CIL/Dominion/IVI Civilian Ammo

bluemike807

bluemike807

CGN Regular
Rating - 100%
142   0   0
Location
Eastern Ontario
What happened to the Canadian brands of civilian-market ammunition? I understand that IVI still produces ammunition for the military, but why ever did CIL get out of making it?

I've been given, or have bought, various kinds of CIL/IVI brass and even some ammunition - including some WWII vintage .303 British MkVII which I treasure, both as high quality gear and as a piece of Canadian history.

At the range today, I discovered some local (bozo) had done some impromptu trap shooting and left all his hulls and boxes around; he'd been using what I can only imagine was 30-40+ year old 12ga 2 3/4" No7 CIL Loads. The hulls looked a bit far gone for reloading, so I cleaned them up (he was a bozo because he left all his crap strewn across the range) but the box just looked neat and 'retro' so I collected it to put with the rest of my meagre assortment.

Im in the process of buying a Cooey 600 - a quintessential Canadian rifle - and it disappoints me that if I want to fire Canadian ammunition out of it, I'll have to track someone down who has a box of .22 LR older than I am.

What ever happened to Canadian ammunition manufacturing?
 
CIL/Dominion/IVI are the same company, names changed over time. IVI stopped making civilian ammo a long time ago. IVI last Canadian owner was SNC-Lavallin, but they sold IVI to a US company (General Dynamics) a few years ago now.
 
Yeah, I have a few .303 rounds with the IVI stamp on them. Not many Canadian firearms out there, but it sure would be nice to at least be able to buy Canadian ammunition.
 
The decision was made back in the 80s not to retool/rebuild the civilian plant. The equipment was sold to PMC-Eldorado. When they closed recently it went to Jamison in SD.
 
CIL and IVI were not the same company. CIL is still in business and sell paints and other products.

IIRC, CIL sold the ammo business back in the 70s (approx). IVI only cont'd to make civillian ammo for a few years before they dropped it altogether.

The CIL/Dominion ammo was good stiuff, and they made a fantastic variety of older and hard to get rifle and pistol cartridges. The ballistic tipped bullets we know today were a copy of CIL/Dominion "sabre tip" bullets that Dominion developed years ahead of their US compettion.
 
CIL and IVI were not the same company.

However, CIL sold their Ammo division to IVI.
 
bluemike807 said:
What happened to the Canadian brands of civilian-market ammunition? I understand that IVI still produces ammunition for the military, but why ever did CIL get out of making it?

I've been given, or have bought, various kinds of CIL/IVI brass and even some ammunition - including some WWII vintage .303 British MkVII which I treasure, both as high quality gear and as a piece of Canadian history.

At the range today, I discovered some local (bozo) had done some impromptu trap shooting and left all his hulls and boxes around; he'd been using what I can only imagine was 30-40+ year old 12ga 2 3/4" No7 CIL Loads. The hulls looked a bit far gone for reloading, so I cleaned them up (he was a bozo because he left all his crap strewn across the range) but the box just looked neat and 'retro' so I collected it to put with the rest of my meagre assortment.

Im in the process of buying a Cooey 600 - a quintessential Canadian rifle - and it disappoints me that if I want to fire Canadian ammunition out of it, I'll have to track someone down who has a box of .22 LR older than I am.

What ever happened to Canadian ammunition manufacturing?
Click to expand...

Yes sir my first .22 the 600. How many boxes of Imperial did i fire through that thing. i think they were .79 cents for 50 at the local general store and the guy would also sell them lose to us like cigs lol. Would be nice to have a few boxes of the old imperial ammo to go with it but i wouldnt fire it away.I think those Imperial boxes were some of the prettiest looking .22 around.

The first .303 British ammo i ever fired was in my Grandfathers No4 Longbranch and it was 215 gr KKSP he keep from when he closed his general store in 1966. Seemed to be a popular .303 loading around our area when i was a kid.:wave:
 
sunray said:
"...CIL sold the ammo business back in the 70s..." Mid to late 60's.
Click to expand...

A friend of my father was the VP at Brownsburg and he advised me of CIL divesting itself of the unprofitable sporting ammunition division. That was early to mid 70's.
I have a catalog around here somewhere (haven't seen it in years) from the mid 60's promoting CIL's firearms and ammunition. When you look at the number of obsolete (even for the time) cartridges they loaded one might wish that they were still around. They made a great product.
 
God, I must be showing my age, but I remember buying the Imperial shotgun shells at CTC when I was like 16. We used to call them "high brass" for obvious reasons. I think I still have a few rounds kicking around.

eg: Load up some high brass #2 in case we see some geese.
 
Hmmm...I still got a bunch of boxes of IVI (Imperial) 30-06 (various grains) sitting in my safe...father in law used to hunt with this but since he's passed on I've got it. Also got a crap load of IVI 7.62 Nato stuff from him...
 
Waba said:
A friend of my father was the VP at Brownsburg and he advised me of CIL divesting itself of the unprofitable sporting ammunition division. That was early to mid 70's.
I have a catalog around here somewhere (haven't seen it in years) from the mid 60's promoting CIL's firearms and ammunition. When you look at the number of obsolete (even for the time) cartridges they loaded one might wish that they were still around. They made a great product.
Click to expand...

:agree:
 
rugerfan said:
God, I must be showing my age, but I remember buying the Imperial shotgun shells at CTC when I was like 16. We used to call them "high brass" for obvious reasons. I think I still have a few rounds kicking around.

eg: Load up some high brass #2 in case we see some geese.
Click to expand...

We called them half brass, and next to the Winchester No4 "Heavy" that were our fav Duck loads. I know Imperial had the Dynawad shotcup but were they the first to do this?:)
 
Waba said:
A friend of my father was the VP at Brownsburg and he advised me of CIL divesting itself of the unprofitable sporting ammunition division. That was early to mid 70's.
I have a catalog around here somewhere (haven't seen it in years) from the mid 60's promoting CIL's firearms and ammunition. When you look at the number of obsolete (even for the time) cartridges they loaded one might wish that they were still around. They made a great product.
Click to expand...

Dad worked for them for 30 years, finished up as Shooting Sports development Manager.
The biggest problem he told me was that their sales were not profitable.
To bad , they made fantastic ammo, and had good franchise contracts as well in Savage , Anschutz, Parker Hale, and Eley.
Cat
 
I worked at the Brownsburg plant in the mid 60's.

The rare calibers were made once a year to make inventory. CIL was the sole ammo manufacturer and ran 3 shifts a day. We made a million rounds of 22 LR every day.

The plant equipment was very old. Pre-first war for some.

The gov't got the bright idea to entice Winchester to open a factory. For every employee Winchester had, we had to let one go.

Ww started to sell into the USA. My boss once said that if we got 2% of the American market, we did not need the Canadian market.

Fact is, the Canadian market was/is small.
 
Ganderite said:
I worked at the Brownsburg plant in the mid 60's.

The rare calibers were made once a year to make inventory. CIL was the sole ammo manufacturer and ran 3 shifts a day. We made a million rounds of 22 LR every day.

The plant equipment was very old. Pre-first war for some.

The gov't got the bright idea to entice Winchester to open a factory. For every employee Winchester had, we had to let one go.

Ww started to sell into the USA. My boss once said that if we got 2% of the American market, we did not need the Canadian market.

Fact is, the Canadian market was/is small.
Click to expand...

Interesting info Gander. Good to here from someone who actually worked in this plant. It was CIL Dominion commercial ammo when you worked there? :wave:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom