Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Improving the 5.7 FN by handloading

I've been really fascinated by the 5.7 FN pistol. Easy to carry, at 19 ozs. empty, and easy to shoot. Surprisingly potent as well. Shooting into my test media, a 2.5 gallon water containers that measures 9 H, 6 W, and almost 12 inches deep, it's pretty impressive. Blows out the front half and penetrates all the way to the back with both factory loads. The 40 gr., Hdy V-Max bullet, in spite of it's coming apart, raises a dipple on the back of the container.
Thinking I could get more penetration if I handloaded it, I bought a set of dies and gave it a try.
Factory 40 gr. V-Max ammo clocks 1729 fps. With handloads using the 40 gr. Sierra Hornet SP, even the starting loads with Ramshot's True Blue powder run 1813 fps. Their maximum loads run 1961 fps.
These loads do "improve" the 5.7's performance. Lining up two of the above water containers proved that quite well. The mid level load of 5.8 grs. of TB pushed the little bulloet all the way through both of them. The first jug was not blown apart like the factory V-Max load. It was, however expanded to the point where it lower seams ripped open for about an inch of so. This is only a little less than a .45 ACP, 230 FP FMJ load does to the same containers.
Full power 10mm or .44 magnum loads, using Hornady's XTP bullets actually don't penetrate this much. But do, however blow not the first but the second containers apart in a very spectacular fashion. At 15 feet, the shooter gets wet. The 5.7 does nothing like this.
Compared to the .22 Rimfire Magnum, when fired from a 5.5 inch barreled Ruger revolver, this load gives both more pentration and alot more damage to the water jug. Since the .22 RFM round has proven itself very effective on critters like ground squirrels and tough desert jack rabbits, I have no doubts about the effectiveness of the 5.7 with this bullet.
If you are considering reloading for this round, be warned. It is a critical round to load. Ramshot warns the reloader to test load it at .1 grain increments while watching for pressure signs and to follow the cartriage overall lenth specs exactly while developing loads for your gun.
The other problem is it tosses it's brass forward, not to the rear, at about 30 degrees from the muxzzle and it sails at least 15 feet before landing. Lots of fun to find after shooting. E

Wonder if it would stablize a 45 gr TSX?

I think it would, twist is 1/9 I believe.

Hmmmm. Might be an interesting experiment. Bet you couldn't get it going fast enough to expand though.

I found this out the other day...............


OK got the first video done.

45 gr Sierra soft point (not the hornet bullet)

Load was 10 gr of LILGUN for a velocity of 1900 fps or so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnZnqPJ_qKw

The bullet went through 5 water jugs, the 1/2" wooden backstop and bounced of the backstop!

Never recovered the bullet but the impression of the bullet on the shed wood looked perfectly oblong and showed no expansion.

I will be testing the 50 gr Nosler BT and the 40 gr Nosler BT next.

This thing is a penetrator from hell!

I'd have to see pressure data for any bullet before I'd try it in the 5.7.
I'm of the opinion that one needs some expansion for a 5.7 bullet to kill well.
This outstanding ability to penetrate was also noticed by the first users of the .22 Rimfire Magnum when it came out. Lion hunters, big game hunters, etc. used it to kill or finish off wounded stuff. Worked quite well.
That's probably because the bullets used for the .22 RFM were designed for rifle speeds of 1900-2000 fps. At the 1400 fps velocity it produced in a handgun, it held together and penetrated exceptionally well.
I'm going to do some more testing and then load up some of these for hunting, etc. E

You can buy full power 5.7mm from Elite and Clark Custom ammo.

Elite S4M= 28gr OTM @ 2500fps from Five SeveN pistol (about 360fpe)

Elite Protector I= 40gr Vmax @1900fps from Five SeveN pistol

Elite Protector II= 45gr Winchester Ballistic Silvertip @ 1800fps from Five SeveN pistol.

They have a lot of other loads too.

Many bullets designed for 223 velocities will not expand, but almost all of them tumble on impact. There are several rounds available that show either violent expansion (Elite Protector I, FN SS197SR), or controlled expansion (Elite Protector II).

The S4M round is both a tumbler and has a fragmentation effect.
Brassfetcher Ballistic lab did a independent gel test of S4M and stated in the summary that round for round it is slightly superior to Hydrashok .45 acp JHP in wounding potential.

S4M is what i keep loaded in my Five SeveN for defensive use.

50 gr CTBT

Big thanks to Fotis and E for posting this. I've been pondering the 5.7 for some time now.


Travis

Yep, 50gr, my bad.

I have 100rds each of Elite S4M, Protector I and Protector II. I also have a couple hundred rounds of the hot FN SS192 white box (28gr OTM @ 2100fps from FN Five SeveN).

The FN ss190fetch ridiculous prices in Gunbroker,

I picked the hornet bullets because they should expand more easily. Varmit hunters tell me that the soft point versions open well at 150-175 yds. when started at typical hornet velocities on stuff like ground squirrels.
I see no reason to use anything more than the 40 gr. Sierra soft point hornet bullet. According to Ramshot, it can be pushed to 1961 fps. with safe pressures. The 45 gr. bullet can be pushed to 1858 fps. Either of these should work quite well for alot of things.
I've used the .22 RF Magnum with the various 40 gr. HP loads on alot of small game over the years. Others have found it works well on head shot Mtn. Lions, and finishing off wounded deer, etc. It is not nearly as impressive as the above loads from the 5.7 on my test media. E

Did you recover anything?

No. I just loaded some more ammo with the 40 gr. SRA Hornet bullet. I'll need to line up three 2.5 gal jugs to catch one I guess. So, we'll see. E

The 40gr Vmax as used by FN in their SS197 (1750fps from FN57) and elite in their Protector I (1900fps from FN57) seems to do a lot of damage in gel tests. Just hand loading that would yield a very effective expanding and fragmenting round at a fraction of the price Elite charges for Protector I.

Both the 40 gr. V-Max and the non expanding 27 gr. mono metal HP load really blow apart the first half ot the 2.5 gal. water jugs I use to test ammo.
The 40 gr. V-Max comes apart while traveling the 12 inches to the other side of the jug, but still has enough left to dimple the back side.
I wanted something that held together and penetrated better. Frankly, I'm really surprised the little 40 gr. hornet bullet does so well out of the 5.7. E

There are Brassfetcher gel tests online for the Elite Protector and Elite S4M (28gr bullet used in SS192 and SS195, but driven at 2500fps from FN57 pistol), if you haven't seen them you'd probably find them very interesting.

If you're looking for deep penetration and controlled expansion with a non deviating wound tract, the Elite Protector II load with the Winchester Ballistic Silvertip showed that behavior in the Brassfetcher gel tests.'

Handloading your own rounds, you can pretty much replicate any of these loads yourself for a fraction of the cost.

I would like to see barnes come out with a solid copper TSX bullet specifically designed to expand in the 5.7mm's velocity range. Something in the 30-35 grain weight range. So far as i know there are no purpose designed bullets on the market for 5.7mm yet.

Good info guys. Thank you.

I don't know of any handloader 28 gr. bullets for the 5.7 or any other .22 round for that matter. But there is load data out there for the 35 gr. bullets. It's about 400 fps. short of that velocity.
The factory 28 gr. loads clock a little over 2000 fps.
Load data for both the short hornet bullets and for the longer 40 gr. V-Max bullets show a good bit less velocity possible for the longer V-Maxes at permiossable pressures.
All this leads me to believe that out of a 5 inch handgun, 2500 fps. with reasonable pressures is probably not possible. E

The factory 28gr loads clock at 1950fps(SS195LF), 2100fps(SS195 white box, SS192), and 2200 (SS198 LEO). All velocities for FN57 pistol.

Clark Custom Ammo sells 30gr Barnes Varmint Grenades loaded to about 2300fps, and Elite's S4M clocks in at about 2400-2500 (depends whose chrono results you go by- Gunblast.com reported 2520fps avg). Again, all results from FN57

If you want to reload the FN factory 28gr aluminum core OTM round you just have to pull it from loaded rounds, and reload it to the pressure required to get the velocity you're looking for.

PS: The FN57 barrel is 4.8". From slightly longer threaded barrels, S4M seems to clock at about 2550fps for most users that have chrono'd it. From a 16" AR57 barrel it clocks at close to 3200fps.

Elite's new 28gr Trident PFP round is also advertised at 2500+fps from the FN57 pistol.