Ivi .303

LawrenceN

LawrenceN

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Is anyone else glom onto the fact that, once again, Liberal stupidity and hypocrisy are in plain sight regarding .303 FMJ? IVI made really good ball ammo for No.4's used by the Canadian Rangers. Not only was it good shootin' ammo but the brass is excellent for reloading. Given the current lack of readily available ammo and the demand both here and in the US, IVI (which is government owned) could make some seriously nice bank if they were allowed to sell the stuff commercially. Though it's kept kind of quiet, we're fairly active in international sales of military munitions so it's not like we're lily white, morally. God forbid the Liberals should undertake an initiative that actually generated revenue rather than just continuing to pick the pockets of the taxpayers.
 
IVI was sold to US based General Dynamics years ago and they have no interest in the civilian ammo market.
 
Not only are they not interested in the commercial market, the price of the product would not make it an easy sell.
 
Back in the day (early-mid 90's) a buddy of mine was CQ for the Rangers out of Borden and was responsible for ordering all the .303 of Canadian Rangers Ontario for (IIRC) a 5 year block. I want to say it was something like 1.3 million rounds but I've been hit in the head a lot so that could be wrong. The price they got from IVI for 180gr SP was $1.95 per round so they went to Winchester Canada (whoever that was at the time) and got Winchester 180gr SP for (again, IIRC) $0.56 per round.

I've had some of the IVI stuff (may still have some kicking around) and it was good stuff, excellent brass...
 
I believe that the Winchester ammunition was issued after the original ball ran out, as a stopgap, pending availability of the IVI ball and softpoint.
 
If Winchester was already making it commercially (likely on WWII-era equipment) then their marginal cost for another million rounds would be fairly cheap per-round.

IVI may have had to quote on the basis of not currently having a .303 offering and having to tool up and amortize all the setup costs over that run. Even if they had made it in the past, beancounters are effective at liquidating legacy assets that might or might not be needed again.
 
The Winchester was standard commercial softpoint in commericial packaging.
IVI had to tool for the .303 ball and softpoint. Keep in mind tht IVI/General Dynamics is a sole source contractor sustained by the Gov't to insure domestic production capability. Before General Dynamics acquired the company, it was owned by SNC.
 
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