Quantitative electron channeling and weak‐beam transmission electron microscopy (TEM) measurements of dislocation density have been used to study the formation and annealing of the dislocation network in self‐ion‐implanted aluminum. The channeling linewidth is found to be proportional to the dislocation density. Several mathematical expressions for the dislocation network growth are examined. One by Igataetal. [inEffectsofRadiationonMaterials:Proceedingsofthe10thInternationalSymposium, edited by D. Kramer, H. R. Brager, and J. S. Perrin, STP 725 (ASTM, Philadelphia, 1980), p. 627] is found to describe the implantation data accurately. This model has a linear growth term and terms for dislocation loss due to surface effects and recovery. The fit is insensitive to the relative importance of the two loss terms. Annealing is found to occur in two stages; roughly one third of the dislocation density is gone by 300 °C, corresponding to typical recovery processes, while the remaining network is stable to about 500 °C.