5.7 x 28 availability, cost, & do you shoot it?

C

chadio

New member
Rewind about 11 years, it was 'happy father's day, to me, from me, love me"

I bought an FN PS90. It has a Vortex Sparc dot sight and it is certainly a crowd pleaser when I take it out.

The ammo at the time, was $ 27.95 for a box of 50. Yes, that is steep. People would ask me "How do you afford to shoot this thing?" My answer - you just bring one box.

Fast forward to today - I am seeing this ammo for $59 / box and up. So, we went from 56 cents per round to $1.18...... I am hoping that this is just a panic / supply phase, because we would like to start shooting the PS again....

Thoughts?
 
Not super common cartridge, but a very cool one. The cost is what always kept me away. I don't see prices dropping until after the shortage people are still charging 20-25 for 50rnds of 9mm. And while it may drop it will probably never go back to pre-shortage prices.

If it were me, I would not let it go. super cool gun. Set aside some money each check, when you can buy 2 boxes, 1 to shoot, 1 to save for later. Buy it cheap as you can, stack it deep, there is no guarantee it will ever get cheaper.
 
I wouldn't count on any significant price drop, even after things "return to normal" (or as close as we're ever going to see again..) its a niche round.

And like many other niche rounds, it's expensive compared to more common "bulk" produced rounds.

Consider, for example, the .22 Hornet. I'd venture to say that there's more Hornet owners and users than 5.7mm, but despite being around since 1930 (Winchester) its still considered a niche round and ammo is considerably more expensive than the components used seem to justify.

OR, the .410 shotshell. Less material used, but more expensive than 12 gauge. It's a matter of volume production. Outside of the cost of the amount of material used, it's just as expensive to make a round you only sell small amounts of as it is to make rounds you sell by the box car load. SO, overall, the profit on niche rounds is less, and so the retail cost is higher to make up the difference.

Originally conceived as a light anti-personnel weapon to defeat military body armor, its kind of neutered by US law only allowing the non-AP ammo to civilians. With the ammo we can have, its slightly more powerful than a .22 WMR but not a lot.

Neat gun, but its never going to be cheap, or anything close to that.
 
Wow - just found a search result called AmmoSeek - lists vendor sources of various calibers, sorted by price per round. Seems 5.7 x 28 can be had for about $39 per box of 50 (which is still harsh, but less than I thought).

Shadow - thanks for the advice.
 
44 AMP -

The 'niche cartridge' phenomenon - thanks for the explanation.

Just recently became aware that there are 3 new - ish firearms for the 5.7:

- CMMG Banshee
- Ruger 5.7
- Kel-Tec P50

Maybe people will buy these, maybe more people will start consuming the ammo, maybe it will put the wheels back on the wagon, maybe it will grease the machine. Wishful thinking.

I'd be willing to bet, there are others here who are up against price and availability for other obscure cartridges...
 
Only one I see being sold in big numbers is the Ruger.

cmmg is spendy MSRP of $1400

ruger has been out since DEC of 2019 and looks good from what I have seen, msrp $869.

Putting my bad experiences with kel-tek aside, when they bring out something new and cool, by the time you can get one, not many people still want one, also MSRP is $1095....

The question becomes, why not a braced pistol in 223 or 9mm? same form factor, the PDW, and equally effective cartridges at the intended engagement distances.... say 200yds in.
 
why not a braced pistol in 223 or 9mm? same form factor, the PDW, and equally effective cartridges at the intended engagement distances.... say 200yds in.
Click to expand...

You are tempting me to buy another gun - shame on you!!!! (actually, I'm already looking at braced 9mm's, haha!!!!)
 
Putting my bad experiences with kel-tek aside, when they bring out something new and cool, by the time you can get one, not many people still want one, also MSRP is $1095....
Click to expand...

The Kel-Tek P50 is just so goofy/clever/outrageous/innovative that it has to be considered even at $1200.

Goodness, even I'm considering it.

I must say I didn't realize until now that reloading it is a little special. That is, you just don't tumble the cases before reloading or you'll remove the 'special coating' on the cases and they won't work well. Note: I might be totally off base on this as I've only looked at a couple of online sources about this.

$1050
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/923832461

$1250
https://www.guns.com/firearms/handg...semi-auto-50-1-rounds-9-6-barrel-new?p=354755

Currently unavailable
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1024573118?pid=840558
 
DaleA said:
The Kel-Tek P50 is just so goofy/clever/outrageous/innovative that it has to be considered even at $1200.

Goodness, even I'm considering it.

I must say I didn't realize until now that reloading it is a little special. That is, you just don't tumble the cases before reloading or you'll remove the 'special coating' on the cases and they won't work well. Note: I might be totally off base on this as I've only looked at a couple of online sources about this.

$1050
https://www.gunbroker.com/item/923832461

$1250
https://www.guns.com/firearms/handg...semi-auto-50-1-rounds-9-6-barrel-new?p=354755

Currently unavailable
https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1024573118?pid=840558
Click to expand...
As a reloader I would not want to touch this one. These are the problems I see. From what I understand they do have a polymer coating. This is due to them being a straight wall bottle neck case to keep the magazines straight. When reloading not being able to clean your brass can be a problem. Also due to this being a bottle necked case it would need to be lubed and most likely have that lube removed. I know there are some you can leave in place but I have not idea how that would effect the coating. It is also unknown how the coting will hold up after even the initial firing, let alone resizing and a second or more firing. And once the coating wears off it will fire but have ejection problems. It would make it impossible to anneal. and being a bottle necked rifle cartridge you might get 1-2 reloads out of it max would be my guess......

Perhaps somene here has loaded for it, it it seems like WAY more trouble than its worth.
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the 5.7 FN originally intended as a military round, for use in the Personal Defense Weapon concept?? To punch through Soviet Bloc body armor??

I have noted that there is nothing requiring guns or ammo intended for military use to be "reloader friendly". Particularly ones from outside the US.

All the military cares about is that cartridges go in, fire and cases come out, ONCE.

US makers tend to also think in terms of civilian sales but I don't think European designers put as much weight into that as we do.

Ok, so we've got a smallbore round intended to punch body armor, US laws prohibiting civilians from having the AP ammo, adapted to a pistol, and using a special coating on the brass without which it won't run right????

And regular reloading practices will remove the coating??
so barely reloadable in the usual way? Is that a problem??

I think I know what the ammo maker(s) would say...
"not a problem at all, just buy your ammo from us!" :D
 
The Kel-Tek P50 is just so goofy/clever/outrageous/innovative that it has to be considered...
Click to expand...

I think you gotta admit some folk were thinking outside the box there.

While I said I had to consider it because of the goofy/innovative factor I admit it's way down on the list of my actual possible purchases because of the price and reloading eccentricities.

It's interesting to see stuff like the Taurus 'Curve' come around (personally that one was too weird for me) or the Taurus Judge/S&W Governor style guns come around (I kind of thought those were weird too) but at most I just shrug and say not for me but might be for thee.

There are some videos on Youtube that show you how you can reload 5.7x28 ammo but I'll agree with folk that would say it's similar to the trouble of making your own primers or reloading .22lr.

IMhO this is a great hobby, not quite as safe as coin collecting but a little more exciting.
 
I think PSA just announced they’re launching their own 5.7 pistol and the MSRP is $499. Could drastically change the 5.7 market, create the demand needed to justify increased ammo production and decreased ammo costs a small amount.
 
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