Nyclads - Are they a better Self Defense round

[Rockrivr1]

I was at the Big E gun show this past weekend in Mass. They have an ammo tent set up outside and as I was perusing through I came across this guys selling Federal 9mm 124 gr JHP Hydroshoks for $12. That's a pretty decent price in my neck of the woods so as I was picking up a box from the bin I noticed one box which indicated Nyclads instead of Hydroshoks.

When I noticed this box I seemed to remember someone saying they were getting scarce on this board some months back. So, I figure for $12 I buy the box. I looked to see if there was any more, but there was only the one box. I bought it and went on my merry way.

When I got home I compared them to some Hydroshoks I already had loaded in a mag. I've never seen these black HP type bullets before. They seem to be plastic or something.

My question is this. Are these good Self Defense rounds? Are they better then the Hydroshoks? Do they work good in Glocks, especially a Glock 26?

Many questions. I guess because I know absolutely nothing about these types of rounds. Figure I'll ask first before heading to the range to try them out.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

Nyclad

All I remember is the plastic jacket is supposed to
reduce leading. It is a wonder though that Sarah Brady
did not try to claim that the Black Plastic Clad Bullet
was designed to slip through the space-time continuum
to shoot nuns and orphans in the back.

 

[GunnySkox]

IIRC, the concept behind coating the bullets in other stuff outside the jacket (in this case, Nylon, in other cases, teflon, etc.) reduces friction, which may or may not have an effect on how fast the bullet ends up going, but mostly it's there to reduce wear and friction and leading and such. I think it's similar to the concept behind the lube in those hard-cast lead bullets, though I may not have the slightest idea what I'm talking about.

~GnSx
"Don't mind me. I'm just an alien."

 

[Futuristic]

NyClads were developed by Federal to reduce barrel leading. Essentially they are just a plain old lead bullet that is coated with blue nylon. The very first NyClads had such a thick coating of nylon that the bullet itself would show almost no rifling after being fired and recovered. There are various stories about who put pressure on Federal or if they just thought that untraceable bullets were a bad idea, but they soon changed to a thinner nylon coating that allowed the lead core to engage the rifling a little to leave marks.

They do reduce leading of the barrel greatly compared to plain lead bullets (even lubed bullets) and they provided an interesting option for defensive rounds. Originally most of the line was non-hollowpoint bullets meant for practice and target shooting. Towards the end they were mostly hollowpoints for specific needs.

Recently Federal has cut off production of them except for limited batches for LE only sales. Mostly because only LE was still buying them not that civilians shouldn't have them.

The 9mm 125 NyClad is an OK performer in all tests. It isn't the greatest death ray ever, but for a NON-+P round it is pretty darn good. It also does particularly well against auto glass since it doesn't have a jacket to shed, that being the problem with most handgun bullets through glass.

If you can find them, the 125 NON-+P .38 Special rounds are very nice and controllable in airweights. They are also made with a dead soft lead that expands nicely unlike the 125 +P and 158 .38 hollowpoints. Those were miserable.

Futuristic

 

[XLMiguel]

What Futuristic said. The 9mm Nyclads are merely OK, th .38's are real nice (perform well) in a snubbie, the +P's are good, too.

 

[Mannlicher]

Well, I don't have any empirical proof, but I have always like the NyClads a lot for defense. They are my favorite load in a snubbie.

 

[Gunsnrovers]

Both my CZ75 and my two HP's are great with Nyclads. I find it a very accurate SD round.

I also use it in my M36 (non +P's).