Seventy-Five Years Of Quality Rimfire Ammo: CCI's Big Birthday
One of the top manufacturers of rimfire ammunition is having a really big birthday this year. CCI is turning 75, and they’re celebrating that milestone with plenty of throwback posts on their social media.
CCI ammo @ TFB:
- The Rimfire Report: Weird Ammo - CCI 22LR OEM 40gr LRN
- [SHOT 2026] CCI Hunter Series 22LR & Blazer Clean-Fire Suppressor Ammo
- CCI Ammunition Debuts Several New Flavors of Ammo for 2025
- The Rimfire Report: The Classic Pair - Ruger 10/22 + CCI Mini-Mags
A lot of big companies start off small, but CCI started off really small in 1951. Their first factory was in a repurposed chicken coop. Founded by Dick Speer with help from his brother Vernon (the same guys behind the Speer reloading business), CCI focused on primers in its early years, with both civilian and government sales. The Speers’ businesses focused on ammo components, not factory-loaded shells, but that changed in the 1960s.
At that time, CCI started selling rimfire loads for fasteners that use charges (think Ramset-style tools). From there, it was easy to branch into sporting rimfire cartridges in 1962. CCI set a pattern from early on, with its super-fast Mini Mag rounds one of the offerings in those early years. Stingers and other hyper-velocity rounds followed afterwards, as CCI became known for making super-hot rimfire loads.
Over the decades, CCI pioneered not just hyper-velocity ammo but also loads that focused on other performance features, such as deeper penetration for self-defense or hunting, or suppressor-ready loads, or loads so quiet they didn’t even need a suppressor, or polymer-coated bullets that reduce barrel leading. They introduced the ubiquitous 100-round plastic rimfire cartridge box with a sliding lid. They also branched into centerfire rounds with their budget-focused Blazer line, a strong sales performer to this day.
If you want to see more, keep an eye on CCI’s Facebook page, where they’re consistently uploading images that recall their company’s past success and teasing products they’re releasing to celebrate this anniversary. They even have free targets that you can print off—see above for an example!
Professional hoser with fudd-ish leanings.
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Bring back the yellow and blue plastic boxes. We grew up with them and want them back.
"The good old boys from Snake River Idaho". They had some pretty great ads back in the day.
Back in the sixties, there was some thought that rim thickness was a useful variable to be finicky about if one was competitiively concerned about rimfire ammo accuracy. The Merit rim thickness gauge was not particularly expensive, so I got one and proceeded to sort a quantity of ammo, including Remington, CCI, Winchester including Match MkIII, and perhaps others. The Winchester match ammo had MUCH less variation in rim thickness than most of the non-match ammo, but the CCI was close behind it. I never forgot that.