I have available to me both FN SS197SR and American Eagle.
Both are 40 grain.

I know that the SS197SR is made by FN or for FN.
I also know that the SS197SR is lacquer coated or something making reloading very complicated for this round.
I have no idea if the American Eagle is also lacquer coated.

If I wanted to reload is one better than the other?

They are both coated. They have to be to ensure reliable feeding in the 50 rd mags designed for the P90.

That being said, the Five seveN will function without this coating from everything I've read and heard, but admittedly do not have first hand experience.

Or you can use simple green to clean the cases, which doesn't harm the coating.

Or you can respray the cases after the fact with aerosol PTFE.

NATO standardization could change this, but as of 2021 there are 3 brass sources. One is a small shop who makes their own brass for their own loads, and doesn't sell it commercially. Two is FN. They make all 5.7x28mm brass currently. S&B under projects has made 5.7 brass, but they still claim to this date no commercial offerings, and the lots that show up in France or Canada are "test lots". Sounds like BS to me, because how would gun shops get test lots in to sell.

Fiocchi USA owns the US contract for all 5.7 loadings. That includes Speer Gold Dot, American Eagle TMJ, and SS197SR. Since all brass is sourced from FN, it's all the same. Belgian sourced SS190/L191/SB193/SS195/SS198LF typically have crimped primers, where as the Fiocchi stuff won't.

It's been stated one reason for the coating is to allow for the brass to not get stuck in the chamber during firing, and this allows the shoulder to grow out. Most will find success without the coating in the pistols and other platforms, but some still may experience issues. The above mentioned S&B loads don't have a coating, and the French Ruger 57 user reports constant feeding and extraction issues.

The coating will last 4-6 loadings, if you simply wash the cases in a 1:4 mixture of Simple Green and water for like 15 minutes.  

TL:DR All commercial brass is from FN, and has the coating. Your effort required to remove the coating, exceeds that of the time needed to no worry about it. Just wash the cases and proceed with normal loading workflow :D

This will sound like an incredibly stupid question...is it necessary to clean fired 5.7 cases? (I havnt reloaded in almost 30 years and only pistol calibers and back them sometimes I would tumble brass and sometimes not, made no difference on performance).  Is cleaning with Simple Green necessary or is this just to make the brass look shinny?

I would experiment with lubes for the cases.  Prob start with Remington teflon dry spray

I mean in all seriousness no more a required or optional than other calibers. Sometimes I clean my rifle brass, sometimes I wipe it off, lube it, size it, go about my business.



From what I understand the coating is very much like a primer sealant. Spray on lubes are not going to achieve the same properties. Lacquer or the polymer that steel cases uses likely would though. That still brings me back to my statement. The effort required to completely remove the coating out weighs the effort to simply wash the brass or not, and just carry on with your normal workflow. As an experiment I removed the coating on 100 pcs of brass. I had over 10 hrs into completely removing it. On top of that, now that brass will not size in my dies without a heavy application of greasy case lube.

Thanks for all the replies.
I just picked up 3 boxes of the SS197SR from my gun club.
There is plenty available so I don’t have to rush into making a decision if I will reload it or not.
I also snagged the last 4 boxes of S&B Large Pistol Primers for $35.95 a box.
I passed on the CCI #500’s for $61.00/1,000
If Canada Post is good to me I should have my pistol by Friday.