AIM graciously sent me a small sample of ammo to evaluate, so this is this post will include some data that may be of use for you guys. This first report won't include any shooting data; I haven't had time to go to the range yet. Instead, I pulled 10 bullets, weighed the powder and bullets, measured the bullets and loaded ammo, and took some pics.
The loaded ammo looks pretty much like any other Wolf ammo: Grey polymer coating, primer sealant, no neck sealant:
Pulling the bullets showed that they are definitely bi-metal, as they were strongly attracted by a magnet. I plan to shoot these into some water jugs to determine if they will fragment. As You can see, the bullet is not a true OTM round as the bottom of the bullet exposes the lead:
For comparison, the bullet on the left is a Hornady 75gr OTM bullet, T1 variant. The bullet looks a little weird because it was tarnished a little having been left in the garage for a few months.
Here's the view of a sectioned bullet:
Nothing much to say - it reminds me of the 62gr Silver Bear I sectioned several years ago. Minimal cavity for the hollow point. That bullet did fragment, however, so we'll have to see if this one does as well.
The powder is a short-cut extruded:
On to the data.
Powder weight21.1
21.1
21.3
21.3
21.0
21.0
21.1
21.1
21.3
21.2
HIGH: 21.3
LOW: 21.0
E.S.: 0.3
AVG: 21.15
StdDev: 0.12
I thought the powder charge is fairly consistent, pretty much what I would expect from factory ammo - maybe a little better even. The weight of the powder charge indicated a pretty fast burning powder. Based on the chronograph results I've seen so far would put this powder somewhere around Alliant Reloader 7, maybe even faster. This is speculation though.
Bullet weight74.0
74.7
74.3
74.0
73.5
74.2
73.7
73.2
73.9
73.8
HIGH: 74.7
LOW: 73.2
E.S.: 1.5
AVG: 73.93
StdDev: 0.42
The variance in bullet weight is definitely more than I expected. An extreme spread of 1.5gr.
Bullet length0.939
0.941
0.948
0.945
0.939
0.940
0.947
0.949
0.948
0.940
HIGH: 0.949
LOW: 0.939
E.S.: 0.010
AVG: 0.9436
I don't have one of those little tools that allow you to measure the length of the bullet from a specific spot on the ogive, so this is the overall length of the bullet only. The ES of 0.010" is very good, about the same as Hornady 75gr OTM.
Loaded ammo length2.238
2.233
2.240
2.241
2.240
2.247
2.241
2.238
2.240
2.244
HIGH: 2.247
LOW: 2.233
E.S.: 0.014
AVG: 2.2402
The average length of 2.240 will not present a problem for loading these into a standard AR mag. 2.260" is the max length for a .223 round to fit into a magazine. The ES of 0.014" is about on par with the variation on the length of the bullet itself, and I would say that seating depth is very uniform.
That's about it for this first report; I might try to squeeze in a range session to chrono and shoot them into some water jugs. I will also section a bullet and post pics of that.