What kind of bullets are they? They have silver tips. Are they meant to pierce flap jackets? Someone told me they can pierce metal. My uncle left them to me when he passed. Thanks for any comments.
While considered as body armor—the flak jacket /flak vest is not intended to be bullet proof; it is for use against case fragments (shrapnel) from high explosive weaponry.
handguns are not my thing but the only 38 caliber silver tipped bullets I know of are hollow points. They are designed to expand in flight and on impact so that they stop in the body rather than pass right through. This means the body absorbs all the kinetic energy of the shot and so these bullets have more "stopping power." I think these are considered to be primarily defensive in nature. If you hit someone basically anywhere, they're going down. Not necessarily dead, but not still coming at you or shooting at you. I don't know if I'm right about this, there could easily be another explanation, especially if the bullets are more than a little bit older.
A picture of the rounds would assist greatly in identification. Hollow-points are, however, the mostly likely answer.