www.grnc.org/firearms.htm#teflon

D. TEFLON-COATED BULLETS   - (back to top) -


Pursuant to North Carolina General Statute § 14-34.3 it is unlawful for any person to import, manufacture, possess, store, transport, sell, offer to sell, purchase, offer to purchase, deliver or give tfoo another, or acquire any Teflon-coated bullet. This prohibition does not apply to the following:

(1) Officers and soldiers of the United States Army, when in the discharge of their official duties;

(2) Officers and soldiers of the Militia when being called into actual service;

(3) Officers of the State, or county, city or town, charged with the execution of laws of the State, when acting in the discharge of their official duties; and

(4) Importers, manufacturers, and dealers validly licensed under the laws of the United States or the State of North Carolina who possess for the purpose of sale to authorized law-enforcement agencies only;

(5) Inventors, designers, ordinance consultants and researchers, chemists, physicists, and other persons employed by or under contact with a manufacturing company engaged in making or doing research designed to enlarge knowledge or to facilitate the creation, development, or manufacture of more effective police-type body armor.

IIRC, the outer coating on Nyclad bullets is a nylon compound, not Teflon. Nyclad rounds were sold in many gunshops in NC for years, but I heard that Federal has now discontinued the Nyclad line, probably because of slow sales.

The ban on Teflon-coated bullets came about as a reaction to all the "cop killer bullet" hysteria stirred up by NY Rep. Mario Biaggi (D of course) who was a former NY cop. In fact, no officer was ever killed by an "armor piercing" bullet penetrating body armor, at least not from a handgun. But our legislature, in their usual frenzy to deal with nonexistent problems, passed a ban on teflon-coated rounds.

The purpose of the coating on the outside of the Nyclad rounds was not for better penetration, but to keep the soft lead of the hollow point bullet from leading gun barrels. The Nyclad was actually an attempt to ensure reliable expansion in relatively low velocity handgun ammunition. At the time Nyclad was introduced (by S&W, IIRC), most hollowpoint handgun bullets would not expand reliably, especially in .38 Spl. Bullet design has come a long way since then, and Nyclad was never a big seller anyway.....