I remember reading about a pistol that was being developed that fired a very small projectile at a rifle like velocity, with very little recoil. I think I just saw one on a t.v. show and was trying to remember who was making them, and if they will be available to the public. I thought it might be Steyr or HK.  THANKS

FN is marketing the Five seVen, firing the same flea-sized cartridge as the FN PDW.  Also, there was a British firm that was developing its own necked down 10mm .224 BOZ cartridge to be used in subguns and conventional 1911/Glock 20 pistols with cut-out slides.  

The BOZ uses some of the .224 bullets that the 5.56mm Nato round uses, and I think the dimensions are readily available.  Marketing a pistol cartridge that is intended to penetrate soft armor is going to be unlikely, but I bet there's someone out there who has rigged one up for private use.  

The Five seveN's bullet velocity isn't that extreme.  I don't know what it is, but it's not like 2500-4000 fps or anything.

There is an outfit in CA selling boxes of saboted .223 bullets in the necked Tokarev round for $20.  Kind of like the poor man's 5.7mm round.  The guy says it really extends the reach of your Tokarev or CZ-52.

Thanks, I think it was the FN I read about. I did'nt realize the problems involved with it having the ability to penetrate soft bodyarmor.  I'm still curious about the bullet weight and velocity though. This gun I saw on t.v. looked like a Steyr M Series but had a tiny muzzle which caught my eye.

The Five seveN (thanks for the correct capitalization, Raven  :) )is similar to the Steyr M series in that it is definitely futuristic looking.  A current issue of a gun mag in Safeway has an article on the pistol.  I think the bullet weight is around 40 grains.  Raven's right about the velocity.  I think it's in the 2100 fps range.  It has an extremely long taper and I think this was to aid penetration on woven ballistic armor.

.224 BOZ still seems like a better idea, but I haven't heard squat about it for a long time.    

Speaking about armor-piercing projectiles, I'd be curious to see what sort of penetration an cutting edged 800 grain arrow at 220 fps would have on a KTW plate vest combo.  Any hobbyist's out there with experience????

None of this flat-shooting pistol cartridge stuff is very new.  Apart from the CZ52 and the Tok,  Colt Industries had a project called the SCAMP in the late 60s, which used a bottleneck .22 cartridge in a large pistol that had select fire.  I think it even had a muzzle brake.