round is in contact with the magazine
feed lips. As the slide is returned forward by the recoil spring the top
cartridge is stripped from the magazine by the slide and pushed into the
chamber of the pistol. Releasing the trigger will allow the firing mechanism
to reset and the process can be repeated until the magazine is empty. Upon
firing the pistol with an empty magazine inserted, the magazine follower
will push the slide stop into engagement with the slide and lock the slide to
the rear of its travel.
9. FN 503 FEATURES
9.1 PASSIVE SAFETY SYSTEMS
The FN 503 is equipped with three passive safety systems: a striker block;
trigger disconnect lever; and trigger safety lever, to prevent the pistol from
firing unless the trigger is pulled and the slide and barrel are in the locked
position.
• The striker block prevents the tip of the striker from protruding from
the breach face unless the trigger has been pulled to the rear
(Figure 24).
FIGURE 24