FN 57 - good, bad, indifferent?

Local dealer has one for a pretty good price and been thinking about buying it though I don't know much about the thing. How are they for durability, reliability or whatever? It seemed really lightweight, how is the recoil? Any really good or bad things?

 

Durability is impossible to say as the gun is too new.
Reliability is outstanding. Zero problems.
Recoil is light. The full grip and small round make it easy to shoot.
Good things:
The magazines are the best, I love them, easy to load, 20 rounds or thirty.
Pretty accurate.
The cleanest round I've every used.

Bad things:
The pistol is expensive
The ammo is expensive...no cheap practice rounds.
The trigger could be better.
Some ranges will not allow it to be used.

I paid $700, bought more as a collectable and interesting, unique gun. A little big for CCW, but as a sidearm it has potential.

 

IMHO Gooooo For It!!!

 

+1, generally.

I've been carrying it around and shooting it a bit (2K so far, mostly at little critters and rocks). Reliability has been perfect.

I hate the trigger. It's bad. It gets better over time, but it's not a glass rod by any stretch of the imagination. More like a green twig.

Accuracy's not great. Someone has to have a match barrel for it planned, and maybe a trigger upgrade. I'd buy.

 

Good:

Zero malfunctions

Magazines load like a rifle magazine. Double stack, double feed and 20 rounds.

Powerful cartridge. It kicks like a 9mm with the intensity of a .357 mag. A mini mushroom cloud of flames erupt form the muzzle.

I really don’t think the ammo is that expensive. About $20 for 50 rounds. And all ammo is carry quality. There’s no buying practice rounds and then carry rounds. All rounds are carry rounds. $20 for 50 rounds of carry ammo is a good deal.

I have to agree with the above. Cleanest round I’ve ever fired.

Buy one now and get 200 rounds of free ammo from FN.


Bad:

Magazine disconnect.

Magazine has a tendency to pop out just slightly when I’m carrying it. Bad combo with the above.

My Surefire X200B doesn’t lock all the way back to the trigger guard. It has to go up one click. I have long fingers but even so it is about as far forward as I would want.

Safety is a little to close for my long fingers. The worst of both for me.


Hope this helps, Dan

 

I guess you could say that I am indifferent about this pistol. I am still trying to figure out why I need to pay 900 dollars for an upgraded high-capacity .22?

There's gotta be something to this, I just haven't figured it out yet. I have fired it and thought it was ok.

I am thinking that this would be the perfect platform for a 7.62 Tokarev double-stack pistol.

 

Thanks for all the responses.... From what I have read the only model available to civilians is DA only which would explain the trigger being a bit iffy?

 

20 rounds is awesome but I hate the looks of the thing and I've heard less than stellar reports about the terminal ballistics of that 5.7mm out of such a short barrel.

 

If you want to read about the terminal ballistic's of the 5.7x28 round you can ckeck out the Five-seveN forum.
http://fivesevenforum.net/showthread.php?t=7348
I do have one of these pistols but haven't shot it much yet, only about 40 rounds through it. This pistol must have potential if there are LE agencies using them. Also the original ammo for it, the SS190 is supposed to be able to penetrate up to level 3 body armor, which is only avalible to the Military & police departments. I myself like the gun so far but I must admit I would like to see a pistol made for this cartridge that is made out of a metal alloy frame instead of the plastic. LM

 

pro's
light weight
accuarte
reliable
nice trigger
manual safety in a great location,
20rd mags which it comes with 3
recoil what recoil?
no issues form my buddies but it has had only about 300rds through it.

cons
high price of ammo
high price of the gun.

conclusion
they are neat and they are fun too shoot but they are a litle much for me to spend on a handgun that i thin is neat. i will continue to shoot my buddies but i won't buy one myself.

 

I have heard the same thing about the trigger, I guess we just have to wait for the 'smiths to start playing with this thing.

I have put a few rounds through one and cannot remember falling that hard and fast for a handgun. I cleaned out the safe a while back and beginning to fill it back up again. This will be my second or third handgun purchase.

The first will be a Taurus 1911B or a SIG GSR. I am all about adopting new ideas (the FiveseveN) so long as I can do a New York Reload to the tried and the tested (1911).

I finally joined after lurking for forever and I just want to say that I have gotten a lot out of all the info on the sight. Thanks and I look forward to sending you all way too many PMs asking questions and seeking advice.

 

Bad:
Expensive gun and ammunition.
Trigger wasn't that great for such an expensive gun.
Seems a poor choice for a CCW, too large, but that may not be your intention.
What use is the extra capacity? With a handgun I want to stop a fight in as few shots as possible.

Good:
Ummmmm . . . I can't think of any because I had a negative impression of the thing after I had a chance to handle and shoot it, and so did the owner of it that let me try it out. YMMV.

jm

 

Why is this?

 

other than the fact that it can not make powerfactor for uspsa or idpa for that matter. I have read accounts of swat team members shooting a suspect and walking past the downed guy thingking he was dead only to have the guy get up a few minutes later and try running off.

a 40 gr bullet going a mear 2000fps = 80 powerfactor 9mm easily beats this its more equivilent to a 380.

 

I have a USG model and it is Single Action with a safety lever in front of the trigger. These guns are hammer fired. The slide must be racked to cock the hammer in order to fire the FN 5.7 the trigger only releases the hammer does not cock it. The trigger is just crappy.

To start with it will kill all the local Zombies outright on the first shot. Stories abound about the rounds ability to penetrate 50 inches of steel and set fire to monkeys stuff like that. I use a outdoor all steel target shooting range where people shoot the targets with full house 44 mag loads from 7 yards but no 5.7X28 it will set the monkeys on fire.

 

The two reasons I've been given are;
It does damage to the backstop and,
The round generates too much splash-back.

Not my range so I follow his rules.

 

I feel this round is better suited to rifles. I don't feel comfortable packing of what amonuts to .22mag rifle ballistics as my primary gun. The gun looks neat though which may be justfication enough for some.

W/O the AP ammo which is unavailable to "civilians" I feel the gun loses much of it's purpose.

 

Accurate, reliable with zip for recoil!

The cartridge is gutless however, it's a .22WRM.

The round won't faze a steel plate while a 9mm ball round will knock down same plate.

 

Check out the forum mentioned above. There is additional ammo available from a different company. Elite is the name, and they are supposed to be pretty good.

 

Of course it won't knock down a steel plate the same as a larger heavier bullet. If you are worried about fighting off steel plates don't buy it.

It is however more powerful than a .22mag

The SS195 especially is a unique round, it has an aluminum core and will tumble shortly after impact.

 

I had a Five seveN for a while and used it on quite a few varmint sized animals. The round is slightly more than a 22 mag, but less that 22 Hornet. Who cares if it can penetrated kevlar. So can an ice pick. That has exactly zero to do with terminal performance. After seen a couple of rabbit with torso hots hop away, I have little interest for this round. If someone put it into a bolt action rifle, I'd see no problem using it on gophers and the like.

It's a cool pistol - at first. For the same amount of money you can buy something decent, with change left over.

YMMV

 

The longer barrel doesn't help it much there either.

I've found it to be fun to shoot but I don't think its a good choice for a defensive gun.

 

Picture sums this up I'm tired of arguing it's power

Google 5.7mm wounding or items like that, I'd CCW it.
Edit: Borrowed Pic

 

I've heard people say that about many calibers but I don't feel it's an argument with much merit. Obviously I'd not want to be shot with anything. Can I shoot you with my wimpy .22short pocket pistols?

 

I prefer my FN 9. I cant wait to get to VA to find a holster for it.