I recieved some boxes of federal premium nyclad ammo in 38spl+P. I know nothing about this ammo, but I don't recall seeing it lately, the boxes look older than me

__________________
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Not because of who I am, but because of what HE's done, not because of what I've done, but because of who HE is. -Casting Crowns

If it’s the 158gr +p it’s good ammo for target practice but I would rather carry the old 158gr+p LHP from Remington.
The lighter stuff lacks penetration due to weight.
Federal put a nylon type coating over their 38 LHP bullets to aid in the reduction of barrel fouling and lead emissions.
That’s its only purpose.
It does not aid in expansion or penetration in fact it actually inhibits expansion in some material such as denim.
These rounds do not expand very well if at all if they have to go thru cloth material first.
There is still a lot inventory of these rounds on the market.
Go try it out and see what you think.


http://www.brassfetcher.com/.38%20Sp...P%20SWCHP.html

http://www.firearmstactical.com/test...5nhp-swm60.htm

Actually if you read Evan Marshall's books and look through the Nyclad data it had a good rep both in ballistics gel and on the street. It was good ammo and I carried it for many years in my Detectives Special as well as in my P-7. The nylon coating was there to help keep the bullets from picking up dirt and in the 9mm it did aid in smooth feeding. The last testing done with Evan had the 125 .38 standard velocity averaging 11 inches of penetration with an average expansion of .68 out of a 2 inch revolver. The +P 125 also penetrated well and expanded to .73. These were all shot through 4 layers of denim. However the quest for the "magic bullet" with fancy jackets and such basiclly put an end to the plain jane lead hollow points that performed so well out of short barrel revolver.

Now I carry CorBon DPX in all of my carry guns. The monolithic copper solid is rewriting the books on defensive ammo. It always penetrates and it always expands. The testing I did with Evan for data conviced me there is nothing better. Last time we shot we went through 25 block of gel and more high dollar ammo than I care to think about and without a doubt the folks at Barnes have developed the best bullet currently available.

As of today according to the FBI, and the facility at Quantico the 38 special nyclad HP does not penetrate deeper than 10 inches when being shot into 10% gel with a bullet weight under 140gr. Unless it has to go thru denim barrier first and in that case no expansion was seen by the facilities above and penetration was 14 to 20 inch’s depending on bullet weight.
I used to shoot them all the time and found them adequate at the time for my needs.
But with current testing and ammunition advancements in the industry I do not consider them a good choice for defensive carry.
I am always cautious when you see two different camps performing “similar” testing and getting completely different results.

In my above links I provided test results with pics of recovered rounds from a 125gr nyclad bullet fired from a 2-inch 38.
The rounds passed thru the denim first and penetrated the blocks >18-inches did so due to no expansion.

The original Nyclad was made to reduce lead in the air on ranges. It was quite thick and was found to show no rifling marks. It was quickly made thinner. It seems the 38/357 loads did not have a very good record of stops. The excetion was the 9mm load. Always worked well in tests and on the street. The lead under the jacket is dead soft so it should expand.

My 357 is an 8" Dan Wesson, so this is definatly not going to be carry ammo

__________________
My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

Not because of who I am, but because of what HE's done, not because of what I've done, but because of who HE is. -Casting Crowns

If I remember correctly, the Nyclad ammo was designed to be used on indoor ranges to reduce the amount of airborne lead. I don't know if it worked or not but they didn't last too long. If i were you, I would look for an ammo collector to see if you could sell it and buy a larger amount of new ammo.
Good luck,

Kudu40