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Old November 18, 2013, 01:52 PM   #1
Sevens
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Any experience with Aim Projectiles?

I did a bulk buy to relieve a local shop of their remaining supply of component slugs & primers that were originally purchased not for sale, but specifically to be loaded for a full auto subgun shoot. I got a decent deal, but not an out-right "steal" but the bottom line is that I'm now working with a bullet new to my bench and I've really never seen or heard of these things.

"Aim Projectiles" is the manufacturer and I'm using their 9mm 124 grain plated Round Nose.

There's a number of things that occur to me right away. First is the shape. I've used plenty of jacketed from Winchester, Remington, Magtech & Hornady, as I'm sure many of us have. Their 115 or 124 grain "RN" all have roughly the same shape. As do any of the Berry's 115/124 RN's, the Xtreme, the Frontier, and Ranier. Precision Delta and Montana Gold, too, all use roughly the same "shape."

These from Aim are not the same shape. These are straight walled for a bit, then a sharper cone. I haven't gotten any to the range yet, but they seem to hand-feed through my pistols without issue thus far. But the shape is goofy.

Next thing that is right in your face is the finishing -- these look extremely cheap. I've gotten thousands and thousands of "seconds" from Berry's that Beery's do not deem finished well enough to sell at retail and I've never found any of even the rejected Berry's slugs that are as cheesy looking as these Aim Projectiles appear to be. And Xtreme slugs are probably the FINEST looking plated product I've ever laid eyes on. Ranier often looks kinda cheap, but these Aim are the bottom of the group.

Here are a couple links that I found -- I'm not all too skilled at web searching.
First is from Aim, and it's just a one page thing and doesn't offer much:
http://aimprojectiles.com/
What I get from that page is that they are Canadian and under new ownership. Little else.

Here's an interesting link from a seller:
https://www.gunsupplies.co.nz/reload...es-124gr-rn-85
Here we have some meat and claims for discussion. First off, this seller is in New Zealand. I know we have some Kiwis that pop in here from time to time, maybe we can get a hands on review!

But that link also makes some claims about their physical make-up that makes them different from other plated bullets and some wild claims about their accuracy.

I hope to run a bunch of these through a small handful of different guns and report back. I'll be completely honest, I'm not quite so optimistic that I'll be wildly impressed. The bullet shape, the quality of the finish and the fact that I can visibly see what appears to be two-halves of the plating process lengthwise on each bullet is just not inspiring confidence.

My experience is quite wide with plated handgun bullets. More than any, I use Berry's and am never disappointed. And though I've only had the pleasure of a few thousand Xtreme bullets, you simply HAVE to open a box of those things some time, but don't do it in the direct sun, or you'll be blinded.

Anyone else ever used Aim Projectiles?
Or even heard of them?
Anyone else with some google-fu to bring ANY kind of reviews to the table?

I appreciate all input!
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Old November 19, 2013, 03:54 PM   #2
Sevens
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Quick update. Been loading some of these. My opinion has changed. For the worse. I'm not usually one to go in to an open forum and slag a product, vendor or service right at the outset, but these are substandard to, well, every similar product I've worked with, and I believe I have worked with nearly everything on the market.

Coming across many that would NEVER pass QC from any other company. I've seen multiple slugs that Berry's would never sell as a "second." Some should have been dropped back in to a bubbling pot to be reclaimed.

I've come across some that are out of size -- run them up in to the seating die and they STICK inside the seating die and the only way to remove them is to screw the seater plug DOWN until the movement of the plug ejects them from the die. Usually takes one full turn of the plug. This has now happened three times in 125 loaded rounds. I expect more.

Neither of these is the issue that's most annoying to this point. Rather, that would be the physical shape of this slug. At 124 grains, it is not what the world nose as a common shape/profile for a 9mm slug. It is almost like a wadcutter but with a cone on the tip of it. When I attempt to load at a COAL that is similar to the average/typical 115/124gr FMJ or Pl-RN, these bullets end up making contact with the rifling leade in at least a couple of my pistols.

The only way to remedy that is to seat these slugs deeper. When I've done that, they do seem to hand-feed in all my pistols without a problem, but the reduced COAL has reduced the internal combustion space radically and the difference is tremendous. There is no way I'm going to run a similar charge weight that I'm familiar with for 124 grain slugs in 9mm here. I'm going to re-work this load and I'm going to start very low.

It seems my project has gone from:
"hey, a new bullet, let's work up a decent load and get rolling with these!"

to

"okay, let's solve this problem of ridding myself of thousands of these crap slugs and selling them is not an option because I'm not the type to saddle another handloader with an obvious problem"

For the record, I will re-iterate here that I have not yet fired ANY of these bullets and I will be more than happy to follow-up with a glowing report of success if I manage to find it. In fact, I definitely already feel a sense of duty to report exactly what I find simply because of the energy I've already put in to dumping on these things thus far.

Still looking for anyone else who has used these, seen these, or heard of these.
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Attention Brass rats and other reloaders: I really need .327 Federal Magnum brass, no lot size too small. Tell me what caliber you need and I'll see what I have to swap. PM me and we'll discuss.
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Old December 19, 2020, 09:40 PM   #3
Billy the Kidder
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I realize this is an old thread, but I have some of those bullets and am wondering if you ever found a way to use them. I imagine we got them at the same place.
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