At the range today, I picked up a fired case in the grass, that once I put on my reading glasses, it was labeled 5.7 x 28 on the bottom..
At first it looked like a fat 17 HMR case...

The size of it, I am sure it is a varmint shooters cartridge.. I have heard of it, but this is my first contact at all with it...

Anyone familiar with it? Looks too small to be a necked down 30 Carbine Case....

But it sure looked like a very efficient little varmint case! Plus it is reloadable!!!!

thanks!

FN military cartridge made for NATO.

Small .224 calibre cartridge.

Type 5.7 x 28 into www.google.com and hit return.

.224 40gn VMax at about 2,034fps is no fireball next to a .223 which is about 5.7 x 45 as a comparison.

As a base for a .20 or .17 wildcat it would be a much stronger case than a Hornet (BTW I shoot .17 Ackley Hornet) and interesting to play with.

One of the gun shops in Duarte CA was selling a fair number of the auto pistols in this cartridge. roger

Cartridge FN designed for the P90 submachine gun. Ballistics about like a .22 Hornet with bullet that has a steel/aluminum core. The millitary loading is supposed to penetrate body armor at some extreme range. The domestic loading is a fmj without any penetrator.

Mere mortals can buy a semiauto version of the P90 and the FN 5 7 pistol.

One of those things that there's no real reason to own except that they're fun and because we can.

A few people have chambered the 5.7x28 in rifles, but there is a lack of appropriate actions for cartridges this size (and for .22 Hornet, .218 Bee, etc. I might add).

I can't understand manufacturers not taking advantage of the market to build some small centerfire actions like the former Kimber 82 and Sako 72/78 for rounds like this one.

I just hate to use an action that's big enough for a .358 Winchester for a .22 Hornet, but that's what most manufacturers do.

Well Vince, thanks for the tip, but I already did that....

Stoney...

I did see on Midway's site that they have a couple of Shilen barrels for a Remington action that were chambered for the cartridge...

They also have a Remington Bolt Body that is modified with a Sako extractor for us with the cartridge and even a Benchrest Follower that fits the 5.7 x 28 for a Model 700 SA...

However, I would love it in an FN Pistol.. the round as a rifle round seems not real practical based on brass availability...

A 221 Fireball can be loaded to those same performance specs.. or should I say, downloaded...

I also can download a 223 using 10 grains or so of Blue Dot and a 40 grain bullet...

I am quickly talking myself out of it, but what it does seems interesting and I can accomplish the same in a rifle...

Brass for the 5.7 doesn't seem to be too much of a problem. There's plenty of it on ebay, and loaded ammunition is becoming readily available. True, it may not do anything you can't do with a downloaded .221, but I would consider it a modernized replacement for the Hornet. It would be a really interesting cartridge if necked to .20 caliber.

But as I indicated before, I'm not interested in putting such a diminuative cartridge in a relatively huge Rem 700 action.

Brass and ammo is not too hard to find. I have the reamer and did a conversion on a CZ527 a while back for a customer. It's a lot of work for a reduction in performance compared to the Hornet it was, but it's what he wanted. Feeding is a problem too.

quote:

Originally posted by SWD:
Brass and ammo is not too hard to find. I have the reamer and did a conversion on a CZ527 a while back for a customer. It's a lot of work for a reduction in performance compared to the Hornet it was, but it's what he wanted. Feeding is a problem too.

SWD,
thanks for the update on that...

Things seem like a good idea.. but a little thought and a little research can work wonders... in both directions...

I am just going back to the idea I can handload a 223 to those levels and I already have those on hand...

SWD..

I gather you are gunsmith then??

Yes, I'm a full time gunsmith. I'm the rifle side of the well known pistolsmith, Jack Huntington's shop. I work, live and play with guns. It's a rough life, but somones gotta do it!

quote:

Originally posted by SWD:
Yes, I'm a full time gunsmith. I'm the rifle side of the well known pistolsmith, Jack Huntington's shop. I work, live and play with guns. It's a rough life, but somones gotta do it!

Well welcome to the forum SWD, and we look forward to you sharing your wealth of information with the rest of us Sweathogs!

seafire

quote:

Originally posted by SWD:
Brass and ammo is not too hard to find. I have the reamer and did a conversion on a CZ527 a while back for a customer. It's a lot of work for a reduction in performance compared to the Hornet it was, but it's what he wanted. Feeding is a problem too.

Yeah I can see how factory ammo would be a sizable reduction in performance, but what most people don't get is that all the published performance data is for
1) factory loaded ammo
2) ammo that has to funtion properly in the straight blowback action of the P-90.
3) Plus it's fired from less than rifle length barrels.
This is a heavy walled case, unlike the hornet. So handloads can push way past the factory limits..well maybe not WAY past it. LOL. It is still a small case. But I can also see where an action originally designed to feed the larger diameter rimmed Hornet might have some difficulty with the small diameter straighter walled case of the 5.7mm. So what we need is someone to come out with a bolt action with a dedicated magazine desined to handle this round. in any caliber it can be wildcatted into - from 14 caliber to .270

I had one of the FN Pistols, it would not knock over my steel plates at 11 yards with the factory 40gr ammo, and barely pushed them over with the 28.5gr stuff. In contrast, a 380 95gr FMJ pushes them over easily every time.

But in a Contender carbine, it should be great fun on sage rats.