5.7x28 options

I think the question from their perspective is, why would they? What's the market? What hole does it fill in their offerings.

AFAIK, the 5.7's claim to fame is it's ability to penetrate body armor. Not something most people want to market in a pistol.

Savage has a bolt action rifle, marketed mostly for Varmit/ Target use.

You can get the 5.7 on your AR platform.

Maybe there are a few others...

5.7x28 is a great caliber for people who can't handle recoil but has slightly better kinetic energy than the .22LR. If I had to arm my girlfriend with something, I think I'd give her a Five-Seven pistol.

usp9 said:

Savage has a bolt action rifle, marketed mostly for Varmit/ Target use.

You can get the 5.7 on your AR platform.

Maybe there are a few others...

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Yeah, I can see it in a rifle, there's already some similar varmint rounds out there (22 WMR).

This is the pistol forum, though.

I think the question from their perspective is, why would they? What's the market? What hole does it fill in their offerings.

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There's a big part of the answer. Another big part is "...and what gun are we going to put it in?"

A revolver isn't usually terribly happy with bottlenecked cartridges. An auto, once engineered to feed a certain cartridge design (like a stubby, straight-walled 9mm, .40, or .45ACP) doesn't usually lend itself to being easily tweaked to feed a radically different cartridge design. Getting a 1911 to feed 9mm is a tough trick that not many builders or manufacturers have managed to do with anything close to perfect success. Trying to make one feed a tiny, pointy, bottlenecked round would be maddening.

So the manufacturer pretty much has to build a gun from the ground up to handle the oddball round. That costs a lot of money. There has to be a pretty solid expectation of a return on that investment. FN expects (or did expect) to make that up through companion sales to go along with their P90, and a few through the sheer novelty of it. I imagine they're making their money back, but not by the barrel full in such a way as to encourage other manufacturers to invest in their own dedicated platform. Waiting for S&W, Glock, Springfield, Colt (uh...HA!) or someone like that to jump on the bandwagon when there's really no niche for this in the civilian world is probably going to go nowhere.

Maybe it's better for self-defense than a .22 (even with the neutered civilian ammo) if your grandmother really can't handle the recoil of a more effective round, and maybe it is fun to plink small game with for guys who don't mind paying for very expensive ammo, but those are pretty small market pockets to base a complete new design and manufacturing facility around.

I have shot one on two occasions, it is a very odd feeling handgun to shoot in my experience. I do not like the trigger, and all around it just did not feel right. I dislike that ammunition options are limited, and that the variety available to civilian use is "neutered" as Sam said.

I considered purchasing one at one point, but the cost of the high cost of the weapon and ammunition dissuaded me. A Kel Tec PMR-30 would be a decent alternative though; the price of the weapon is much less, and the ammunition is less expensive and much more plentiful.

You mean nobody can fathom the 5.7 round out of a P32 sized weapon?

"...but has slightly better kinetic energy than the .22LR..."

Please don't misrepresent this round. It is NOT "slightly better than a .22lr round". Projectile design and fps is far superior than a .22lr projectile. Do your homework and see for yourself.

Calling it a '22WMR' is very misleading as well.

The 5.7 , from a 5" handgun, has the same energy as a 22WMR from a 20" rifle. That is a serious caveat.

From a bolt action, like the Savage, it would be much closer to a 22 Hornet.

I wouldn't say it is as good as some of the other handgun rounds out there, 9mm, .40, .45, . . . but it is plenty dangerous.

As for the OP, I think all the options have been given.

I wish there was another option besides the FN. I wouldn't mind a handgun to go with my carbine. I like the round for small game hunting and have had some good times using the 5.7 pistol for that purpose. I'm not wild about the 5.7 pistol its self and nothing apart from it being the only game in town seems to justify its high price. If it cost what FN's other polymer pistols did, I'd probably have one. If some one offered a decent alternative I'd likely own one.

You mean nobody can fathom the 5.7 round out of a P32 sized weapon?

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You have to remember that the round was designed for the rifle first.

The problem witha rifle round is that when you shorten the barrel too much, you can develop instability. This is an issue with short AR, unless you use certain grain bullets.

I used to be the admin of the Fn Forum. I've done a LOT of reading over the years on this round. I really believe that if the barrel is too short, you will get some instability AND, more importantly, the round will not act the same at a lower velocity. You will have a lower velocity with a shorter barrel.

I don't think you will ever see a 5.7 pistol the size of the P32. Sorry.

I hate to use a tragedy as an arguement but the fort hood shooting did appear to indicate that the round is quite effective. Not to mention standard mags hold 20 mags. The rifle barrel the round was built for is only 10" so i would assume the charge is tailored for short barrels which helps when shooting from the 4.8" barrel of the pistol. My guess is that it will eventually become a more common round although some may be concerned with the politics surrounding a bullet designed to penetrate body armor bc of the "cop killer" implications.

"Please don't misrepresent this round. It is NOT "slightly better than a .22lr round". Projectile design and fps is far superior than a .22lr projectile. Do your homework and see for yourself."

Oops, yes, I wrote "slightly" because I was typing faster than I was thinking. Yes, the 5.7 is much more effective than .22lr (at least, according to ballistics tables. I've never used one to hunt or even against ballistics gel -- both punch paper just fine. =))

I would like to have a different option other than the 5.7. If there was a 500-600 range pistol. I could better justify getting a PS90 and a pistol for my wife. I don't really want to pick up the PS90 without a pistol companion. I prefer to have at least 2 options for each caliber I'm buying reloading supplies & dies for.

Hey, no problem whatsoever, DoomGoober. I've just seen people state that it is "basically a .22lr" and I just felt it necessary to make sure people know that is has much more power than that round.

I saw a person use a block of clay with this round. It's a nice way to show the hydrostatic shock of this fast moving round.

For me, I'm glad I have the pistol, and am confident in the round. However, it wouldn't replace my CZ SP-01 loaded up with 18 rounds of 147gr. Rangers.

maybe it is fun to plink small game with for guys who don't mind paying for very expensive ammo

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The 40gr V-max is usually under $20/50, a bargain actually for such a premium bullet. It'd be a lot more fun though with a FMJ at about $10/50.

Like had been said, my AR5.7 upper is my wife's next step up from the SIG 522.

A friend just picked one of these up not to long ago. It was very fun to shoot. What other caliber can these be related to ballistics-wise?