Hugh,
I can respectfully understand one reason that someone would switch to a non-standard unpopular cartridge; hear me out on this one. I don’t want to start an argument about what is better; I just want to say whatever you have at hand that you can hit a target with might be what’s best for you! Whatever works for you is what you might want to stock up on. It’s always cheaper to have common stuff, but it might not be your best solution.
Consider my situation. I found out this year that I have carpel tunnel and my right hand has nerve damage, after years of doing computer-related work. I started noticing that my hands would become painful upon waking up and even get numb at times during the day.
I used to carry (concealed a Sig P290 or Ruger P95DC 9mm or a heavy 357 Ruger GP100 357) but realized that the recoil wasn’t doing my hands any favors (and I noticed that I’m shooting a lot less also). I realized I had zero issue shooting a 22, due to no recoil at all, and so I decided that I needed to read up and research 22 for self defense. (It’s not an idea I accepted at first, for obvious reasons.)
Then I stumbled on to this, and this article made me take a look and decide the merits of shelling out the cash.
The five seven pistol has a 20 round standard magazine, and the PS90 carbine has a 50 round standard magazine along with an Eotech sight and 3x magnifier that makes shooting easier on the hands and quick follow up shots due to almost zero recoil!
Both the pistol and carbine are as comfortable as shooting a 22 magnum. The down sides are it’s expensive to purchase and feed and not every shop carries the ammo, but ammo is always something I stock up on when I can find it anyhow out of habit. You really can’t reload this cartridge because of the FN special lube they use on the cases, so it’s something to consider if you have been into reloading your own. :/ (I found that the American Eagle co doesn’t use the FN lube making their ammo jam on the last round out of a full 50 round mag, yet only on the carbine is this problematic. It’s 100% reliable on the pistol, so it’s not really an issue. It’s just more of something to be aware of!)
I wish I could locate a good source for a P90 cleaning kit that used to come standard (hidden in the stocks) in the early model P90s (the full auto, class 3, short barreled version of this carbine). I can’t find them anywhere inexpensive. It’s not like you can call FN in Belgium and ask the manufacturer for the extras, but I guess a boresnake will do just fine for cleaning anyhow. The blue boxes are $30 each, so figure that it’s $30 to fill up one 50 round mag and that’s kind of a pricey option. On a good note, I can conceal the pistol and use the same ammo in the carbine. You could carry this carbine concealed in a backpack if you needed to. (So that’s a plus over a full-sized rifle.)
Oh, another thing I just thought of, my wife enjoys shooting the PS90 in this configuration since she can hit a cigarette pack-sized target at 50 yards all day with this setup.
On that note, I wish you well and hope that whatever you decide to choose as your personal cartridge of choice is one you can use most effectively when you most need it. This kind of thing is a personal choice that you have to decide what is best for your shooting ability.
(I still have my 5.56 AR platform, so don’t discount using something very popular either.) I think there is merit in knowing that you can and will likely find 5.56 or 9mm in bad times on the bad guys and the underground market. I’m pretty certain I will not find 5.7x28mm on all but SWAT and some big city police officers who carry the duty pistol (five seven MK2 or officers model), if I can find it at all.
So knowing that, plan accordingly to stock up on your hard-to-find ammo now, while you can get it (if you can actually find it today). – Fitzy in Pa