A modern-day 22 Hornet?

[charlesb]

Ever since reading about FN's 5.7x28mm cartridge, designed to replace the 9mm pistol cartridge for the Belgian military forces, I have been curious about its viability as a sporting cartridge.

My theory was that what we have here is a modernized 22 Hornet with a stronger case that will take many more reloads than the venerable Hornet while providing similar if not the same performance.

Yesterday at the shooting range, my son came to me with an unidentified piece of brass that he picked up there. I whipped out my magnifying glass to read the tiny letters on the base and discovered that I was looking at the elusive 5.7x28mm cartridge brass.

So - naturally I could not wait to get it home and compare it to a piece of 22 Hornet brass.

( Click image to see it bigger )



A bit less case capacity - but it operates at higher pressure.

All of the data I have found for the 5.7x28mm shows velocities from a pistol barrel. - Does anyone know of a a quote concerning rifle velocities with this cartridge?

To my knowledge, there is only one 5.7x28 sporting rifle at this time, the Savage model 25, which is a great rifle but a bit too pricey for me at 700 bucks or so.

Just for fun, I stuck a 55 grain V-Max bullet in the empty 5.7x28mm case. - It looked like one of those "whisper" rounds because it was too much bullet for the case. - I can imagine what it would look like with a 70 grn bullet stuck out front!

I think I remember 35 grn as the heaviest bullet shown in reloading data for the 5.7x28. For my purposes light bullets would be best, to cut down on the potential for ricochet.

It sure looks like it would be great around the farm, for the kind of shooting I end up doing with my 17HMR. - But reloadable.

Neck it down to .17 caliber and I bet we would have a fairly popular wildcat, a lot like a scaled-down .223 Winchester.

[bgreenea3]

http://www.brassfetcher.com/SS195%20FMJ ... hing).html


Cartridge : SS195 FMJ and SS197 ballistic tip

Firearm : FN PS90 rifle and FN 5.7 (5.7x28mm) pistol

Block calibration : Depths corrected where noted (From 9.4cm @ 587 ft/sec)

The SS195 and SS197 cartridges were tested from both a 5.7x28mm rifle and handgun against bare gelatin and heavily-clothed gelatin (4 layers of 14.1 ounce denim fabric) at 10' distance.

Shot 1 - FN PS90 firing SS197 at bare gelatin. Shot impacted at 2054 ft/sec, penetrated to 9.6" (corrected) and was recovered at 26.9gr weight and 0.373" average diameter.

Shot 2 - FN PS90 firing SS197 at heavy clothing. Shot impacted at 2063 ft/sec, penetrated to 9.2" (corrected) and was recovered at 23.2gr weight and 0.352" average diameter. Please note that the maximum penetration depth was for a small bullet fragment - the major part of the bullet penetrated to 9.0" depth (corrected).

Shot 3 - FN 5.7 firing SS197 at heavy clothing. Shot impacted at 1932 ft/sec, penetrated to 10.6" (corrected) and was recovered at 25.8gr weight and 0.312" average diameter.

Shot 4 - FN PS90 firing SS195 at heavy clothing. Shot impacted at 2128 ft/sec, penetrated to 9.9". Bullet tumbled at 1.2" penetration and righted itself at ~ 5.6" depth. Bullet recovered in one piece at 27.8gr weight.

Shot 5 - FN 5.7 firing SS195 at heavy clothing. Shot impacted at 1999 ft/sec, penetrated to 9.3" depth with total core/jacket separation. Bullet tumbled at ~ 4.0" penetration and the core and jacket separated tracks at ~ 6.7" depth.


Looks like in his tests yo get about 150-200fps from a semi auto carbine than a pistol.... I've seen Ar uppers for the 5.7 round the 50 round ps90 mag goes on the top and the mag well ends up being your ejection port... looks cool but a bit pricey

[bgreenea3]

now if someone made an m1 carbine type rifle that shot the 5.7x28mm.... (or keltec did up their sub2000 in that cartridge....) and it used the already available 5seven magazines, that might ba a nice rifle to plink with if they kept the price down to $600 or less......

[charlesb]

Savage is supposed to be offering the model 25, a three-lug bolt action in 5.7x28, but at this writing I haven't seen a review on one.

I'd be more interested in a bolt action, or even a single-shot than I would a self-loader.

Volume of fire is seldom a factor in farm pest control, but accuracy can be critical if you are wanting to nail the possum or wild dog, but not put a hole in any of your valuable buildings or equipment.

Besides that, I'd be embarrassed to walk around my property in the mornings with a black rifle, like I was hoping for a shot at some commie paratroopers.

The neighbors would think that I was a nut case, or maybe feel that an earlier suspicion was verified.

[charlesb]

I got a report that Savage will not be chambering anything in 5.7x28 in the near future.

The story is that they never could get decent accuracy with that round, with the barrels they had available. - Something about the twist not working out for the lighter bullets, I would guess.

On the other hand, I am seeing T/C contender pistol barrels in 5.7x28, so it would not be too much of a stretch to expect Contender or Encore rifle barrels soon.

Now that chamber reamers for 5.7x28 are easier to rent or buy, we'll start seeing conversions and custom firearms.

Now that Savage has dropped out, Ruger may end up beating everyone else out in producing a sporting firearm in this caliber.

Ream out the throat and utilize 70 grn bullets for a quick 'n easy .223 Whisper.