[gunn4hyr]

Ive been considering the puchase of a five seven.After ready about the gun it seems that everyone that owns one like it but,my consern is the effectiveness of the 5.7 round in a hand gun for personal defence.Since the round needs 10.3in to burn effectively is it worth the money or is it just a fun gun to own

 

[ShipWreck]

Aloha!

The PS90 is my fav - but I have a Five Seven and like it a lot too. I think it makes a good defense round. It's at least as goos as a 9mm, IMHO. And, I actually have mine as a nightstand gun.

5.7 ammo is made to not overpenetrate. And, with 197 rounds, which really fragment on hard targets - the gun makes a nice household defense weapon that won't go thru as many interior walls as a traditional handgun round would. That's why I went ahead and got mine.

Go here for some round tests someone did with a Bullet Test tube:

http://fnforum.net/viewtopic.php?t=4985

http://fnforum.net/viewtopic.php?t=4780

 

[gunn4hyr]

So am i to understand that a 9mm round has more knock down n stopping power.I use an H&K USP45 for a carry gun and i was kind of hoping to hear thats what it was more geared toward

 

[Promoted Pawn]

I think what ship was getting at was lack of overpenatration, which shouldn't be equated to less stopping power. As an example- I've heard entry teams use AR carbines as opposed to 9mm subguns because the former is both more lethal AND less likely to go through the bad guy.
As for your concern to the 5.7s lethality:
To be blunt to there hasn't been enough people shot with the 5.7 to really judge.
Most of the people who have been shot with this round have gotten it full auto from SWAT and special police carrying the P90. In two such instances that have been publicized the bad guys were killed instantly and the wounds were reportedly 'impressive'.
I read an account of an officer disabling a bad guy with one shot from his USG, he shot the guy in his hip region.
From all the material I have seen shoot with the 5.7 I think it is probably more lethal than the 9mm. It tends the yaw or fragment (depending on type) after impact, and in both cases leaves a cavity that you could fit some kind of fruit in.
I don't really believe in 'knock down' but round- for- round .45 ACP is defiantly going to do more damage on an unarmored target.
The thing is that 5.7 has such low recoil that you can likely put twice the rounds on target in a given amount of time. In two seconds I can draw and put 4 5.7 rounds on target, with my .45 I've never gotten 3.
You can see my point.

 

[Turbozag]

Had a guy tell me he shot a coyote at 40 yards with his 5-7.

Hit it top of shoulder in the spine. Took out 3 or 4 vertibrae and left a fist sized hole on the back side. Killed the coyote instantly. He was impressed.