A History of CCI®
Richard ”Dick” Speer (1915-1994) possessed a remarkable talent for things mechanical. He was a machinist at Boeing Aircraft's Seattle plant when his realized that his brother Vernon's success in the component bullet business meant there was money to be made in reloading.
The brothers found another niche that they felt held opportunity. There were a number of proprietary rifle cartridge like the Weatherby and Newton designs that were not supported by the ”big” ammo companies. Dick decided to make cases to service this small but active market. He left Seattle and joined Vernon in Lewiston, Idaho. In a small room at the Speer bullet plant, he began production of these special cases using an impact extrusion process.
Speer's cases were first sold under the name, "Forged from Solid", before changing it to Speer Cartridge Works. Later, market confusion over to companies with ”Speer” in the name led Dick and his partner Arvid Nelson to change the name to Cascade Cartridges, Inc., or CCI.
Although Dick's case-making process was sound, the quality of the raw material was not. In the early post-war years, most stocks of cartridge brass had been depleted for the war effort. Faced with an untenable situation, Dick turned to a different path.
Component primers for reloaders were in short supply. Some war surplus primers were showing up but the supply and choice was limited. Dick decided to get into the component primer business. He found a refugee scientist from Lithuania, Dr. Victor Jasaitis, and brought him to Lewiston in 1951. Dr. Jasaitis, or "Doc" to most people, was a specialist in explosive chemistry, and developed the exotic chemicals and processes needed for primer manufacture. Although Dick intended to build primers for hobby reloaders, his first shipment was to fulfill an military contract, using the chlorate FA-70 formula. Then he turned to non-corrosive, non-mercuric formulas for sporting cartridges, and reloaders now had a steady supply of rifle and pistol primers that was unheard of previously.
To handle the new business, Dick Speer bought a 17-acre chicken "ranch" next to the Lewiston Gun Club just a mile south of brother Vernon's bullet works. The farmhouse doubled as an office and warehouse, and production began in a renovated chicken coop. He quickly erected modern labs and manufacturing buikdings, gaining him room to expand the product line. When the gun club moved, Dick bought the adjoining property for future expansion. The CCI plant still occupies that property today.
In 1957, Dick added shotshells to the line and, two years later, began making industrial powerloads for powder-actuated fastener systems. In 1962, he expanded into rimfire ammunition with Mini-Mag, still our most popular rimfire product.
In 1967, an Oregon firm, Omark Industries, was seeking an in-house source of loads for the powder-actuated tools they manufactured, and bought CCI from Dick Speer. 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.
In 1980, CCI entered the centerfire ammunition market with Blazer®. This innovative products used aluminum cartridge cases and high-tech manufacturing processes to create effective, low-cost ammunition for training and practice.
In 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. The program wrapped up in 1989 with the introduction of all-new primers that featured 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.
In 1991, CCI opened a new, state-of-the-art primer manufacturing facility to insure that we could supply all our customers' needs. During the so-called "primer shortage" of 1993-94, CCI was the only US primer manufacture to continuously ship primers to commercial accounts, largely due to the increased capacity afforded by this new facility. CCI is also a major supplier of military cannon primers.
In 1990, CCI perfected the first hypervelocity 22 Magnum Rimfire cartridge, and has continued to add new rimfire products like Mini-Mag™ Silhouette, Quik-Shok, and Velocitor™, the fastest 40 grain 22 Long Rifle load on the market.
A Brief History Of CCI® Blazer® Centerfire Ammunition
Including some Frequently Asked Questions
In the late 1970's, US ammunition makers were faced with increasing costs and competition from cheap imports. At CCI-Speer, our premium Lawman® ammunition with high-performance bullets appealed to serious sport shooters and peace officers, but was more than the casual shooter needed. We set out to find a way to offer these shooters economical ammunition that could be priced lower than many imports yet provide American-made quality. As the 38 Special was the most popular handgun cartridge then, the project was known internally as "Low-cost 38's."
We knew that the cartridge case was the single most expensive component of a modern cartridge. Significant costs savings in the other components were not realistic, so we investigated ways that would take costs out of the case without compromising safety or function. The areas of raw material, production processes, labor, and scrap rates all had to be considered.
Raw material costs vary through the year with supply and demand, but we could take cost out of a case by investigating materials other than cartridge brass. We looked at other grades of brass, several classes of polymer plastics, steel, various grades of aluminum, and other materials. Of these, the best candidate was an aircraft-grade aluminum that could be heat-treated for strength. Although cartridge brass and this grade of aluminum cost about the same per pound, one pound of aluminum yields more cases than one pound of brass. We had a material-now the question was, "Can we build cases at a decent internal cost?"
To do this, it meant having a good process and controlling scrap rates. We found the equipment needed to form and heat-treat aluminum cases. We sourced a raw material format that reduced scrap rates from the 30 percent of conventional case forming to a tiny two percent. Over the period of a year, scrap rate improvement alone would yield impressive savings.
We entered this project targeting the 75 percent of the shooting market that does not reload, so several aspects of an aluminum case that affected reloadability played well with a cartridge for the non-reloader. To discourage reloading of Blazer cases, and to gain a small savings on primer cost, we elected to go with efficient Berdan priming. In the Berdan system, the anvil moves from the primer to the case. Adding a Berdan anvil to a case is free; in a Boxer primer it is a separate part with its own cost.
Original Blazer cases used an odd primer diameter (0.195 inch) to further discourage reloading. This was eventually changed when we started loading higher pressure cartridges like the 9mm Luger and 357 Magnum. They needed the extra material in the case head that a 0.175 inch primer pocket affords. From that point on, we used a standard .175 inch Berdan pocket in all cartridges that took a small pistol primer.
An early problem came up. Although cases were heat-treated "by the book," they were not springing away from revolver chamber walls as they should. We discovered the problem was "the book," not the material. All published aluminum heat treat references were prepared with large part like landing gear struts in mind. The techniques did not translate to small parts. Out of necessity, CCI rewrote the book on aluminum heat treatment. We made numerous breakthroughs in this field that gave us a strong case and a leadership position in this technology.
The final case was ready for market. The savings were partially due to getting more cases per pound of raw material, but the savings in processing and the all-important scrap rate were as significant. The economical case was a multi-discipline success that grew directly out of smart engineering.
The cases were done, and a new, more efficient loading line was built to reduce direct labor costs and increase throughput. The later had a remarkable positive effect on the bottom line. We went "outside the box" to develop a loading system that was not previously used for centerfire ammunition. It was safe, efficient, and enabled us to change caliber set-ups easily to quickly react to incoming orders. In 1981, the first Blazer ammunition was introduced to the market. It was 38 Special, loaded with a 158 grain round nose lead bullet. Blazer was on it way.
Today, Blazer is a highly evolved product. Through constant testing and improvement, we have overcome the objections that traditional shooters found to a non-brass cartridge case. The number of Blazer calibers increased to 13 today. We offer a selection of bullet weights and types not found in most imports or "white box" domestic ammo.
