Hello,  Will you please let me know what you think of this pistol and the 5.7x28 round (both positive as well as negative).  What caliber does it feel like while shooting?  How far out can you cosistantly hit a bowling pin?  How smooth is the single action trigger? What lb trigger is on this FN? Any discount prices on ammo?  $18.99 for 50 seems pricey?  Do you forsee Glock and Sig making pistols in this caliber?  Thanks for all of your opinions!!!!!  Ed  

Hi Eddie...was your question about the FN Five Seven and the 7.62x25 soviet pistol/smg round and how they compare? for one thing both the 7.62x25 and the SS192 Hollow point will penetrate a Level two armor vest. the only thing I see as a short fall of the 7.62x25 is that there are only a couple of commonly availible pistols that shoot it.... CZ52 and the TT33 Tokarev, and clones thereof.
the CZ52 has a really straight grip angle , so it points slighly low in point shooting, the angle on the Tokarev is better as it is kinda loosely based on the 1911. There seems to be no new pistol designs on the horizon for this cartridge as the soviet sphere no longer uses it in anything it mostly survives on the surplus market in the U.S. and is cheap to shoot.
the 5.7x28 FN isnt cheap to shoot at this time...so 18.99 isnt a bad price for 50 rds at the moment. It has 2/3rds the recoil of 9mm....so while very controlable it still isnt like shooting a .22LR and its quite loud. though flash isnt bad at all. the trigger is very similar to a Ruger MKII .22 semi auto pistol and for that matter the hammer is much the same. Reliability is absolute in the 1700 rounds I have put through mine(0 malfunction) .the bullet only drops about 4 inches at 100 yards..so its flat shooting and would be of use as a small game hunting pistol if  used out on the farm...accuracy is very good right out of the box and if they came out with a scope mount like the one for a walther p22 that mounts on the frame rails,it would be quite a rig. The only real controvery with the 57 is that it isnt a proven self defense cartridge just yet.....there have only been a handful of shootings with this caliber.......from the sketchy details of them its done ok so far
but folks are a bit apprehinsive about useing a .22 pistol for self defense and will certainly vocalize why.
I myself carry a .45 and sometimes a 9mm on duty...but when I do diamond escorts for jewelers as an off duty gig, I DO carry my 57 and 3 20 round magazines. Baseline is that I totally enjoy the 57 and dont regret buying it.....its one of the few pistols you can fire so much and so fast , you can burn the oil off the outside of the barrel...(its not real hard to shoot 60 rounds in one minute with this)it will smoke just like a AR15 that has gone though 3 30rounders in a couple of minutes. Here is a thread you might find intresting.
www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=5&f=4&t=10865

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't the only model available to civvies right now the I.O.M model? Isn't that model limited to 10 round magazines? I thought they designed it so it wouldn't work with 20 rounders?

NONE of the 57's were designed for civys.......you have the tactical with fixed sights and no magazine safety which is still deptment only and the Tactical Individual officers model(IOR) which has adjustable sights and a magazine safety(will not fire with mag removed) so there are two versions of the 20 round mag......the IOR version has a little shelf that pushes up on the mag safety to disable it so the gun will fire...the department only tactical will take either version mag
and so will the IOR, it just wont fire with the mag without the shelf. There are NO other differences between the two models and you could remove the magazine safety on the IOM and it would work with either version of the 20 round magazine. just be sure when ordering the hi caps to say its for a IOM model if your pistol is unmodified. a photo of the IOM 20 with shelf(the same shelf thats on your 10 rounders.


the fact that the IOM exsists at all is really because of the BATF importation rules and about whether something has sporting purpose or not.....the 57 could never be sold to anyone besides govenrment agencies(not individual officers or general public) until two things happened...a round of ammo that by its construction was not intended as AP(didnt have the steel insert) and a ten round magazine had to be created just for the U.S. market. Now that left the pistol itself being modified to show it had sporting purpose.....put adjustable sights on it and add a magazine safety as an afterthought...WAAALAAA! it has sporting purpose! Glock had to put adj sights on every glock to import and then change them out to fixed in smyrna Ga. back when they first was imported. So the IOM can be sold under U.S. law to anyone that can own a pistol
though a fixed sight tactical isnt illegal if you found one for sale on gunbroker.com...its importation is/was restricted for agency sale. I hope that makes sense....

there are several models now of the 57
1.the Five Seven = DAO/fixed sights/agency only(remember its not sporting purpose)
2. Five Seven tactical = single action/fixed sights/agency only
3 Five seven Tactical IOM = single action/ADJUSTABLE sights/mag safety added/anyone can buy though FN still only wants them to be sold to police officers only.
4.Five Seven USG(U.S.Gov't model)= Angency only, same as #2 but has a smaller more conventional trigger guard(the regular trigger guard is made to allow cold weather gloves,as it was designed for military operations. the USG is used by the U.S. Secret Service.

P99, thanks for the reply.   I wrote the wrong caliber, I was wondering about the 5.7x28 not the 7.5x25.  This metric shit always confuses me when it comes to calibers.  I was wondering if you thought Glock and Sig would be coming out with new models in this caliber? Thanks Ed

Quite allright Ed.... I dont forsee Sig and others coming out with 5.7 caliber pistols in the near future...but FN has said they are going to make a semi auto version of the P90 for the U.S. market and a bolt action rifle .  Now here is a new one for you.....a competitor for the 57 now exsists
the new HK P46 "UCP"(Ultimate combat pistol) 4.6x30mmHK armor penetrating pistol...the companion to the MP7 PDW which is the competitor to the FN P90

P99, Any side by side comparisons between the two calibers and pistols?  The HK must really crackle being a smaller caliber with a longer case.  Thanks, Ed

So Far in NATO side by side tests of the 5.7x28FN and the 4.6x30HK........the better performer has been the FN 5.7 cartridge. Nato for the last two years has wanted to adopt one of these as is official standard "PDW" round. FN has won several tests , yet HK is screaming to hi heaven and calling in the lawyers and has stalled them "adopting" anything for the time being...it seens that if the german round isnt adopted...then germany will not sign off on the whole thing(isnt politics wonderful) the USMC is right now testing the P90  for use by Huey cobra pilots as self defense in a shootdown situation. And the Belgian air force has recently adopted the FN57 for pilots. I wouldnt be too surprized if we get to see the UCP pistol for sale in the US as soon as they can make a civy round of ammo for it.....

I finally shot my FN 5seveN, love it to death, this is my concern, can it be used as a self defense  handgun? The idea of it penetrating a level 2 vest and 3 inch thick telephone books tends to make me think that it will over penetrate.

it dont over penetrate human bodies...it starts to yaw withen 2 inches of impact in Geletan....I have gotten it to yaw in a 16oz plastic soda bottle full of water.....so no it isnt going to shoot through 5 apartments.....its a light bullet that decellerates quickly

Just like blended metal super magic bullets!  They punch through tuff stuff, and explode in soft stuff!!



Check the other threads for pics of recovered bullets!

I finally saw a "USG" today at the miltaria show in Ft .worth  it was priced at 799.00 and came with 3 20 rounders......a has a very agressive checkering pattern to say the least...the new trigger guard is still quite large and it still has ADJUSTABLE sights, Not fixed like the Secret Service one.
...still going for the importation points. It dont say USG on the pistol...just on the end of the box labeling says it. My first immpresssion of the checkering was that it was like holding a cheese grater ...grip too tight and it hurts! Think I with stay with a regular IOM but it will appeal to some.