Federal Nyclad 9mm in Clear Ballistics gel (one round)

[5pins]

If you have been shooting and, possibility reloading, for any amount of time you have more than likely a collected bunch of odds and ends. Stuff like holsters, mag pouches, and ammo. I have a small cardboard box that, over the years, has been the stopping point for ammo that has, in one way or another, decided to call it home. It’s normally just one or two rounds, maybe a half dozen at the most, of just about every caliber is have owned in the past. Not long ago I went through this box to see what I have. It turns out I have a lot.

I don’t normally like to test rounds if I don’t have the box it came with. I have done some in the past but not knowing the age and history of the round makes the test less credible. On the other hand, I wonder how they would perform in gel.

And so here is my first installment of what I’m going to call “Loose Rounds”. Let’s start off with a 9mm round that was, if memory serves correctly, very popular round in the 90’s. The Federal 124gr Hyclad hollow point. I carried this ammo for a few years in the late 90’s in my Glock 19. I don’t really remember a lot about them or their history but I think they were discontinued in the late 90’s. My chrony data from 1998 shows me getting a 10 shot average velocity of 1057fps out of my G19.

I shot one round, the only one I had, into bare Clear Ballistic gel with a Sig P229 with a 3.9-inch barrel at a distance of 10 feet. The round had an impact velocity of 1059fps (pretty close to my 1998 data) and penetrated 22.5 inches. With penetration that deep some may have come to the conclusion that expansion was little to none and you would be correct. The bullet began to deform but didn’t achieve what I would call expansion.





While one round cannot be considered a proper test I have to say that I’m a little disappointed. I carried this round for a short time and now know that it may not have been the best choice.

[Dozermonkey]

Looks like a wadcutter that I've dug out of targets before. Maybe not a bad thing. 1059 fps with wadcutter results. A wadcutter wound is nothing to sneeze at. Just a different point of view.

[Charlie98]

I don't remember what the advantage to the Nyclad ammo was supposed to be, but it didn't stick around very long.

[TruthTellers]

Originally Posted by Charlie_98

I don't remember what the advantage to the Nyclad ammo was supposed to be, but it didn't stick around very long.

Consistent expansion at very low velocities from short barrels. Standard Pressure .38 in a snub would be a good choice for that type of projectile, but if this Nyclad stuff can't even expand from a G19, that's not worth it.

One thing that the crunched in nose will do is reduce penetration from drag. It won't do much damage compared to a JHP though.

[Glenn E. Meyer]

I have one round of the stuff I kept from a box of 50. It's a souvenir now.

[Mike Irwin]

Nyclad ammo was on the market for almost 50 years.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Tapatalk

[5pins]

It was originally made by S&W as a way to reduce airborne lead in indoor ranges. Federal started making it as a defense round with the idea that nylon coating would not hinder expansion of the soft lead bullet.

[Model12Win]

Looks like a good nine miker miker para load.

[mete]

I only hit one thing , a rabbit , and there was great expansion , close to .75Mine was an early version and came in a S&W box .One box had problems operating a HK P7. I guess I was a Beta tester !

[5pins]

You will never believe what I just found in my box of ammo? A .38 Nyclad!

[briandg]

The nyclad could never, ever even hope to perform as well as any one of the current standard of carefully designed and constructed jacketed hollow points. The nyclad was nothing but a simple, relatively soft lead hollow point, nothing more, nothing less. it was primitive, and everything that we were trying to avoid. It had no consistency even when fired straight into ballistic gel, as we just saw, and if other independent tests are found from back then, you will find that it just sucked. The FBI would have tested it, obviously, and it went into the can along with the FMJ.

A good structured hollow point now is designed to do a few things. when the point is filled with high pressure fluids, it forces the lead core to open up along the skiving lines in the lead, the jacket opens up and turns outward and stops. Expansion is optimally halted with the jacket perpendicular to the shaft, suppporting a wide mushroom, with triangular cuts to enhance penetration without reducing diameter.


There are dozens of people here that could easily duplicate that bullet. Brinnel test the alloy, cast in a custom mold, coat it. you will have a bullet that expands easily and large when the mood strikes it.

[Mike Irwin]

"it was primitive, and everything that we were trying to avoid."

It was primitive, yes.

But for almost 3 decades it was about the best chance going for getting anything even remotely resembling expansion out of a snub nosed revolver.

NONE of the jacketed hollow point rounds available at the same time had a tinkers chance in hell of expanding from a snub, and were iffy at best when fired from a 4".

In the higher velocity rounds like .357 and 9mm you had a better chance with some of them, but even then it was far from a sure thing.

Simple fact is, until the early 1990s, when the first of the second/third generation hollow point designs came out (Black Talon, SXT, Gold Dot, Golden Saber), hollow points were a promise that virtually always wasn't kept.

[Viper225]

I would like to see what that 38 would do in Ballistic Jell.
I used to recommend this bullet for 38 Special's waaaay back in the day. I have a neighbor gal who I am sure still has them in her 4" Model 10.

Bob R

[briandg]

Mike, that is all true. Any hollow point that a semi could feed would have been ineffective probably half of the time. The nyclad worked because it was weakly constructed. You could get better bullets in straight wall cases, but not for a snub. You simply had to have something soft.

The very concept of the Nyclad, a soft lead bullet, was pretty well obsolete by the late nineties. It was, however, cheap, and had the benefit of history. People believed in it when hydrashock was still too new to trust.

At this point it's a relic that serves no purpose that isn't filled far better be modern design. With the advent of plated bullets, it doesn't even have much value on the range.

[jonnyc]

I still have a few BHP mags full of the 9mm Nyclads. Perhaps I should recycle my nightstand loads?

[briandg]

YES.

There is nothing in particular wrong with the nyclad, it's far better than FMJ and non expanding rounds, but they have very little to offer as far as a defensive round. Sell the things to someone who wants them pretty badly and use the money to buy a few hundred of just about anything of current production that comes with recommendations by professionals. Like I said before, almost any jacketed hollow point of MODERN DESIGN will perform well, far better than just a plain, soft lead hp.

[elde]

This thread made me go out and check. Found 6 full boxes of .38SP 125gr. Nyclads. Used to carry them in a Model 60. Perhaps they're now collectors items.

[briandg]

There's at least one guy who would like to send a box through some gelatin.