I know that the old Black Talon pistol ammo died about a dozen years ago, and that Winchester (and perhaps others) still offers a teflon-coated pistol round... But does anyone know if there exists a teflon-coated round in .223 or 5.56?
A common misconception, often perpetuated by films and television, is that coating normal bullets with Teflon will give them armor-piercing capabilities. In reality, Teflon and similar coatings were used primarily as a means to protect the gun barrel from the hardened bullet; the coating itself does not add any measurable armor-piercing abilities to otherwise normal ammunition.
I believe that any Teflon-coated pistol bullet with a hardened core would be legally considered to be AP, and as such would be federally illegal.
(B) The term "armor piercing ammunition" means -
(i) a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a
handgun and which is constructed entirely (excluding the presence
of traces of other substances) from one or a combination of
tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper, or
depleted uranium; or
(ii) a full jacketed projectile larger than .22 caliber
designed and intended for use in a handgun and whose jacket has a
weight of more than 25 percent of the total weight of the
projectile.
+1.The Combined Technology Ballistic Silvertips are coated with "Lubalox" which is similar to moly but different. I have a feeling that it is much the same coating that the Black Talons used and that the Winchester Fail-Safe rifle ammo used.
I'm pretty sure that Black Talons weren't just "painted black". I don't recall seeing anything about AP in the OP's question. Why did AP get injected into this thread??