First Shots: Hornady 5.7x28mm Ammunition

Checking out the new Black and Critical Defense 5.7 mm ammo from Hornady.

by
posted on December 29, 2024
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Earlier this year, we traveled to Robert, LA, to Range Ready, home of the Gun Talk guys, for the inaugural 5.7 Fest. As you might guess, this was intended to be a celebration of the 5.7x28 mm round, with firearms, ammunition and other gear available for us to try out. One of the manufacturers present was Hornady Ammunition, which brought both Hornady Black 5.7 ammo as well as some of its excellent Critical Defense ammunition.

One of the things holding people back from getting too invested in the 5.7 mm round for a long time was a lack of ammunition. For quite a good while, the only ammunition that could be found came directly from FN. While the ammunition offered through FN was certainly well made and effective, it wasn’t what anyone would call plentiful … or cheap. With a lack of other ammunition available, as well as a lack of firearms chambered in 5.7 mm, interest stayed pretty flat for years and years. Recently, we’ve seen an absolute flood of new guns and gear for this round, such as the Hornady Ammunition, that started really pick up interest and attention.

Hornady Ammunition attended 5.7 Fest with not one but two new 5.7x28 mm offerings, a 40-grain V-Max bullet in the company’s Black line as well as a 40-grain FTX bullet in the Critical Defense line for those who choose to carry a pistol chambered in 5.7x28 mm for self-defense. Here we’re talking with Preston Lentfer from Hornady about these two new offerings in 5.7x28 mm. We shot numerous ballistic gelatin blocks with both types of ammunition, and the Critical Defense 5.7 mm ammo showed some pretty eye-opening performance, nearly identical to that of the 115-grain 9 mm Critical Defense.

More information on this new 5.7 mm ammunition and for other ammunition from Hornady, visit Hornady.com.

 

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