5.7 vs 22 Mag: Almost Didn’t Believe It 

*@Banana Ballistics,* a humble request. Can you leave the velocity readings up for longer than a half-second? We barely can see what readings you recorded and I personally have to rewind once or twice to see which round you tested and what the readings were.

Best thing about 5.7x28 is that it's centerfire

A knot in the wood changes the density... Also, growth ring density...

Hi Banana. Those "knots" on the wood are 3 times harder than the wood itself. Try with a drill, you will be suprised.

Thanks for the video. If the price of 5.7x28 ammunition ever drops to .22 WMR prices, the .22 WMR may go extinct. Until that happens, the differences are more than many people claim. The .22 WMR seems to be an ideal cartridge for bolt-action hunting rifles for small game. The bullets are heavy enough to keep energy for a longer distance, and the bullet and rifle combinations seem to optimized for accurate shooting. For someone looking for a rifle for small game hunting with a little more power than a .22LR can deliver, the .22 WMR is the obvious choice. The 5.7x28 is a centerfire caliber and will therefore always be more reliable, particularly when fed from a box magazine. As your gel test demonstrated, hitting an attacker with a .22 WMR bullet is going to produce respectable stopping power. Even from a handgun, this caliber has a good chance of stopping an attack. However, most people don't want to rely on a rimfire cartridge for self-defense. Pistols and rifles fed from a box magazine are the favorites for most self-defense uses. That factor will favor the 5.7x28. The 5.7x28 was designed with a little extra power for military usage, and that power might be nice in some self-defense situations. A precision rifle in 5.7x28 would be a fun rifle for small game hunting too, but no one is going to bother to make this rifle. From a revolver platform, the 5.7x28 would still be a legitimate self-defense round, but I doubt that anyone will ever make a revolver for this caliber.

I love both my 22 mag and 5.7. Cost is the biggest difference. Both are tack drivers. The 5.7 carries energy out further and has less drop than the magnum. The 5.7 was originally designed to be a armor piercing round. They wanted a smaller, lighter better penetrating round than the 9mm.

Your work & efforts are greatly appreciated. Good video.

I’m good with 22 mag for price and what not. Thanks for making my lunch break fun.

I stumbled across your video and the first thought I had was that my playback speed was too slow. Then I realized, your voice is just that deeeeep.

My Brother in Christ, had I known you were doing this video I would have gladly sent you some of the good stuff :D

If the barrel length was 5" for both cartridges, first off is a .22-WMR was designed for a rifle, and in short barrels, much of the powder is unburned and results in a power loss , the fact that 5.7"x 28" is a bottle neck cartridge, with high velocity, Is a bit of a no brainier, don't you think?

At Civilian Loadings, 5.7 x 28 is basically .22 WMR +P The big question is the Cost Analysis, and with that it doesn't really work that much better. The only real advantage is the more positive ignition

I’d like to see the 5.7 -vs- 17WSM! I think that’d be great!

Thank you for not rambling, I appreciate your efficiency, and humor.

Your channel is awesome. I never shot a 5.7 before so i can't say anything good or bad. But for the 22 it did really good out of a handgun and like you said it's cheaper.

As a carpenter for 30 years this year I can tell you that spot of the 4 by 4 is different density where the knot is that wood by those knots is a lot harder to

For your first test with the wood, make sure there aren't any knots in it as the knots are harder than the regular wood. I saw in that 6x6 piece, there was a substantial one running through the middle of it which could affect penetration ... (that's what she said).

I would seriously love to see you run 5.7 vs 22tcm

As always, thank you for the quality content!

Right to the point and a very quick answer. Thank you!

The real test wil be these 2 catridges in rifles!

I always find it interesting how older ammo concepts come full circle from proposals from decades earlier to become the newest ammunition flavor. 👍🏻🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸👍🏻

We were outside in the field a few months back.. i had just gotten my Ruger-57 and we had some old coper-bottom pots/pans we were throwing away / recycling... so we decided to test the 5.7 on them with the fn sr197sr rounds. They went through the bottom of the pots/pans like paper XD

Don't underestimate the 22 mag. It can perform as a hunting and a self defense round. I myself like both rounds. As I'd use both for defense and hunting

The Flame Thrower commercial was fucking AWESOME !!

Note that you were using the FN-197 (5.7 blue tip) which is the less effective round for penetration (steel/soft armor). You will get better results with the FN-195 (or the more difficult version to find, FN-198 - green tip).

Good info, really enjoyed, thanks

Great data, sir!

0:29 USING A WOODEN BLOCK WITH KNOT IS NOT A FAIR TEST. KKOTS ARE HARDER THAN REGULAR WOOD. CERTAIN PARTS OF TREES ARE HARDER THAN OTHERS. Together a true test yor target needs to be equal. If not your test would be useless or fake. Causing you to buy inferior ammo.. purpose of test is to determine best ammo.

One of the more taboo defenses of the 5.7 is its relatively successful use in a 2009 terrorist attack where a single individual used it to stop multiple able-bodied people who were charging the shooter.

Very good tests. Thanks for sharing this with us.

Can't believe this is the first time I've seen your content. Well you've got a new subscriber now cuz its great stuff you make!!!

The big advantages to the 5.7X28 are the center fire and lack of a rim. 22 mag has issues in semiautomatics due to the rim causing jamming, and the rim fire primer makes it less reliable. The fact 5.7X28 is more powerful helps on top of that, but is only a third place factor.

I've been considering the 5.7 pistol for a few months. But I've never seen the ammo available. I'm still not convinced. But great video. ❤ The flamethrower on the other hand?!? I want one!!! 🎈🥳🎈

Excellent content brother. Thanks for doing these comparisons. I'd still choose 5.7 if i had to, but your tests suggest that 22wmr is not terrible for what it is.

The FBI ballistics gel works differently from the clear gel. You would see different results as the FBI gel has a lot more nit-picky things you have to do to make it and prepare it, but gives much more accurate results when compared with... say... a flesh creature of either bipedal or quadruped kind. It's true that it's more difficult to film the FBI gel due to its' color, it requires being calibrated at a certain temperature with a steel bb from an air rifle at a certain FPS before being used. It would just give more accurate results to both wound channels and projectile distance traveled. Anywho~ It's a fun topic to test and see the results, it's no wonder you're doing so well (on top of your quick camera cuts, chapter snippets, and humor). Much appreciated for you to take the time to do all that you do here. Cheers

should have used speer short barrel defense for the 22 mag. still slow but would be a bullet design for pistol vs a bullet design for pistol

I always like to remind people who say 5.7 and 22 WMR are similar, that for 22 WMR to achieve a similar velocity, its usually from a rifle length barrel, as the manufacturer stated velocities are from rifle barrels. Manufacturer velocites for 5.7 are typically from pistol or SBR barrels so yeah....

Never use knotted wood as target when comparing ammo. 5.7x28 was intentionally designed to penetrate protective vests.

Remember the grain of the wood varies in density.

I would like to see this test with rifles instead of handguns.

I'm glad you mentioned the price difference. The way I see it you're not getting much more performance out of the 5.7 for the price. So I'll stick with a 22 Mag.

Exothermic man's super power is that his voice is an octave lower than yours! Great video, theyre always fun, keep up the good work

Love all of videos keep up the great work. You probably could sing Bass in a Quartet lol

Did I just watch an ad for a FREAKING FLAMETHROWER?????

would still love a test on the 7.5FK BRNO round

Now that's how you freaking do an advertisement. Did not skip. I might actually buy.

I've seen slowmo of what a Sharp Hardened Steel Point that has been added to a Hollow Point does. Not just a Penetration of the Target, but to the Hollow Point as well. When fixed into the Hollow Point right, the Sharp Hardened Steel Point pushes back into the Hollow Point causing it to really Flatten not Mushrooming, but actually Flatten much like a Coin. This Flatten effect on Bullets has been dubbed a Minting effect, or Minting, Minted, or a Bullet Mint, or Mint Bullets. Take your pick it doesn't matter, the effect is the same.

Just came to count the comments about knots in wood...

Still a glorified 22 mag. A little more powerful but not enough for the cost increase

Yeah, Midway! Thanks for sponsoring. Good to do business with, IME...

Great video, as always. 🍌

Unless you have .22 WMR ammo made specifically for handguns, it's not a fair comparison. Most of it's made for rifle length barrels.

Great comparison! Where the 5.7 really shines is with the P90 submachine gun! 50 rounds of pure goodness in every magazine!

Great test bud.

Now that AAC is cranking out 5.7, it's not really that much more expensive than .22 Win mag. But it sells out a lot because it's the cheapest on the market right now.

Yes, the 5.7 performs better than the 22 Mag., but it costs 5 times as much.

*@ Banana Ballistics* Another good thing about doing a ballistics target test with the 22 hornet would be that YOU would have the ONLY footage of that on the whole internet!! Seriously, I don't think there's ANY footage out there of the .22 Hornet fired into ballistics gel! I'd love to see it here...

I'd love to see you do this comparisson (well, just the 5.7) with the Tokarev !

There is a difference between the two rounds. 22 Mag is .36 per round while the 5.7 is 1.20 per round. Is the marginal difference worth 3 times the price of the 5.7? The 22 mag hollow point while it may not have the penetration of either rounds tested, the wound channel in gel might be a bit wider.

Well, I'm a little bit happier with my 5.7x28 purchase now 😊

Banana your a wild man. You look just like this dude in my old frat. Have you already did a video on 9mm vs 40sw? And 45acp vs 9mm?

Dude I’d love to see a test between ArmsCor 22 TCM and the 5.7x28. Food for thought.

Wouldn't using the torch on the gel before testing allow for better visibility of the action?

2-3 times the price for 3% more performance, I'll pass, plus walmart has quality 22 mag in stock.

Really enjoy your videos! Have you thought about testing the 22 TCM against the 5.7? I think it will equal of exceed the 5.7. Would be an interesting test!

Great work buddy

The 5.7 is very impressive. Unfortunately it’s not impressive enough to justify the cost. I’ll just squeeze 3 quick shots of 22 mag and still have change left over. I hope to see the 5.7 come down in price with the more popular it becomes. Good stuff as always sir! 😊

The knot in the wood nullified the result

@bananaballistics After watching you compare the rimfires and now having watched this, I really want to see you compare a 5.7 to the .17HMR!

First time I shot my 5.7x28 FN pistol it was t a target at 100 yards. I could not believe 3 shots and 3 hits on my 14" paper target at 100 yards.

Glad to see you wearing your OSHA approved Crocs. I would hate to see you drop the steel sleds on your feet.

I think the 5.7 is an underrated cartridge personally

The 5.7mm like the 5.56mm is designed to tumble to cause more internal damage and an unpredictable wound channel. The higher velocity from a pistol from what is essentially a rifle round, is actually pretty amazing. FN did a great job with making this round more mainstream. It's also the choice of Third Echelon when exercising 5th Freedom.

you have a voice for radio, incredible

Why not use the high velocity 22 mag for the entire test?

Considering the number of misfires and jams I get with my 22 magnum pistol and the flawless function I get out of my 5.7*28 pistol. Yeah I think it's worth the extra money.

Love y our test bench. One thing though and this is mainly about my autism about specificity, the 5.7 was designed to be fired from a 10" barrel, which makes it pretty much impossible to performance test the way it was meant to be used. It's not (designed to be) a pistol cartridge, just something you can also shoot from a pistol. Anyway, I'd take the .22 Mag because you have a lot of options on what kind of a pistol you want to have.

The flame thrower skit was funny as hell

It's really more of a glorified 17 WHR 🤔...wmr whatever You know what I mean... Fun fact 22 mag was actually being used for a prototype bullpup arm mounted submachine firearm (saying that way to avoid RU-vid freak out)

Both my 22 pistol and rifle have issues with misfires pretty often. The Rock 5.7 that I have has not had one misfire (that I can recall) after a little over 500 rounds. They are all fun to shoot but, if I want something with a tiny bit more UMPH I have to go with the 5.7. Just the magazine capacity alone is a huge selling point.

I enjoyed your video!

great videos, thanks.

Common Sense will tell you The 57. Will outperform the twenty two mag .

I thought of buying a 5.7x28 until I priced them. I can buy a handful of .22 mags for the price of one 5.7. I'll pass.

It'd be interesting to see a PCC comparison (with ~10" barrels like the classic p90) and how that impacts the expansion + wound channels.

Thank you for the video.

5.7 vs. 22 hornet would be interesting!

Now fire both out of 16" barreled carbines and you will see a dramatic different in velocities, while the 5.7 was specifically designed for use in a pistol length barrel, the .22WMR was designed and for the most part is loaded by manufacturers for use in barrels from 18" to 22" which means the slower burning powder used in the .22WMR give a much higher velocity out of a rifle versus a pistol.

Wow i am actually surprized at how close these are. I wonder if a carbine length barrel will(measurably) close the gap for the 22WMR

22 mag ammo loadings vary so much in performance when fired from a handgun. Used to have one of those tiny NAA revolvers and most loadings threw the bulk of their propellant onto the ground in front of you… Finding the right loading goes a long way to getting good velocities.

Try using a 6x6 without a giant knot in it

5.7 is actually a cheaper 22 hornet cartridge

I'd like to see some king of comparison against the 22TCM. I have the 22TCM9R conversion for my Glock17. Also, I think it's the 17HMR Super that's from the Savage BMAG rifle? That would be another good one to investigate.

I really enjoyed the video. We used to do a lot of this growing up, sans chrono and cameras, just lumber, steel, and cement blocks. Also, great narration, do you use that voice to make a living?. Nobody is going to mistake your voice for Mike Tyson. Maybe Ted Cassidy.

Go Exothermic-Man!!!

Babe, wake up. Banana just uploaded.

I tested some SS190 (black tip) 5.7x28 rounds on III-A armor from an FN Five-seveN MRD the other day and I was shocked by the penetration capability of that puny looking bullet. It had no trouble pushing through IIIa armor just as advertised. I then tried it on AR500 steel as well just to see what it would do, and absolutely no luck there. Barely even a tiny dent for 1 of the 5 rounds I shot. With the exception of owning a PS90 SBR (Form-1 approved), which is a collector's item just like the H&K SP5, I dislike the 5.7x28 round. It's too niche and doesn't really fill any void enough to justify the price per round. It sure is a quick round though. Very efficient little flier.

This is a nice series of tests, but the 5.7mm really needs a longer barrel to shine. I'd like to see testing with 16" barrels. My guess is you'd see a measurable difference in performance.

They both good, buy both...