FN FiveseveN Forums - Hi!

Posted by Medula Oblongota:

FN FiveseveN Forums - Hi!: "Reliability of the FiveseveN is phenomenal. I finally shout out the factory FiveseveN barrel a couple of weeks ago at 'only' 40,050 rounds (99% handloads). The only stoppages I had were from short ogive bullets seated too long, a few times where I didn't debur the outside of the neck enough, and one bad lot of Remington 7 1/2 br primers where 20% failed to ignite (Remington replaced the primers and recalled the lot). I had a couple of pierced primers from REALLY hot loads, but was unable to find any damage to the gun no matter what I fed it.

I have had excellent experiences with Viht 3N37, Hodgdon HS-6, and Ramshot True-Blue powders. Incidentally, I just disected a few SS195LF rounds and have determined that the powder appears to be either Ramshot True-Blue or Ramshot Zip @ precisely 6.5 grains (hard to tell without factor load data, which FN refuses to release). I loaded a few rounds about a year ago with Blue Dot, but after looking at the large amount of powder fouling (Blue Dot is a VERY dirty powder because of the large amount of graphite in it) decided not to use it any more.

The bullets to use are .224 diameter. SS195LF uses a 27.3 (average of 25 pulled SS195LF rounds) grain bullet, but I have used as heavy as 77 (longer than mag length and must be loaded singly). The 35 grain VMax is excellent, but hard to load because of its flat base. I prefer the 40grn VMax and Nosler Ballistic tip rounds because they are boat-tailed. But anything you want to use anywhere from 30-46 is pretty safe. Check the cases for excessive pressure before increasing powder weight, and of course, start low and work up to maximum. Check out the reloading forum for load data.

Cleaning of the FiveseveN is a snap, and with the correct powders I went approximately 2000 rounds between"