Shooting the Ruger 57

[Jeff Higgins]

Well, my younger son finally took delivery of his long awaited Ruger 57 pistol. So, the only thing to do was, quite obviously, to go put some rounds through the thing.

Both him and his older brother loved the silly thing. I hate to say it, but I hated it. I hate to say this even more, but it struck me as very much a video gaming kids' gun. Endless capacity, no discernible recoil, ungodly blast and flash. All for very little noticeable affect on the target, assuming one could even hit anything with it, at least at any distance.

I won't say it was "wildly inaccurate", but it was darn near impossible to score consistent hits with it. I bet it has acceptable mechanical accuracy, like if it were mounted in a Ransom Rest it may even shoot quite well. The trigger, however, precluded any decent shooting with the pistol held in one's hands. It not only has that infernal Glock style trigger safety, it must have about a four stage, ten pound take-up.

I guess it would be functional enough in a fight, which is what it is really made for. At a range of just a few yards, which is where justifiable defensive shooting happens anyway, one could certainly just keep mashing that trigger until the other guy went down. I get that, and it might actually work for that.

Except for its caliber, that 5.7x28. Everyone seems all excited about its "high velocity", but that is only achieved in its original SMG platform. Out of this pistol, velocities drop well down into the 1,500-1,600 fps range. The impacts on my swinging steel plate at 25-30 yards barely wiggled it, where a .45 ACP 230 grain round nose will spin it around on its horizontal bar mount from which it hangs. Shooting that hanging plate with my old K22 with standard velocity .22 LR ammo seemed to have about the same affect.

So, I guess I'm at a loss as to what it is really "for". It's way too big physically to conceal, although it is incredibly light - probably half the weight, loaded, of a standard 1911. The caliber looks like it would be just the ticket for little rodents like ground squirrels, but I don't think you could ever hit one. Maybe its real (and only) niche will prove to be as a "nightstand gun" for someone who doesn't shoot much and is recoil sensitive. The blast, however, would be deafening if fired indoors.

Anyway, I'll be interested to see what its future holds. I hope my son didn't buy a turd for which he will no longer be able to find ammo in a few years. He is saving all of the brass, and there are loading dies available, and it does use standard small pistol primers and .224" diameter 40 grain bullets. So there is that.

Here it is with a full sized 1911. You can see that it is at least as big. It is, however, about half the weight. I've included a loaded round, and a .45 ACP 230 grain for comparison.

[KFC911]

LOL....by chance do them boyz look like yer former milkman ?

[Jeff Higgins]

Legitimate question. I feel like slapping their mother...

[Embraer]

I chrono'd the green tip ammo out of my FN pistol, and was repeatedly over 2100 fps....but that's with an AAC suppressor. That being said, I carry my Glock 30 gen 4 daily. The ballistics of the diminutive 5.7 round are pretty good unsuppressed, especially for people who are recoil-sensitive. The 5.7 makes a great nighstand gun.

[Tobra]

What is it the 5.7 is supposed to do, defeat body armor?

[Embraer]

At least with the FN (not sure about the new Ruger) I can rip through a 20 round mag, and have yet to have a misfire, after about 1000 rounds. SG ammo has the best price/lowest shipping for federal 5.7, btw

[Embraer]

Originally Posted by Tobra

What is it the 5.7 is supposed to do, defeat body armor?

It can...well, some types of armor

[Jeff Higgins]

FN "green tip" bullets are very light at 27 grains, where the Federal and Speer ammo is loaded with heavier 40 grain bullets. The NRA was only getting 1,500-1,600 fps or so from the Ruger. I'm sure if they had tried the lighter FN "green tip" ammo, they would have seen substantially higher velocities as well.

And yes, the military FMJ ammo from a SMG is specifically intended to defeat some levels of commonly worn body armor. The rate of fire from their SMG is quite impressive as well - something like 900 rounds per minute. So the original idea, really, was to put a couple dozen of those tiny little rounds into an adversary, which I'm sure would be pretty damn decisive. Much more so than the same number of 9mm rounds that did not penetrate the body armor. They traded single round power for the cumulative affect of many little rounds that actually get through the armor.

I'm not convinced of the veracity of that approach in a civilian situation, using a handgun. We have no requirement to penetrate body armor and, therefor, no need to make the compromises required to do so. That, and we do not have SMGs, so we are far more dependent upon the effectiveness of single hits, or just a couple of hits, as opposed to dozens of very quick hits.

[aigel]

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