Timeline

1951 – CCI established

1951 – Dick Speer hired Dr. Victor Jasaitis to develop new processes and chemicals needed for primer manufacturing. Dr. Jasaitis was a refugee scientist from Lithuania who specialized in explosive chemistry.

1957 – CCI added shotshells to the line

1959 – Began making industrial powerloads for powder-actuated fastener systems

1962 – Expanded into rimfire ammunition with Mini-Mag (CCI's most popular rimfire product)

1967 – Oregon firm, Omark Industries, bought CCI from Dick Speer. Omark Industries seeked an in-house source of loads for the powder-actuated tools they manufactured. Seeing the profitability of sporting ammo and components, they wisely elected to let CCI continue to grow in this area. New products such as Stinger, the world's first hypervelocity 22 Long Rifle ammo, rolled out of the CCI facility.

1986 – CCI's development engineers set out on a comprehensive primer improvement program to meet the requirements of progressive loading equipment that was starting to dominate the reloading market.

1989 – The three-year program wrapped up with the introduction of all-new primers. Features included: smooth feeding through automated equipment, reduced residue in non-magnum primers, improved primer seating, and better sensitivity that included a larger "sweet spot" for firearms that produced off-center firing pin strikes.

1990 – CCI perfected the first hypervelocity 22 Magnum Rimfire cartridge.

1991 – CCI opened a new, state-of-the-art primer manufacturing facility to insure that we could supply all our customers' needs

1993-94 – During the so-called "primer shortage," CCI was the only US primer manufacture to continuously ship primers to commercial account, largely due to the increased capacity afforded by this new facility. CCI is also a major supplier of military cannon primers.

Today – We've continued to add new rimfire products like Mini-Mag™ Silhouette, Segmented Hollow Point, and Velocitor™, the fastest 40 grain 22 Long Rifle load on the market.