What is the 5.7x 28 good for ?

Was dinking around yesterday and ordered a 5.7 x 28, was a spur of the moment purchase. It’ll be one of the many that probably won’t get shot much but the sale was to good to skip. But honestly what do guys use these for. I know the government intentions for these were for white tipped armour piercingrounds.? But civilian use is ?
I’ll probably just shoot steel plates at the farm with this gun. And being rounds are steep it probably won’t get shot to much, but I always like adding to the collection either way.

In a handgun it’s good for wasting money faster than with 9mm.

It’s fast & flat. Very fun to shoot with basically no recoil. What would an outdoorsman use it for? Idk. That’s up to the user. Whatever you do, keep buying them!! We just pumped out 15,000 21rnd & 23rnd mags for Thrill & Ruger. I’d like to post a pic of the Progression Die we made. It’s pretty neat but the boss would probably can me for posting pics of our dies on the interwebs..

My son wants to get an FN 5.7 handgun. I had never even heard of it before but apparently its in some video games he has played. After mentioning it I watched some videos and that handgun is pretty dang impressive. Yes, ammo is spendy, but like others have mentioned next to no recoil and unreal velocity and penetration. I was told that secret service and armored vehicle staff use these as it will pierce bulletproof glass. No idea if that is true or not.

CaptainMusky wrote:

My son wants to get an FN 5.7 handgun. I had never even heard of it before but apparently its in some video games he has played. After mentioning it I watched some videos and that handgun is pretty dang impressive. Yes, ammo is spendy, but like others have mentioned next to no recoil and unreal velocity and penetration. I was told that secret service and armored vehicle staff use these as it will pierce bulletproof glass. No idea if that is true or not.

It is true, but that is with rounds not available to the general public.

Ah that makes sense and probably a good thing.

CaptainMusky wrote:

Yes, ammo is spendy, but like others have mentioned next to no recoil and unreal velocity and penetration. I was told that secret service and armored vehicle staff use these as it will pierce bulletproof glass.

The impressive stats of 5.7 is mostly from longer barrels (it was designed for PDWs) and/or with ammo not available to the general public.

In a handgun, for the purposes of personal protection, it’s trash imo. Lower energy, lower penetration, and bad expansion compared to 9mm. Read the results here for an example. https://www.ammoman.com/blog/testing-5-7-vs-9mm/

Excerpts:
30 grain 5.7mm FN JHP
Shot 1: 10 inches of penetration
Shot 2: 10 inches of penetration
Shot 3: 9.5 inches of penetration

All three rounds we recovered from the gel failed to expand.

This will be used more so for plinking at longer distances. They look to shoot very nicely at the 75 yard to 100 yard mark unlike the 9mm. And that’s kind of why I bought it.
Actually not really lol I bought it just for shits and giggles.

Good to know Reef! I am not handgun savvy in the least. My buddy has an FN 57 and he really likes it. Offered to let my son shoot it but things just havent worked out to have that happen. I told him I would buy a box of ammo since I knew it was spendy and hard to find.

Sometimes those oddball guns turn out to be the most fun.

Bearcat89 wrote:

This will be used more so for linking at longer distances. They look to shoot very nicely at the 75 yard to 100 yard mark unlike the 9mm. And that’s kind of why I bought it.
Actually not really lol I bought it just for shits and giggles.

It’s good for that. Someone let me shoot theirs for one event in an IDPA event many years ago and it was great when all that matters is making a “ding”. I don’t know what prices are now but, at the time anyways, I was very glad it was someone elses ammo

Bearcat89 wrote:

Actually not really lol I bought it just for shits and giggles.

That’s the best excuse I’ve heard in a while. Kind of like I feel when I buy another carry 9mm.

Federal ammo is .50 cents a shot. So it’s no like it’s out of this world spendy. Spendy enough where it won’t be shot alot, but cheap enough that on shooting day this thing will be shot. And that’s not buying in bulk. I’m guessing buying in bulk would drop 12 cents off per round.

Bearcat89 wrote:

But honestly what do guys use these for.

If you figure out what this cartridge is really good for, you’ve got to promise to let us know. Because honestly, I have no idea. This cartridge has always impressed me as the ultimate in solutions looking for a problem.

The origin story is that the 5.7×28 came out of an effort to produce a cartridge that would penetrate body armor. The idea was to find a cartridge for military personnel whose roles would prevent them from carrying a conventional rifle. Even with this rather narrow original scope of use, I have serious doubts whether the cartridge they designed would actually suit this role.

I would hazard a guess that if you are completely under siege by woodchucks digging up your lawn and had absolutely no other weapon other than a slingshot this handgun cartridge might be a good option. Beyond that…no idea.

Long distance pistol shooting is good enough for me. I found ammo for 37 cents a round. Ordered a 1000. I can’t seem to find a reason why it wouldn’t be fun. YouTube videos make me want to definitely get a red dot and push yardage to the max

TheFamousGrouse wrote:

I would hazard a guess that if you are completely under siege by woodchucks digging up your lawn and had absolutely no other weapon other than a slingshot this handgun cartridge might be a good option. Beyond that…no idea.

Grouse as always, some great insight on things.

BC it sounds super fun to shoot, let me know when your hitting the range I will chip in on some ammo.

We have one guy running one for large bore bullseye league. It’s very flat, very little recoil, and slings some nice fireballs.

Would love an sbr’d ps90 personally but it’s not even on my top ten to buy list.

There is no reason to not buy a gun imo, so you are already doing just fine!

Check out grand thumb’s video on the 5.7 the gel results were okay. Doesn’t do better than 9mm or 5.56 but as mentioned above without the real deal AP ammo it was designed around it kinda missed the mark.

But it’s fun as hell to shoot!

KPE wrote:

Check out grand thumb’s video on the 5.7 the gel results were okay. Doesn’t do better than 9mm or 5.56 but as mentioned above without the real deal AP ammo it was designed around it kinda missed the mark.

But it’s fun as hell to shoot!

Yes the 5.7 would be a terrible choice in a carry weapon. The 9mm will still be on my belt. I will most likely waste money shooting steel plates with this at 100 plus yards and seeing what I can do from that point on. I know my 9mm wouldn’t have a chance at that range unless I figured out the rainbow shot.