Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Ivi Imperial centerfire rifle ammo

I think that "sensible design" sums it up well. You and the bullet did the job.


Congratulations on the close out find. Imperial was always a solid choice. It was a sad day when they decided to stop production.

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Imperial was always a solid choice. It was a sad day when they decided to stop production. [/quote]
Yes, sadly, the Amunition division of C.I.L. was not a separate company, but an entity controlled by bean counters who would rather keep sinking money into assets like paint and chemicals than keep promoting advancing the Canadian Shooting Sports .
When they sold the assets to IVI, the main concentration was on military ammo and their civilian stuff suffered .
Cat

As a kid at the Pacific National Exhibition , the Vancouver fair, I picked up some ammo pamphlets . I was impressed by the Imperial brand 303 velocities . Almost 30-06.

Yes. Being businessmen, and seeing how FACs and firearms legislation was going, I guess they jumped ship.


I don't know if all the velocities listed were accurate, but I do know that getting out of ammunition production was a huge loss for us.

The velocities may have been accurate in their pressure guns, and certainly the advertised 150 grain
303 velocity of 2720FPS could be obtained with hand loads, but 3070 FPS with a 175 grain SP out of a 7 mag- even with a 26" barrel??
This is right out of their 1972 pamphlet.
Cat

And you call yourself a Canadian hunter? Just kidding. I pored over those centerfire ammo brochures as a kid, especially those oddball cartridges. Yes, Kling-Kor Soft Point.

Yes, they work.

Interesting thing about those staked bullets, a few times over the years, I have recovered the odd 215 and 180 grain C.I.L. bullet from animals, and when they broke up, the bottom half of the bullet ( just behind the stakes) stayed intact , something lie a Partition, but unlike a Partition which drilled on through , the back half stayed in the critter.
Now, some people would call that a case of bullet failure, but in each case, the animal went down with one bullet and never went past 50m feet.
Cat

Here are a few C.I.L. bullets, a KKSP, Saber Tip, and a CPE ( controlled point expanding)
The Saber Tip precluded the Nosler Ballistic Tip BTW, but I am not sure about the Remington Bronze Point/CPE relationship.
Cat

Just for clarification, I believe the one on the right was called copper point expanding. I shot my first deer at 15 with a long branch number 4 mk1 303 with the 180 gr KKSP.. also my first moose. It was very accurate. particularly with those bullets. around 1 1/2 inch with the peep sight. Others were more like 2 1/2.. Miss those days and hunts.

CAT, if a guy goes back and looks at a Remington catalog from the 60's you will see they also said 175's were 3070 fps in a 7mm mag. Seems to me they all had an agreement on velocities. If a guy sectioned that cpe bullet I'd bet you would find out in hurry it is a Bronze point expanding. mb

Yeah totally correct, dunno why I stated "controlled point"!
Cat

No idea who came out with it first Magnum Bob, I do know there was a dust up with another company that C.I.L. filed a lawsuit with because of their Saber Tip being copied .
One of my dad's colleagues is still living a d he used to work for Remington, I think I will ask him if he can shed some light on that .
C.I.L. never made any firearms, but they did make their own bullets , brass, and powder at one time , so I cannot see them buying bullets from Remington but who knows??
Cat

C.I.L. sold Mauser actioned and Savage rifles. I seem to remember Anschutz 22s . I don't know about the shotguns.

I don't know about the 1960s, but in the past 20 years, different bullet companies have provided product for others.

Savage, Anchutz and Parker Hale used to make rifles which were rebranded to CIL. There were likely others.

I would love to hear from your Dad's colleague about what was going on with Remington and the Sabre Tips. My information is third hand and not reliable. I hate to repeat it here because of the way information gets twisted, but the gist of it was that Remington got some CIL bullets, examined them and came out with their own version - without paying the licensing fees.

Evnin, ya when the first ballistic tips & v max came out I thought of the old imperial sabre tips. Kinda of neat that someone was thinking that way back then. GWP. 🐾👣🐾👣🇨🇦

Nosler in his book said he got the idea for Ballistic Tips from the Canadian Sabre Tips.

C.I.L. sold a lot of rebranded firearms under license.

Zaballa, CBC, Franchi, Anschutz. Savage. Parker Hale were the main ones
Cat

The copper point expanding had a hollow copper tip rather than the solid wedge of the Bronze Point. Quite a thin jacket, but I only saw them in 30-06 and 303 Brit. Only 180 grain. KKSP was a decent bullet, I used them on game in .270 160 gr, 30-30 170 gr, 308 and 30-06 180 grain. Also loaded them in a 300 H&H for a friend. All animals died promptly.

Was just gonna shoot those 160 gr kksp's up but by damn you guys make me wanna go buy some maple syrup for waffles, blended Canadian whiskey and shoot some meat with that ammo and damned if I won't do it. Mb

Magnum Bob;
Good evening once more, I trust the day went well for you overall.

Thanks for the chuckle, I hope that your quest brings you much satisfaction.

While it's un-Canadian of me to admit it, I'm not a huge fan of most pure maple syrups I've tried, but don't mind maple flavoring in thicker syrups.

If you're able to find some, both 40 Creek and Pike Creek blended Canadian whisky can be - well if not good then at least tastes fine to me, taken in moderation with a wee bit of water.

Shooting meat with Canuck made ammo however is a noble windmill to tilt at and I do sincerely wish you the best at that quest.

Thanks for the thread sir, it's been fun.

Best to you.

Dwayne