Any 5.7x28 Reloaders Here?

[justicetyme]

I suspect that it's a little early for anyone to have started reloading for the S&W M&P 5.7 but you never know.
I'm a reloader for 55+ years and also a caster for many years (until I started doing a website for Bob Palermo and got all the bullets I could shoot as partial payment).
Anyway, I'm fairly interested in the M&P 5.7 but won't buy anything that I don't (or can't easily) load for.
I know folks have been loading 5.7x28 for many years but everything I've read by them seems to indicate that the case life is pretty short, maybe 2-3 reloadings at max.
I suspect (but don't really know) some or most of that is due to the FN & Ruger being delayed blow-back actions.
The S&W M&P 5.7 might possibly be much "gentler" on those tiny bottle necked cases.
Also, from what I have read the cases have a coating to assist in extraction and prevent the heads from being ripped of and the cases stuck in the chamber.
Currently it seems that there's only two sources of 5.7x28 cases and both have the lube coating.
I'm hoping that the M&P 5.7 won't require that coating to help extraction.
At any rate I'm all ears to anyone that's a 5.7 reloader, especially if you've loaded for the M&P 5.7.
Thanks
James

 

[6string]

Hi, I just sent you a PM to see you need any extra brass.

Those little guys also have a tendency to disappear at the range!

 

[justicetyme]

I spoke with S&W CS earlier today.
The M&P 5.7s DO NOT require coated / lubricated cases.
She had to go ask someone about that question and after a couple of minutes she came back with that positive statement.
To any reloader remotely interested the 5.7x28 the M&P is truly a game changer.

My interest in a M&P 5.7 just went up a few notches.

Cheers
James

 

[David Sinko]

A few years ago I reloaded this cartridge for the FN pistol. I got about three reloadings per case and then the shoulders would crack. I never bothered with annealing. The coating on the case does not seem important for any of the pistols with traditional magazines but the PS-90 and others that spin the cartridge prior to chambering do need the coating or will not function properly. Once figured out, it's a very cheap cartridge to reload. Also, the only powder that ever worked well was True Blue and everything else I tried was position sensitive to one degree or another.

All things considered, it's a vile, loathsome cartridge and I don't want to be bothered with it ever again, even if somebody gave me another pistol for free.

 

[Rlg#17]

Just not worth it imho. Had a 5.7 from two different competitors and really tried to like it and reload for it. No joy whatsoever. Case life, sometimes on the first reload a case failure, usually no more then 3 X’s. Narrow range of components that can or might work. Getting a load that would work with any consistency? Never happened.

Been in the hobby of reloading for right at 50 years now. From the tiny 17 Remington up to the magnum 450’s, even helped friends with the .50 bmg.
Nobody that I talked to, even the staff at Handloader could provide the necessary information to get the job done.

I echo David Sinko above, give me that pistol and it will be a trade item for sure or f/s that I can state has never been fired by me. Given Smiths reputation with its latest semi-autos and their quality, fitment, warranty etc I see that even with the different operating system they will have produced another dud, again…

YMMV.

Regards, Rick Gibbs

 

[Mark8]

To those knocking the M&P 5.7 and the other pistols chambered for the caliber: The fact that 5.7x28 is hard to reload has nothing to do with the viability of the cartridge or the firearms chambered for it. Reloading is great, but the vast majority of people do NOT reload, just like most people do not refine their own car fuel. We have to buy the fuel, but that doesn't mean we don't use our cars or even sell them.

 

[David Sinko]

It's not a particularly hard cartridge to reload. One thing to keep in mind is that the brass should never be tumbled in the traditional manner which will leave residue in the case. Any residue that accumulates at the bottleneck will quickly drive up pressures in the small case. Being bottlenecked means that they always had to be trimmed at least once. I trim everything with the cheap Lee setup and the small cases were always spinning off the drill. And I think every piece of brass I loaded had a crimped primer pocket, adding to the work. Other than the cracked necks, I don't think I ever lost a case for any other reason and I never had a case head separation. At the time the local Cabela's had plenty of Hornady 40 gr. V-Max bullets and there is load data for the cheap 55 gr. FMJ. I always used rifle primers. Part of my aggravation was the fact that at the time I loaded this cartridge True Blue was nowhere to be found.

The main reason I'm bitter is because my FN pistol was unreliable even with factory loaded ammo. I experienced bizarre cycling problems, usually the slide freezing up when the fired case had been only halfway extracted from the chamber. I sent the gun back to FN twice and they did nothing to remedy it. I had bought the gun new from a guy who had two that were sequentially serial numbered. His was his daily concealed carry and when I told him about my problems we went to the range and shot his. His had the exact same problem. He then admitted to me that even though he had been carrying his for a long time he had never shot it! It seems to me that FN had screwed up a batch of these and would never admit it.

 

[justicetyme]

Thanks to those who have actually reloaded the 5.7x28 for their input in this thread.

Opinions always have more weight with me if they are from someone who has actually experienced whatever the subject matter is (in this case reloading the 5.7x28) as opposed to those of us who have only read about it like me.

I'm personally still on the fence on getting a M&P 5.7.
I've got guns that haven't been out of the safe to actually shoot in years so acquiring another one to primarily take storage space in one of the safes and not be shot much is an uphill battle for me.

I've yet to actually see one in real life so that will have a major bearing on my decision.

Cheers
James

 

[Luke Duke]

I've never had good luck with reloading bottleneck pistol cartridges. That's why I never got into the 5.7 Impressive round for sure. I tried everything with a .357 Sig could never get neck tension right. Push bullets into case with very little effort. Off course with the OP's question , but I hate bottleneck pistol cartridges

 

[jag22]

I remember looking at the FN many years ago. Ammo was expensive so I looked into reloading it. Just didn't look like a gun I wanted to blast away with at the range. Not for me.

 

[Mike SC Hunter]

To those knocking the M&P 5.7 and the other pistols chambered for the caliber: The fact that 5.7x28 is hard to reload has nothing to do with the viability of the cartridge or the firearms chambered for it. Reloading is great, but the vast majority of people do NOT reload, just like most people do not refine their own car fuel. We have to buy the fuel, but that doesn't mean we don't use our cars or even sell them.

What is the viability/use for this cartridge?

 

[scoobysnacker]

What is the viability/use for this cartridge?

It's basically a smaller-version of 5.56; approx same caliber, and a shorter case.
Kinda similar to 7.62 NATO to 7.62 Soviet (x39).

Cartridge is "a little" longer than, say, 45acp, but still reasonable for a grip magazine. Probably the longest you could put inside such a thing, which allows for traditional handgun. I see the S&W states mag capacity is 22 rds in a standard mag, which does give you a few more than 9mm.

The actual purpose was for a personal defense weapon (P90), smaller than an AR, but with more capacity. In theory the rd is hot enough to penetrate Soviet armor, although I've seen tests where it hasn't been stellar. The mags on the P90 hold 50 rds, and length is just under 20", with full-auto capacity if needed (obviously not the civilian versions).
So, used in that design, an impressive (on paper) amount of firepower in a small package.
I assume the handgun gives you compatibility of ammo, if you have a P90. Beyond that, I don't see much of a practical usage, but that's never been a big deal with owning a gun just to have.

I would guess it's loud, but not a lot of recoil.

 

[Mark8]

It's basically a smaller-version of 5.56; approx same caliber, and a shorter case.
Kinda similar to 7.62 NATO to 7.62 Soviet (x39).

Cartridge is "a little" longer than, say, 45acp, but still reasonable for a grip magazine. Probably the longest you could put inside such a thing, which allows for traditional handgun. I see the S&W states mag capacity is 22 rds in a standard mag, which does give you a few more than 9mm.

The actual purpose was for a personal defense weapon (P90), smaller than an AR, but with more capacity. In theory the rd is hot enough to penetrate Soviet armor, although I've seen tests where it hasn't been stellar. The mags on the P90 hold 50 rds, and length is just under 20", with full-auto capacity if needed (obviously not the civilian versions).
So, used in that design, an impressive (on paper) amount of firepower in a small package.
I assume the handgun gives you compatibility of ammo, if you have a P90. Beyond that, I don't see much of a practical usage, but that's never been a big deal with owning a gun just to have.

I would guess it's loud, but not a lot of recoil.

Great post! All I would add is that you can find independent real world tests on YT where the armor piercing FN round (SS190) shot from a pistol penetrates both level IIIa body armor and bullet proof glass that stops pretty much everything else shot from a handgun.

 

[Krogen]

What is the viability/use for this cartridge?

I suggest that for us ordinary folks, there's not much usefulness except for the novelty and fun factors. In its originally-intended gun, I can see the value.

I fired a P90 a few years ago and it was impressive. It spit out tiny bullets at a high rate with little recoil. No muzzle rise; seriously, none. It was no trouble to shoot bursts and keep the red dot on the point of aim. The P90 is a formidable close-range firearm; particularly with the AP rounds we can't buy.

 

[Wyo]

I had a PS90 some years back and, though I reload for lots of cartridges, some of which involve some fairly advanced stuff, I decided the 5.7 just wasn’t worth the time and hassle. Also, the round’s commercial loads seemed little better to me than a .22 Magnum fired in a rifle. I realize the military loads are more effective but I couldn’t get that stuff. All in all, for me, it was an interesting experience but one not worth the time and money it required.

 

[Jaila-RECON]

M&P 5.7 reloading

Hi guys... New to the forum and new to reloading. Picked up an M&P 5.7, and so far I love it. I know there are a bunch of people on here posting comments about their trials and tribulations reloading the 5.7x28 for their other weapons, but I think the question was specifically about the M&P 5.7. I have read accounts detailing the difficulties with reloading this treacherous round for other platforms, but it seems like the locking tempo barrel system may have either purposefully or unintentionally fixed some of the issues surrounding the reloading of this ammo. I plan on putting some rounds through my weapon this weekend, and I will be collecting my brass if for no other reason than to make measurements to compare with rounds that have been fired from other platforms. It is my suspicion that upon close inspection the brass ejected from the M&P 5.7 will more closely resemble the initial dimensions of the factory loaded ammunition than it's ilk fired from the likes of the FN 5.7 pistol or the P90.

If anyone has any specific data with regards to the differences if any I would be interested in hearing your testimony. Also, I read an account of someone trying a longer burning powder in the 5.7x28 but not recommending it due to the barrel starting to move too early. With the M&P 5.7 rotating locking barrel, I believe this issue will be addressed, decreasing the issue with the shoulder rounding. I guess I should know more after this weekend.

 

[Alk8944]

I've got guns that haven't been out of the safe to actually shoot in years so acquiring another one to primarily take storage space in one of the safes and not be shot much is an uphill battle for me. James

Just a "like" wasn't enough for this one.

 

[bbqncigars]

I load it for my PS90. A fellow on another forum pulled down a box of the FN ammo, and the powder charges varied wildly (over +/- 1gr). My results with the factory ammo support that. Three loadings on cases so far, but not terribly optimistic about case life. Overall, I prefer the .22TCM for pistol.

 

[SMSgt]

Has anyone tried annealing the cases each time and shoulder bumping instead of standard full length resizing to see if that resolves the short case life claims?

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Has anyone tried annealing the cases each time and shoulder bumping instead of standard full length resizing to see if that resolves the short case life claims?

Annealing every time. That would be time consuming if you shoot much.

With bottle neck cases; I don't know about automatics and not FL sizing and feeding reliability.

Ivan