IMI Razor Core 77-grain OTM 5.56x45mm Ammo

   06.19.fourteen

IMI Razor Core 77-grain OTM 5.56x45mm Ammo

I'thousand a relative newcomer to the v.56x45mm circular. The first gun I had chambered in 5.56 that was truly my ain and not a "shared custody" slice between my male parent and I was my Tavor SAR. However, my inexperience with the round evaporated during extensive accurateness testing with the Israeli bullpup. I've now shot thousands of rounds of 55-grain XM193, 62-grain green tip, 77-grain Black Hills OTM (open tip lucifer), and many others. I've besides become intimately familiar with the loftier toll of quality 5.56. When word started getting effectually that Widener's, a well-known firearms, ammo, and accessory retailer, was offering a new, affordable Israeli version of 77-grain OTM, I was very intrigued.

Matt Korovesis' Tavor setup for testing the IMI Razor Core ammo. How can you go wrong with using Israeli ammo in an Israeli gun? Image by Matt Korovesis.
Matt Korovesis' Tavor setup for testing the IMI Razor Core ammo. How tin you go wrong with using Israeli ammo in an Israeli gun? Paradigm by Matt Korovesis.

70-seven-grain OTM 5.56 was first designed to be used in the US military machine's designated marksman rifles in an endeavor to improve long-range performance and terminal ballistics. Past all accounts, "mil-spec" 77-grain 5.56 variants have washed just that. Accordingly, 77-grain 5.56 gained tremendous popularity in the "civilian" marketplace. Still, the availability of mil-spec 77-grain to the general gun market has been extremely express, and oftentimes outrageously expensive (with prices hovering around $1/round at the everyman). Enter Widener's affordable (as low every bit $0.75/round) and plentiful Israeli Military Industries (IMI) 77-grain OTM, which goes by the brand name "Razor Core."

I had the pleasure to shoot some Blackness Hills 77-grain 5.56 through my Tavor roughly a twelvemonth ago, and the ammo produced the best results of all the types of rounds I tested (ane.five-inch five-shot groups at 100 yards). I desperately wanted more of the heavy stuff, but couldn't justify breaking all 10 of my piggy banks just to scrape together enough funds for two 50-circular boxes—comport in mind that this was at the height of the ammo-and-gun-buying panic. With Widener's IMI 77s, I finally saw an opportunity to economically stock up on top-performing ammo.

Just was it really acme-performing? Widener's advertises the IMI ammo equally featuring Sierra MatchKing 77-grain HPBT (OTM) cannelured bullets (just similar their Black Hills US counterparts) and a "military 41 type not-corrosive crimped-in primer that is waterproofed." Later ordering 200 rounds, I decided to put the ammo to the test with the assistance of star OutdoorHub contributor and premier paper-shooter Tom McHale. I sent him 40 rounds to test in his Smith & Wesson Grand&P15 VTAC I for accuracy and ballistic gel blowing-up capabilities, and selfishly hoarded the balance.

One of Matt Korovesis' 100-yard, five-shot groups with the IMI Razor Core ammo. Image by Matt Korovesis.
One of Matt Korovesis' 100-yard, 5-shot groups with the IMI Razor Core ammo. Image by Matt Korovesis.

Tom quickly shot up most of the ammo I sent him and had some exciting results to written report. For accurateness evaluation, Tom shot three-shot 100-yard groups with cooling and OTIS Ripcord bore-cleaning periods in between each. His two best groups were .492 and .682 inches—impressive numbers. His Shooting Master Beta Chrony set up 15 anxiety downrange recorded an average velocity of 2,703 feet per second afterwards five shots, which is comparable to American 77-grain.

The ballistic gel results were also suitably encouraging. I won't effort to paraphrase here and will use Tom's exact words in his email notes to me:

I shot the 77-grain load into clear ballistic gelatin blocks from a distance of 10 yards. I put two 16-inch-long blocks back-to-back and an quondam Kevlar vest backside in instance the projectile passed through both cleanly.

These are open tip match bullets and not designed to aggrandize so I had idea what to await. Shooting into clear gel with no barrier caused the projectile to virtually explode virtually six inches into the gelatin block.

Each projectile broke into three different fragment tracks going deep into the gel. The jacket fragment stopped relatively quickly, between eight and 10 inches deep. The pb core went further to maybe 14 to 16 inches. With each shot there was a small fragment that went all the way through the first cake and ended up somewhere into the 2d, usually four to 5 inches [in], and and so that had a 20-inch total penetration.

Later on reading Tom's emails, I was excited to try the ammo myself. I took my Tavor (newly outfitted with a Timney trigger) to the local DNR range and mounted a friend's Trijicon AccuPoint ii.5-10x scope atop information technology. Keeping with Tom'south findings, the IMI 77-grain was very accurate in the Tavor. My five-shot groups at 100 yards averaged right at the 1.v-inch marker. I should likewise note hither that I'm a crap marksman, and those results from my trigger finger wowed me even more than Tom's. In that location were no malfunctions or weird cycling issues to speak of whatsoever.

The IMI 77-grain Razor Core OTM has impressed me in 2 meaning ways: its low price indicate and exceptional performance. It's a "upkeep" high-quality circular that offers shooters sniper-grade groups at a more affordable cost. Widener'southward currently offers 500-round cases of the ammo for $375 each ($0.75/round) and 20-circular boxes for $16 a piece ($0.80/round). I'd recommend that anyone looking for an fantabulous long-range, terminally-constructive five.56 circular should give a few hundred rounds of IMI 77-grain Razor Cadre a try before dropping meaning cabbage on its Black Hills blood brother.

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Matt Korovesis

I've been a history and gun enthusiast since I was a kid. I love to shoot but well-nigh annihilation, from silenced commodities-action .22s to fully automatic heavy machine guns, and I beloved even more when I go to write well-nigh them. My chief interests are modernistic minor artillery and the armed forces pocket-size arms of World War II and prior conflicts, with a detail focus on Russian and Finnish firearms. Reading about guns similar the Mosin-Nagant rifle in books and on the internet got me interested in collecting, shooting, and writing about them, and I hope to exercise the same for others through my work.

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