Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 5.7x28mm Bolt Action rifle

I love the 5.7x28mm round and just found a very old thread on a custom Remington 700 in 5.7x28mm. https://www.fivesevenforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=11213

My question has anyone also done a bolt gun in this caliber? And who/what gunsmith do you think would tackle this job? I may do it if I could find one. Even the Ruger 77/22mag could be modified and rebarrled as a single shot 5.7x28…. Jump in anyone.

Interesting project. Seems like a Howa mini would be the ideal action for it. Would you reload for it?

No. Just shoot my factory ammo

Probably cheaper to just have MGM make me an encore barrel and call it a day.

I would strongly think that feed if is a repeater will be a problem. And ejection of rounds will be a problem as well.
Possibly a Sako A1 action would work, but they’re scarce and expensive.

When the 5.7X28MM came out a company made a bolt action rifle for it. But it never became popular

Do you remember what company?

Savage made a few Model 25s in 5.7 and an overseas company made a small bolt action. I have never seen any of them

DrDeath, correction on the bolt actions in 5.7MM. Rock Island made a bolt action in 22TCM and apparently Savage planned on a 5.7MM but it never went into production. Sorry about the mix up

All good
👍🏻

Found the old article
https://www.armoryblog.com/firearms/rifles/savage-boltaction-rifle-57x28mm-fn/

Im not aware of a suitable action

What barrel twist would you go with ? MGM is saying 1-7. CMMG and FN use 1-9.

If reloading was not a reason I'd rather get a 22 WMR. Getting the same uses of a 22 WMR in a cartridge that I could reload seems attractive to me, but without the motivation to reload the whole thing falls apart in my world.

Yes I know the 5.7 is a bit faster, but not enough to justify having one in favor of the 22 WMR. In the real-world both rounds would do the same jobs, each as well as the other.
And from what I am told the 22 WMR is less expensive for the ammo.

If "more power" than you can have with a 22 WMR is in anyway a reason to put a new barrel into a rifle or buy a different rifle I might suggest a 221 Fireball (easy to make from a 223 by re-shanking the original barrel and cutting a shorter chamber) or simply get a 223.

Interest in the numbers and comparison of one set of statistics to some other set is OK and it can be fun and enlightening, but from the aspect of a "Mission Statement" ("what do I do with this thing?") I find very little room for "new jobs" between the 22 WMR and the 223. Said another way: What job do I have to do that a 22 WMR is not powerful enough for, but that a 223 is too powerful for?

I don't have a clue what that job would be.

I've been after Ruger to offer the 77/22 in this cartridge. Seems a no-brainer. They'll offer it in .22 Hornet, but not this? Hell, I can get 5.7 ammo at my hometown hardware store. They probably haven't seen a box of Hornet ammo on their shelves since the 1940s......

I have a S&W pistol, have loaded some for it and can certify that the tiny bugger is a PITA to load, being very tiny, which makes it hard to check the powder level. In that general bracket, I much prefer the Hornet, and would also consider a .221 or .222.

I’m curious about what sort of accuracy a bolt gun might provide. My Smith is strictly duty-grade in that respect. Was hoping for better for use on small critters, but now it’s a PD piece, with Holosun and laser/light combo.

That RIA rifle hasn’t impressed me, based on a couple of reviews, but I suppose it’s a good companion piece for their pistol.

built one on a Remington 591 with a shilen barrel, nice light weight rifle, fun to shoot PITA to load, just make sure you wet tumble all the lacquer off the case, gum up your dies

I've read (over a Saubier.com I believe) guys using the Remington 580 (single-shot bolt-action 22LR) to build 22 Hornets. Would have to be converted from rimfire to centerfire firing pin.

I too was excited when RIA came out with their 22 TCM rifle, the accuracy in the reviews I saw was disheartening at best.

Without the ability to reload I too would probably just opt for a 22 Magnum. But with reloading in the mix you have a lot of options for bullets and can tune your load for what you want to do... edible game, coyotes, rodents, accuracy, etc.

Jerry

i make a 22 mag off of a 580 single shot before using a ER Shaw barrel

Let me preface this with 'this ain't no bullshit'. I setup at gun shows once or twice monthly. I spoke with a man at one show that modified a rem 580. He works at a cnc shop and apparently has run of the shop. He got a set of prints from somewhere and made several 580 bolt heads for 5.7x28 case. He has made 5 or 6 rifles. Said he wanted a reloadable 22 lr. I furnished him with some 42.5 gr. Powder coated cast bullets. He shoots them at around 1100 - 1150 fps, says they give him 1 in groups at 100yds. He swears he head shoots squirrels with that load. Says it is extremely quiet and deadly.
I asked him why he went to all that trouble, 'because I can' was his reply. Sounds like a good enough excuse for me.

That sounds like a real fun project.

l use AA#7, 7.7gr shoots at 3/8" @ 100 yards. specs on the rifle, Remington 591, Shilen match stainless with a 1-12" twist @ 24" contoured to match the 591 profile, have a 541 trigger in it, a nice 1 pound trigger pull, gun weight at 6 pounds 5 ounce with Leupold 4x12, nice walking gun

1-12 twist huh?

FN and CMMG use 1-9 in their rifles. And pistols

wonder why? i use 40 nosler ballistic tip, sure wasent thinking of shooting a bullet as long as the case

Kevin Weaver has a reamer for it and a couple of the necked down .17's as well. I thought about a 17 velociraptor for a min or two.

I looked into this quite a bit because I was thinking about buying a 5.7 pistol. The problem is doing a bolt gun in one doesn't make much sense. The reason is the case isn't really viable to reload. You have such little brass around the primer. Ammo for 5.7 is pretty spendy and take away that option for the cartridge being suited to reloading and its not as cool as it may sound, all to have something that duplicates a 22 hornet more or less..

75gr eld in a 221 fireball would be entertaining.

I bought the S&W, plus all the goodies needed to load for it, including the Sheridan cutaway gauge, but found the process pretty tedious, unlike the Hornet which has been about as easy as it gets for me. Now that ammo is getting cheaper, in particular the stuff from AAC (PSA), it’s not worth my time and the stress over the chance of double-charging that fast powder in the tiny case. The ones I did reload worked perfectly, aside from one case neck left in the chamber from some once-fired brass I bought. The S&W has a locked breech, so the brass shouldn’t take as much abuse as it does in the blowback guns.

So far, that pistol hasn’t lived up to my hopes about accuracy, being pretty much “service grade”, and tends to toss the first one out of the mag a bit high. Now it’s relegated to being a hi-cap house, carry, and trail pistol. It is very reliable with factory ammo and easy to rack, with a great trigger for a Tupperware®️ pistol, and makes enough noise to scare off just about anything.