best available alternative to PDW cartridges?

J

jason41987

New member
hey everyone.. ive been looking at these pointed, bottleneck handgun cartridges.. practically small pistol cartridges... 5.7x28, HKs 4.6mm, and well, the idea is certainly nothing new.. 7.63x25mm mauser, 7.62x25mm tokarev, heck, even .357 sig could fit the bill if a pointed, rifle-like bullet was used...

so out of the cartridges used throughout the last 100 or so years, to those used now, there are a few possibilities, a few rounds we could use, with pointed bullets and achieve flatter trajectories, and retain more energy down range....

so, my question is, what would be the best candidate?... requirements would be centerfire, rimless, and roughly 32mm (1.26") or less overall length... also, what would your choice be if 40mm overall length was your limit?

im curious to see what others think?... also curious as to which you think would be best in a pistol caliber carbine... would any maintain enough energy downrange to be used as a compact survival/hunting round even from a 16" carbine?
 
my idea is to bring back the old combination of rifle/pistols using the same cartridge, a bottlenecked pistol round with a pointed bullet may be able to retain enough energy downrange that if it had enough to begin with from a 16-18" barrel, it could be used to hunt, while still being chamberable in a handgun, allowing someone to stock up on only one type of ammo, and carry more for the same amount of weight...

did some looking around, and the 9x25 dillon cartridge produces about 800fpe at the muzzle, its essentially a 10mm necked down to 9mm, if a pointed .357 bullet could be fitted, without being too long to fit in a handgun caliber action (about 34mm max), then it would be perfect, if not, 357 sig can still achieve over 600fpe at the muzzle, however it loses energy fast as theyre still pistol bullets with poor aerodynamics
 
what would be the best candidate?...
Click to expand...

The 4.6 round from HK is out. No gun available to you. No ammo available to you. Kind of a deal killer.
The FN 5.7 ammo is easy to find. You have a choice of pistol or several carbines, (P90 or AR platforms) to shoot. There you go.;)
 
My bedside gun is an M1930 Mauser C96. Loaded to 7.62 Tokarev ballistic levels with a stout bolt spring, it easily defeats Level IIIa body armor, dumping 10 bullets into a 4" circle at 100 yards, as its holster stock makes it a legal short-barreled rifle exempt from all local bans and the federal $200 tax stamp requirements. A ten round, clip loaded magazine is an unfashionable limitation, but I value the NFA-exempt C&R shoulder stock attachment over high magazine capacity. In addition to much better practical accuracy and faster recovery, I get automatic waist-level indexing by aligning the right side of the stock with my forearm.
 
I would say probably the FN 5.7 cartridge. However, there are drawbacks to it and PDWs serve a rather limited role in general. You would probably be better served by either a handgun or SBR.
 
One of my first handguns was a C96 Mauser over 40 years ago. I even had a shoulder stock (I was living overseas at the time) but it wasn't perfect. The shoulder stock did not fit tightly and it wobbled. At any rate, I don't think it would have made a good all-round weapon. Neither would another gun I'm thinking of.

There were some bolt action carbines made for the 9mm Largo. I've seen a couple but I suspect extra magazines are non-existant. Besides, I don't think it is powerful enough for all-round use, especially for hunting, but I guess it depends what you're hunting. Same with all the cartridges already mentioned, like the 5.7.

It isn't a new idea, however, and probably the old ones will work as well any anything developed within the last 50 years. I think that either the .357 or .44 magnum are more than enough but if action type is a consideration, then further thought is probably necessary.

One used to see articles in the gun press now and then about rifles converted to pistol rounds just so the user would only need one cartridge. I think the one that was surely the most difficult to make work properly was a lever action chambered in .45 ACP.
 
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