FN FiveSeven - a heck of a fun gun ...

[Mike P Wagner]

In August, I gave myself a retirement/birthday present and bought an FN FiveSeven. Due to competition with the Ruger 57, the price dropped significantly - down to $999 at my local gun shop, and I had never owned a FN quality firearm before - or a polymer pistol.

I picked up thee more FN magazines for it - when the price dropped to $999, it only came with two mags instead of three, and I wanted to have five 20 rounds in case something happened in November that would limit my access to 20 round magazines.

Now that I am retired, I have regular day at the range - I can go mid afternoon when no one else is there, and I am having a hoot with this pistol.

My other pistol is an Armalite AR-24 15C, which is am all steel Turkish made CZ 75 variant I bought over a decade ago. For those who care about details, the AR 24 was an Sarsilmaz Kilinc 2000 LIGT that Armaite rebranded and imported in early 2000s.

The AR 24 was fun to shoot, but the FN FiveSeven is whole other world. It feels smoother - though I haven’t noticed the reduction in recoil as much as I would have expected. Recoil was not a big issue with the AR 24 - maybe because it is all steel - and it’s not an issue with the FiveSeven.

I bought a Mantis X3 trainer for the FN - it clamps on the Picatinny rail in the front and basically measures muzzle movement before and after the break. It cannot help with the sight picture, but it can definitely diagnose trigger pull issues - both dry fire and live fire.

I think that I have decided to focus on accurately shooting the FiveSeven for a while - until I can shoot it as accurately as it can be shot - and then move back and forth between the AR 24 and the FiveSeven.

The ammo is expensive and hard to get right now - but I think that’s true of most ammo. I have noticed that more different ammo has become available on AmmoSeek in the last last couple of weeks, and prices are going down some. For a while, about all that was available was the American Eagle range ammo, then the FN LF hollow point started showing up, then some of the FN SR V-Max, and in the last week, some Speer Gold Dot. I hope that means that the ammo shortage is slowly ending and the prices will start to come down.

The only downside is that I one of other retirement goals was to get back into reloading, and I don’t know if I will ever reload 5.7x28 - it seems that for everyone who says “No problem, I have reloaded 1000s of rounds” there is at a least one person who had found that damage to the case polymer coating is causing lots of FTE issues. I am also nervous about the margin of error on the powder measure. I learned to reload with LC 45 in a Ruger Blackhawk. I was pretty paranoid about powder measure accuracy, but I think that round in that firearm was pretty darn forgiving. So I expect that if I do in fact get back into reloading, it will be 9mm in my AR 24.

The long and the short of it is that the FN FiveSeven has been a heckuva a lot to fun to shoot. I am very happy with my birthday present to myself.

 

[ms6852]

Buying the FN five/seven is on my bucket list too. I got hooked on shooting my PMR30 because it is poa at 100 yards and had heard from another FN shooter that his was basically poa at 100 yards too, possibly further. I got side tracked by the 10mm bug and purchased the Springfield TRP with the long slide 6" barrel which I always wanted in a 1911, and when I had saved the money for the FN the panic buying momentum had basically wiped out everything for the short term. Now its a waiting game for me. Glad to hear you are having a hoot shooting it.

 

[FL-NC]

They are amazing pistols. I was seriously thinking about getting one or the new Ruger to compliment my PS90. The thing is, with the availability and price of ammo, it really distracts from the "fun" factor. Every time I squeeze a round off, I hear that cash register noise. I have been considering selling both the carbine and the ammo stash I have for it.

 

[12Bravo20]

They are amazing pistols. I was seriously thinking about getting one or the new Ruger to compliment my PS90. The thing is, with the availability and price of ammo, it really distracts from the "fun" factor. Every time I squeeze a round off, I hear that cash register noise. I have been considering selling both the carbine and the ammo stash I have for it.

I felt the same way a few years back about the expense and availability of 5.7 ammo. I had a 57AR upper and sold it. At the time I thought I could do without the 5.7 since I had plenty of AR's in 5.56 and 22LR. I now wish that I would have kept the 57AR upper.

I always wanted a FN57 pistol but the cost was a bit much for me. I am glad that Ruger came out with their 5.7 pistol. Competition and more pistol choices is always good in my book.

 

[bannockburn]

FL-NC

The thing is, with the availability and price of ammo, it really distracts from the "fun" factor. Every time I squeeze a round off, I hear that cash register noise.

That's the frame of mind I had when looking at PS90s. After spending all that money on the gun, spare mags, and ammo, seems like all I would be thinking about is how much is this range session going to cost me! I'd probably feel the same way with the pistol too!

 

[Mars5l]

I want a Ruger 57 but lately it seems the price is far from a FN depending were you shop. PSA has the Ruger for $830 last I looked. I keep holding out for that "$550-$600" new retail all the release videos said but probably not for a long time. I sit on 450 rds of ammo I bought pre-covid. Looks like now I can flip it for double, which is tempting just to buy another gun in a caliber I have or pay off a bill. I look on Ammoseek and its going for $2 a rd at some places, Targetsports had it a $1 a round and all was gone in a few days

 

[748]

They are nice. I got mine before they were cool and still under $900.
Now I have the SFN silencer and it's way more cool.

 

[Riomouse911]

A friend of mine bought the Ruger 57 and loves it.

He said he learned the hard way not to use it on steel plates, after a few rounds he realized he was chewing up the plates at a local range so he quit shooting steel with it. Apparently someone else had previously shot up some of the plates at the range so they're probably going to ban the use of the 5.7 handguns on those ranges. On paper targets he says it's like firing a laser beam; just point and shoot.

He has the same concerns you all do when deciding what gun he'll take to the range since ammo isn't easy to locate, internet purchasing is a pain here in Ca. He said that even when he can find it, it's in a limited amount on the shelf and pricy.

Congrats on retirement (I'll hopefully be there someday) and in finding a grail gun as a reward for a job well done .

Stay safe.

 

[Targa]

Congrats Mike on the gun and retirement. I rented the FiveSeven at my range and you are dead on, it is a heck of a fun gun.

 

[golden]

A couple of years ago, I rented a Five-Seven and was impressed with it. I found only 1 thing that I was dissatisfied with it and that was the single action trigger. I do not like single action triggers on defense pistols. I note that the new RUGER 5.7 pistol has a GLOCK style safe action. Hopefully, this competition will bring down the prices of both guns.

I also noted the noise was considerable, like a 9m.m. +P.

Jim

 

[Mike P Wagner]

They are amazing pistols. I was seriously thinking about getting one or the new Ruger to compliment my PS90. The thing is, with the availability and price of ammo, it really distracts from the "fun" factor. Every time I squeeze a round off, I hear that cash register noise. I have been considering selling both the carbine and the ammo stash I have for it.

For right now, the ammo is not out of reach for me - but I sure will be happy when the prices start to come down a bit.

 

[usp9]

I picked up a used 5.7 a few years ago for $700 along with about 1000 rounds at $15 a box. A deal I couldn't pass up. Interesting gun. Certainly well made and reliable. Though never a favorite gun it is fun and well worth having. The muzzle flash alone is worth the price and the recoil so gentle.

Enjoy your new FN.