Nyclad Historical Questions

[PJR]

I have purchased 500 rounds of assorted .38 Spl. Nyclad ammunition (S&W and Federal) and am interested in its origins. Was it originally a target/practice load? The S&W 158 grain SWC has on the box "reduces airborne lead, reduces bore leading, no lubricant to smoke." The box of S&W 125 grain+P SWHP doesn't promote these qualities and seems more of a defense round.

Meanwhile, the Federal 125 grain SWHP is non +P and came in a blue box with orange and white stripes. This round has a larger cavity than the S&W 125 and what appears to be a tiny post at the bottom. Is it the predecessor of the HydraShok?

I know from a search that the 125 standard SWHP is desirable in short revolvers as a defence round and was discontinued by Federal. I am curious however about when and how Nyclads were developed.

Thanks in advance for your help,

Paul

 

[Stephen A. Camp]

Hello. Much of this is from memory and may not be exactly correct. The Nyclad round was developed for use primarily at indoor ranges and was touted for the reduced lead thing. It's my recollection that Fiocchi manufactured the Nyclads having the S&W name.

Later, Federal took over this line of ammunition. I THINK the Federal version is more tuned for expansion than was the Fiocchi/S&W load.

I'm not sure if the Nyclad was an early test version of the Hydrashok or not. I do recall seeing early Hydrashoks called "Hydrashok Scorpion" or something similar. These were lead bullets with the hollow point and post, but no jacket.

Hopefully, someone with better information will see your post and respond.

Best.

 

[106rr]

I believe there were many reasons for Nyclad. One was the reduction of airborne lead. Another was that you could eliminate one or two steps in the manufacturing process. Later, I think that someone figured out that you could use dead soft lead without alloys and a nylon jacket to get good expansion and reduce bore leading. Those last two were vital to the sale of Nyclad ammo. In addition, during the early days of wondernines, the 124gr 9MM would feed like ball ammo.
I think it's obsolete now, it can't be recycled easily because of the nylon jacket. There are few feeding problems in modern guns. We have other ways to initiate expansion.
My two cents!

 

[mainmech48]

The first of the 'Nyclads' that I bought were .38 Spl 125 gr. SWCHPs sold by S&W as the "Chief's Special' load. At the time there were virtually no jacketed HPs which would exhibit reliable expansion from a .38 snubby when loaded to standard SAAMI pressures. While many folks used the 'FBI' load of a 158 gr. LSWCHP at what we now call '+P' levels, no manufacturer would warrant their snubbies for use with higher-than-standard pressure ammo.

Off the record, they'd admit that you could use them without blowing your gun up, but wear and tear was accelerated to the point that rebuilds would be necessary in as little as 500-1000 rds.

The Nyclad was designed to give reliable and rather dramatic expansion with mild recoil at the velocities obtainable from a revolver with a barrel of approximately 2", such as the M36 or M60 "Chief's Special'.

I carried them in a .38 snubbie of some sort (a M36, a DS, and a Charter at various times) for several years because they worked as advertised.

The 158 gr. +P HPs worked very nicely in my M19 and DW M15-2. Expansion was very good and clean-up was a good deal less time consuming than with soft swaged lead HPs.

The 124 gr. 9x19 HPs are still one of my all-time favorites, and I have a small hoard of them stashed away. Mostly because they've shown superb accuracy in all three of my favorite 9s and open up at least as well as the more modern standard pressure offerings do. I wish they still made 'em.

While the concept has been eclipsed by modern projectile design and technology it played an important role in getting us to where we are today, IMHO.

 

[Jim March]

Ammoman.com got ahold of a "weird test production run" of "Nyclad Hydrashocks" which is what I suspect the post-in-the-middle variant is. If I'm right, it was never a regularly cataloged item. It's safe to shoot, but I have no idea at all how well it would work for defense.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Methinks hydrashock predates Nyclad. Nyclad was developed in response to growing concerns over airborne lead.

Sometimes heavy metals are not your friend.

 

[106rr]

One minor historical footnote to the Nyclad history:
I had a jam with my G19 when using Nyclad 124 gr 9MM. This was unusual for both gun and ammo. This happened years ago before the sale of Federal to the Blount Corp. The rounds would not chamber and the G19 wouldn't go into battery. The chamber appeared clean and no obstruction was visible. When I pushed the Glock cleaning rod in from the muzzle instead of the breech, a small ring of nylon came out of the chamber. The excess nylon from the projo had been sheared off by the chamber mouth. This ring of nylon prevented the cartridge from seating fully in the chamber. I believe it happened incrementally, that is a little nylon shaved off each round. It wasn't just one bad round.
I e mailed Ron Mason, then CEO of Federal since I knew this ammo was being used for LEO issue in Florida and Maryland. He didn't answer the e mail. No action was taken to recall or fix the problem. I was told later by a salesman for Federal that the company was being sold to Blount and they didn't want any liability problems to mess up the sale, so they concealed the problem.
I also had one round of 38 special with one projo loaded backward in the case. I consider this to be an anomaly.
Good Luck

 

[BluesBear]

Once again Mr Camp is correct. S&W originally touted the NyClad as being for indoor range use hence the 158gr round nose version.
An addade advantage was the ability to drive the bullet at a higher velocity with out excess leading.
There was also the ability to use a very soft lead alloy for a hollow point and have the nylon coating protect it from handling damage. Thus the Chief's Special HP loading. Rember this was at a time when drop boxes and open loops were normal for duty use and loose in pockets for plain clothes/off duty carry.

Some of the early S&W ammo was produced by Fiocchi prior to Bangor Punta acquiring Alcan Cartridge Co.

And the orginal Hydra-Shok Scorpion ammo was nothing more than a .38 Special 148gr Hollow Base Wadcutter loaded backwards with the post swaged into it for more reliable expansion. I still have some original literature buried deep in my storage locker since I was a distributor for it back in the day. It was called "The 60 caliber .38 Special."

Federal later purchased the Hydra-Shok Corporation. When Pangor Punta divested itself of all non-firearm Smith & Wesson products the rights to Ny-Clad was sold to Federal.

 

[DBR]

One more point regarding the standard pressure 125gr, 38SPL "Chiefs Load"; the earlier versions had a semi-wadcutter shaped bullet with a small shoulder on it. This bullet was fairly hard. The later version has a rounded shape and a larger hollow point cavity. It is this later design that has the good expansion. Another thing I have heard is that the hollow point of the Nyclad bullet in both 9MM and 38SPL would sometimes close in on itself after encountering heavy clothing and not expand.

 

[mete]

I have some S&W [Bangor Punta] Nyclads. They are 125 not 124 gr,trucated cone shape with a deep hollow point ,3/8". That makes for great expansion , 3/4" in a rabbit. It was not reliable in my HK P7 ,the load a bit light and the brass very soft ,expanding fully into the chamber flutes. The box says -reduces airborne lead,reduces bore leading, no lubricant to smoke. The early one s did not give good enough rifling marks for the forensic people.