Yet.Originally Posted by Nightvisionary
Yet.
I gotta say, this is a product I did not expect from any source, much less Ruger, and it's the only Ruger product I have been excited about for that I can remember that wasn't a rimfire.
As someone who has been fighting an illogical infatuation with the 5.7 cartridge since growing up watching SG-1 fighting the forces of an evil alien Egyptian pantheon on there jaunts through the old portcullis, the only thing that has held me back has been #1: the exorbitant cost of the firearms chambered for it and #2: the complete lack of any practical ammo selections for anything other than small varmints, with the available firing platforms not lending themselves to that task on top of things.
My interest in the caliber has always been that though it was designed around a specific role( now basically obsolete with the proliferation of rifle plates), it had unmet potential that could be exploited if it could get some projectile development from some of the big ammo companies with solid experience in developing effective self defense rounds for LE and civilian use. Elite ammo had some interesting developments, but they seem caught up in the usual boutique ammo company trap of hyped up chrono readings and non standard projectiles with "cool" names.
I've often speculated to myself what kind of performance you could get out of the cartridge if you brought over some of the developments from the .223, especially after looking at what some loads are capable of out of 10.5 inch barrels in that caliber. Speer putting a Gold Dot bullet capable on meeting the FBI minimum out of a handgun would certainly make it arguably more practical. Basically the 9mm vs. other calibers logic of better capacity/lower recoil/less projectile mass> less capacity/greater recoil/ higher projectile mass ,if the round performs within FBI minimums.
Now Ruger coming out with this product goes a long ways to ameliorate the buy in cost, and Speer coming out with the exact loading I had thought would be a good way to justify a use in the defensive role, the only major sticking point is the sustainment cost of high ammunition prices and limited selection thereof. I will defer to DocGKR on whether the Speer loading can or will actually be an effective or advisable defensive option, and I will wait for the experiences of first adopters as to the actual merits of Rugers offering before jumping on the bandwagon, and with this being an entirely new design from them(barring things adapted from their existing product lines), I fully expect there to be issues on release. So my excitement it tempered, but I really wish this product does well.
Besides I'm sure the new Space Force could use service handgun. Aliens ain't gonna kill themselves after all.
Didn't one of the reviews(TFB's?) mention that Ruger recommended only red dots that weigh 1oz or less would be reliable with lighter weight projectiles? So I think that might answer the question. I dont really think that's a knock against Ruger, just the reality of the physics at work. Has anyone ever milled a FN 5.7 for a dot? I wonder if it would have issues with optic weight too.
It could be that Ruger's mounting point is fragile and doesn't withstand the back and forth slamming with a heavier optic. Or a heavier optic could retard cyclic speed and cause reliability problems. Maybe a combination of both?
Interesting that, for a pistol nobody on here wants, we have three different threads running on the topic.
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Being that the R57 is a chassis I wonder if the sales numbers will be there for something like this:
https://www.fluxdefense.com/video
Niche cartridge and niche gun meet a niche stock kit...
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Maybe a fun target or field type pistol...
I would be curious to see what that round would do out of a sporting type rifle...17 HMR -ish thoughts here?
I say good for Ruger. The 5.7 has been getting some more attention lately. I would pick this over a FN due to optics ready, safety location and price.
Taken from the American Rifleman review. I either missed it the first time or read it and only registered it in passing. Anyway, it looks like the slide/optic weight should be kept to a minimum for reliability.
Function testing was conducted both with and without a slide-mounted red-dot installed, in this case a Burris FastFire 3, to ensure reliability in both circumstances. Fortunately, it ran without any stoppages in both scenarios, to the tune of about 600 rounds, with the extra 1.2 ozs. added by the optic and its mount not having a detrimental impact on the functionality of the delayed-blowback system—although I assume there is a threshold over which the weight of an optic will begin to cause reliability issues.
As you may know, Speer loads a 40gr Gold Dot for the 22 Mag. It would be the "easy button" for them to simply load this bullet into a 5.7X28 case with 5.whatever grains of Ramshot True Blue and call it a defensive load. So now the question is how does the 22 Mag Gold Dot perform? Anyone have any gel data for the 22 Mag load running 1,750 fps? That should give us a pretty good idea of what to expect from the 5.7.
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