5.7x28mm Ammo Prices

A truly unique cartridge. FN built it in the early 1990s for NATO's personal-defense-weapon program — a little bottlenecked screamer that looks like a rifle round that shrunk in the wash. For years one company (FN) made the guns and the ammo, and prices showed it. Then Ruger, Smith & Wesson and others joined, ammunition production spread, and the per-round math started behaving.

Standard loads run 27 to 40 grain. Still costs more than 9mm. The magazines hold a small village of rounds, which is most of the point.

An increasingly military-use cartridge with the civilian market in decline. Those who like the 5.7x28mm are diehards, though, and will likely keep the civilian market operating for many years to come.