Where to Buy Affordable Ammunition Online: 4 Retailers Worth Comparing
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By PAGE Editor
Ammo is heavy. That one fact changes everything about buying it.
A box priced cheaply on the product page can arrive costing a third more with freight tacked on. A case that seems like a steal ends up being worthless if it takes three weeks to ship, or never ships at all.
The retailer you pick matters more than the brand on the box.
This comparison pits four veteran online dealers against each other based on what affects the bottom line: volume pricing, shipping, product selection, and customer service when a carrier crushes a package. CheapAmmo.com is the overall winner for the average bulk buyer. The remaining three win a more specific scenario.
What We Cover
How to compare ammo retailers
CheapAmmo.com: best overall for everyday bulk value
SGAmmo: best for buying by the case
Target Sports USA: best if you buy year-round
Lucky Gunner: best for choosing a defensive load
The comparison at a glance
Our verdict
How to compare ammo retailers
Four things decide whether an order was actually a good deal:
Prices are delivered cost, not sticker price. Ammunition ships via ground only due to weight. Compare prices per round once freight charge is applied.
Real availability. If you can't purchase a listing, it's not inventory. Some sellers post live stock, others allow you to place an order and wait.
Catalog construction. Edited range does the filtering for you. Sprawling gives you more to choose from.
Who answers the phone. Packaging and damage from carriers is mentioned almost exclusively here. The solution is flesh and blood, not paperwork.
Please note: before ordering a bulky cart, some states mandate that ammunition must pass through a licensed dealer, or have restrictions on direct shipment. Verify with your state's regulations before checking out.
1. CheapAmmo.com: best overall for everyday bulk value
CheapAmmo.com has been selling ammunition online since it started as A1Ammo.com in 1998. Longevity counts for something: this is a company that has weathered several shortage cycles, and it purchases to match.
What you get is an edited catalog rather than an endless one.
The store carries handgun ammunition, rifle ammunition, rimfire ammunition, shotgun shells and subsonic ammunition, with links to Federal Ammunition, Winchester ammunition, Hornady ammunition, Magtech ammunition, PMC ammunition, Sellier & Bellot and more. The company's stated mission is that it only stocks ammunition its own team would shoot. If it's on the website it's in stock and ready to ship.
Why should you care? Because the majority of buying ammo online involves sifting through clutter.
If you know you want a case of 9mm 115-grain FMJ for range work, you don't need 400 results. You need a half-dozen good ones at a fair price, in stock, that will be packed to survive the trip. The shooter shooting a few hundred rounds through a pistol a month can reload that order here in two minutes.
Support is handled by a US-based team of knowledgeable shooters. Rather than submitting tickets, you can reach them by phone or email. In a space where the most common problem is often a freight problem, that's a good thing.
The downside: because it's curated, you won't always find the most obscure surplus and collector cartridges. If you shoot common calibers a lot, the shorter list essentially filters for you.
Best suited to: shooters and smaller clubs purchasing common calibers in large quantities on a predictable cycle who prefer a short list of quality options vs. a search-and-filter ordeal.
2. SGAmmo: best for buying by the case
SG Ammo is proudly an independent family owned business located in Stillwater, Oklahoma, and it tries not to resemble anyone else. The website is simplistic. The product descriptions are straightforward. The newsletters are written by the owners personally.
What it does well: case quantities.
The catalog only ships full cases and canisters, rather than individual boxes, and quantity breaks are automatic at checkout. Shipping is free over $200, which for anyone purchasing by the case practically means all the time. Shipping times are quoted at 1-2 business days from the warehouse. Full cases are shipped over-boxed at no charge.
The downside: what you see is based on what the owners purchased. SGAmmo is upfront that high-demand items can go months without being in stock between batches, so the item you want may not be available this week.
Should be shopped on delivered price if you order in quantity, are shooting calibers that are common, and have lead time.
3. Target Sports USA: best if you buy year-round
Target Sports USA, located in Cheshire, Connecticut, operates its business based around a subscription service known as AMMO+.
Members receive a discount on ammunition prices, currently up to 8% off advertised prices. Members also receive free standard shipping on all orders no matter the size. Non-members still receive free shipping on bulk ammo orders placed in case-quantity amounts. The catalog extends well beyond ammunition into firearms, optics, and range accessories.
It's simple math. The membership has an annual fee. That means you have to spend over a certain amount for it to pay for itself. Make three small orders a year and it won't. Order once a month and it probably will, since free shipping on everything eliminates the freight calculation from top ups.
Plus, it renews automatically unless you cancel, which is ideal if you shoot year-round instead of seasonally.
Great option for the high-volume buyer looking for one account for ammo and equipment combined.
4. Lucky Gunner: best for choosing a defensive load
Lucky Gunner has shipped ammo out of Knoxville since 2009. It offers one service that no other retailer here provides on a large scale: it releases its own terminal-ballistics data.
Lucky Gunner Labs has tested more than a hundred factory SD loads fired into calibrated gelatin. The company has published the penetration and expansion results and high-speed video of each round. It's all free.
So why does that matter? Because choosing a carry load is the one area of ammunition decision-making where useful data trumps a good price.
The store side operates on a live inventory system. Sold out items are pulled immediately, and it also offers a $100 store credit should something you order be unavailable.
The trade-off: Lucky Gunner does not provide free shipping, no matter how large your order. Their FAQ says so right out. At full case quantities that gap is real, and should be factored into your delivered-cost comparison.
Keep this one in mind when you're picking a defensive load and want some published test data to back it up.
The comparison at a glance
Two of those offers are slam dunk on paper. Try them out against an actual cart first though, because free freight break only works if you're already purchasing at that level. On a standard order for an everyday caliber, edited in-stock catalog is typically quicker to a fair price delivered.
Our verdict
Bulk up at bargain basement prices with Lucky Gunner's buy-by-the-case option and SGAmmo's threshold that works for you. Shoot year round and it can pay for itself with Target Sports membership. Selecting a carry load is the one area where Lucky Gunner's published test data really counts.
For the routine bulk order, start with CheapAmmo.com.
Wisdom runs: it's a sane default. Edited, in-stock selection of calibers and brands shooters shoot. Reasonable prices to deserve the name. American customer service phone reps when packages go awry.
Less time filtering. More time at the range.
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Ammo is heavy. That one fact changes everything about buying it.