At the Athlon Outdoors Rendezvous media event, all of the shooters got to see, handle, and shoot some of the newest and greatest firearms and accessories the outdoor industry has to offer. The field was muddy, slippery, and an absolute mess thanks to the weather in Idaho, but none of us media folks cared, and the manufacturers just embraced it. After all, weather is all part of the fun. It was three solid days of shooting and getting to play with 30 of the top manufacturers’ latest and greatest they had to offer.
Testing the Fiocchi 5.7 Ammunition Line
From guns and optics to apparel, Rendezvous features pretty much something that would excite even the pickiest shooters. Well, as you can imagine, we burn through enough ammo to make a small country jealous, and we don’t feel bad about it at all. I will be completely honest here, when I received an assignment on ammo, I wasn’t very excited.
However, arriving at the Fiocchi booth, I saw the new Fiocchi 5.7 ammunition line, making me instantly intrigued. See, I am something of a 5.7 junkie. I love the little, tiny round and the history behind it. One main issue with the round though is and has always been availability. Well, good news, this is where Fiocchi comes into the picture.
Let’s start with a brief history lesson about 5.7×28 so that you can appreciate what Fiocchi is doing with these four new offerings. The story of 5.7×28 starts in the late 1980s when NATO began searching for a replacement for the 9mm Luger cartridge. NATO wanted a round that could run in both pistols and personal defense weapons. They needed the new round to achieve greater range and accuracy than the 9 mm cartridge, as well as achieve better terminal performance, which included the capability of penetrating the body armor of the time.
Birth of the 5.7×28
Designers at FN Herstal started from scratch to design a new cartridge and then a platform to launch it. The cartridge derives from no parent casing, never seen before. What FN put forth was a 1.138-inch-long case with a rebated rim, with a 35-degree shoulder that launched a .22-caliber bullet weighing from 23 to 31 grains originally. The round was moving at upwards of 2,800 fps. With the new round came two brand-new platforms to be able to shoot the round as well. The FN P90 PDW became first gun produced and later came the FN 5.7 pistol.
Fast forward to 2002 and 2003, NATO conducted a series of tests with the intention of standardizing a PDW cartridge as a replacement for the 9mm round. The tests compared the 5.7x28mm cartridge and the 4.6x30mm cartridge, which was created by Heckler & Koch as a round to beat the 5.7. The NATO group subsequently recommended the 5.7x28mm cartridge over the 4.6. In 2004 the round hit the civilian market when FN released the civilian variant of their 5.7 pistol. By 2006, FN’s 5.7-chambered firearms, the P90 PDW and Five-seven pistol, were in service with military and police forces in over 40 nations throughout the world, and even the United States Secret Service jumped on board.
Fiocchi Drops 4 Variants
Personally, I am a huge fan of the 5.7×28 round but again, it is nearly impossible to find ammo offered, and when you do it is very expensive. Fiocchi decided to release four new variations of 5.7 to the market and showed them off to us at the media event. The two defense variants are a 40-grain tipped hollow point round that has a velocity of 1m750 fps. This round was designed for maximum terminal performance in a defensive situations. Fiocchi utilizes what they call Hyperformance tipped hollow points. That 40-grain projectile exhibits deep penetration and reliable performance. It also features a polymer tip to ensure proper feeding and delivers the perfect balance of exceptional ballistic and terminal performance.
The other defense round boasts a 35-grain frangible projectile that, like its hollow point counterpart, will leave the muzzle at around 1,750 fps. Fiocchi uses the same Hyperformance technology but in a jacketed frangible cartridge. The bullet features a copper core and copper jacketed projectile. Featuring a polymer tip to ensure proper feeding through all 5.7x28mm chambered firearms, this lead-free cartridge is eco-friendly while still delivering rapid expansion to prevent over-penetration. Whether fired from a handgun or a carbine, while offering consistent ballistic and terminal performance for defense, hunting, and range applications.
Range Masters
The other two variants that were released are designed for use on the range with the goal of driving the price of 5.7 down a bit and making it more affordable to shoot. The first one is probably amongst my favorites because I love shooting suppressed. The 62-grain subsonic round is moving at 1,050 fps, which is a bit slower since the round itself is a bit heavier. This subsonic cartridge offers reduced recoil impulse and sound signature, making it the go-to for suppressed or unsuppressed shooting and general plinking. If you want to be polite on the range, you need to check out this Range Dynamics subsonic round.
The last round Fiocchi had to show off is a pretty standard range round, but the big news is the packaging itself. This 5.7 cartridge is a 40-grain, full metal jacket projectile with a velocity of around 1,700 fps, however it is bundled in a 150-round bulk package, which will help save you money and get you shooting more. Whether you are one of the people that never got into the 5.7 round due to availably of ammo, or if you are like me and already love the 5.7×28 round, then Fiocchi has you covered now for getting out and doing all the shooting your heart desires, and they have you covered for self defense as well.
Check the entire Fiocchi 5.7 ammunition line and more at fiocchiusa.com.
