William Berger
Chief Executive Officer
Bought the store because it was worth keeping, and is usually the one behind the counter.
Locally owned · Kearny Mesa
A corporate chain closed its stores. One person who had already worked every job in the business took over the San Diego location and kept the doors open. That is the whole story, and the rest of this page is the detail.
How This Store Ended Up Locally Owned
LAX Ammo San Diego is owned and run by William, who has spent more than a decade in the ammunition business. Not a decade of owning one — a decade of working in one, at every level there is.
He started in the warehouse. Then the register, then the sales floor, then managing a store, then a region, and eventually buying in as a partner. By the time he had any say in how a store got run, he had already done every job inside it. That is a different education from the one you get starting at the top, and it shows up in small ways: he knows what the shelf looks like at 5:45 on a Friday, he knows what a distributor backorder actually means, and he knows exactly how it feels to be the person at the register who has to tell somebody their eligibility check came back denied.
When the corporate operation closed its stores down, the San Diego location was on the list. William did not walk away from it. He took it over and kept the doors open — same building in Kearny Mesa, same counter, new ownership. What used to be one pin on a corporate map is now a locally owned, community-built ammo shop operating under the LAX name. It has a mom-and-pop feel because that is precisely what it is now.
Why He Bought It
Two reasons, and he is direct about both. The first is the customers: a neighborhood full of people were about to lose the store they had been using, and he wanted to keep it there for them and to support the Second Amendment in a state where buying a box of ammunition takes more paperwork than most people expect.
The second is a gap he had watched from the inside for years. Too many ammo shops treat customer service as an afterthought. You get a shrug, a guess about stock, or a push toward whatever carries the best margin that week. Having spent a decade on both sides of that counter, he knew it could be done better, and he knew exactly which parts to fix.
There is no origin myth here and nothing dramatic about it. Somebody who understood the business well enough to run it decided the store was worth keeping, and bought it.
Over a decade in the business
Every Job in the Store, in Order
Each of these was a real job he held, in this sequence, before the one that follows it. Read top to bottom and the case for trusting the advice at this counter makes itself.
Warehouse
Started on the warehouse floor. Pallets, pick lists, case counts. It is where you learn what a hundred thousand rounds actually looks like, and how often the box on the shelf and the number in the system disagree.
Cashier
Ran the register. Every eligibility check, every ID question, every customer who walked in with a caliber written on a scrap of paper. Thousands of transactions, one at a time, and no way to hide from a bad one.
Sales Associate
Moved to the floor full time. This is where you learn to ask what somebody is actually shooting before recommending anything — and that the honest answer is sometimes “not today, try us next week.”
Store Manager
Responsible for a whole store: hiring, scheduling, ordering, and what does and does not go on the shelf. The first time stock levels and the customer experience both landed on one person.
Regional Manager
Several locations, several teams. Same pattern in every one of them: the stores that did well were the stores where staff took the time with people, and the ones that struggled were the ones that did not.
Partner
Bought into the business. Learned the side most retail employees never see — margins, freight, why a caliber vanishes for six months, and what it genuinely costs to keep a shelf stocked in California.
Owner, LAX Ammo San Diego
When the corporate operation closed stores down, William took over the San Diego location instead of letting it go dark. Same address, same counter, locally owned from that point on.
Under new ownership
What Changed When He Took Over
Three things, chosen because they were the three complaints he had heard most often from the other side of the counter.
Customer Service Comes First
Not a slogan on a wall. It means somebody asks what you are shooting before pointing at a shelf, and it means a straight “we are out of that right now” instead of a guess that wastes your drive. If you are new, you get an explanation. If you have been shooting for forty years, you get left alone to shop. Both of those are service.
Pricing You Can Check
Pricing is set to be competitive here in San Diego, and we will give you ours over the phone. You will not find prices on this site — ammunition pricing moves, and a number published here would be wrong within a week. Call and ask, and you get today’s answer instead of last month’s.
A Leaner Team
Fewer people, each of whom knows what is actually on the shelf. That is why you rarely get handed off to somebody else, and why nobody has to disappear into the back for ten minutes to find out whether we have your caliber.
How this counter works
Everyone Gets the Same Respect
Everyone who walks through the door gets the same respect and attention — whether it is your first box of ammo or your thousandth.
If you are buying your first box, say so. Nobody here will make you feel foolish for asking what separates a target load from a defensive one, or for not knowing which check you are about to go through at the register. Those are good questions. We would much rather answer them than watch somebody buy the wrong thing because they were too embarrassed to ask.
That goes double for anyone who has been talked over, talked down to, or sold something they never asked for somewhere else. We hear that most often from women and from first-time buyers, and it is simply not how this store operates.
Some people want to be in and out in ninety seconds, and they can be. Others want to stand at the counter, hold the box, and have somebody explain it properly — and they can do that too. Nobody gets hurried along because a line formed. The line waits, and then the line gets the same treatment.
Se habla español. William is fluent, so a conversation in Spanish here is just a conversation, not an inconvenience for anybody. If English is not your first language and you would rather take your time with it, take your time.
San Diego being San Diego, a good share of our customers are active duty, veterans or law enforcement, and plenty of others are neighbors who stop in on the way home. Families come in together. Regulars who have been shooting since before some of this staff was born come in weekly. None of them is a VIP and none of them is an afterthought — that is the entire point.
The ballistics chart on the wall gets pointed at a lot. Easier than a lecture.
Straight answer
The Store Today
New ownership means rebuilding distributor relationships one at a time, and that does not happen in a week.
Here is the honest version: we are building up our inventory over the next few months. Some weeks the caliber you want is sitting on the shelf, and some weeks it is not there yet. Anybody in this business who tells you their shelf is never short is telling you what you want to hear.
What that means for you is simple. If you need something specific, call before you drive out. You will get what is actually on the shelf right now rather than what we hope will be there, and if it is not in, we will tell you roughly when we expect it instead of stringing you along. If you want to know the moment something lands, call or text and ask us to keep an eye out — there is no mailing list to join and nobody here is collecting your address.
On the Shelf Now
- Pistol AmmoRange · Self-Defense · Match
- Rifle AmmoRange · Match · Hunting
- Rimfire AmmoRange · Training · Match · Small game
- Shotgun AmmoClays / Target · Home Defense · Hunting
Plus the accessories that actually get used: hearing & eye protection, targets, cleaning & maintenance, storage & carry. Nothing on this site is priced, by choice — call the shop or ask at the counter and you get the current number.
Brands We Carry
- LAX Ammunition
- Freedom Munitions
- Winchester
- Federal
- CCI
- Remington
- Hornady
- Speer
- Browning
- PMC
- PPU
- Sellier & Bellot
- Fiocchi
- Norma
- Barnes
- SK
Behind the counter
The Team
Four roles, three of them the same guy. That is not a typo — it is a small store, and somebody has to sign everything.
William Berger
Chief Operating Officer
William Berger
Chief Financial Officer
Yes, still him.
Diego La Garde
Chief Marketing Officer
Runs the site, the deals board and everything you are reading.
Set expectations, save the drive
What We Sell — and What We Do Not
Better you read this here than find out after parking. We would rather lose the visit than waste your afternoon.
We Sell
- Pistol Ammo — range, self-defense, match.
- Rifle Ammo — range, match, hunting.
- Rimfire Ammo — range, training, match, small game.
- Shotgun Ammo — clays / target, home defense, hunting.
- Hearing & Eye Protection — Electronic muffs, passive muffs, plugs and shooting glasses.
- Targets — Splatter targets, paper silhouettes and stands.
- Cleaning & Maintenance — Caliber-specific cleaning kits, solvents, rods and patches.
- Storage & Carry — Ammo cans, range bags, cases and magazines.
We Do Not
- Firearms
- We do not sell guns of any kind — no handguns, no rifles, no shotguns, no transfers. Ammunition and accessories only. If you need a firearm, you need a licensed dealer, and that is not us.
- Range Time
- There is no shooting range at this location. It is a retail store at 4411 Mercury St in Kearny Mesa, not a facility you can shoot at. Plenty of San Diego ranges are a short drive away, and we are happy to point you at one.
- Online Checkout
- There is no cart on this site, no online payment and no shipping. This site is a catalog so you know what to expect before you come in. Every purchase happens at the counter.
- Delivery to Your Door
- California requires ammunition to be handed over face to face by a licensed vendor, so nobody can lawfully drop a box of ammo on your porch. That is state law, not a store policy.
This is general information, not legal advice, and the rules change. Our full California explainer was last reviewed on — read how California's ammo law works for the current detail, or go straight to the California DOJ Ammunition Purchase Authorization Program page. If you have an unusual situation, talk to a California firearms attorney rather than to us.
Keep going
Where to Go Next
Three pages that answer most of what people ask after reading this one.
- Browse the ammo catalog by caliberPistol, rifle, rimfire and shotgun, with what each load is actually good for. Call for pricing, buy in store.
- Understand California’s ammo eligibility checkWhat to bring, which check you will get, and the free fix that keeps you off the slow one. Plain English, no scare tactics.
- Get directions, hours and our phone numberWhere to find us in Kearny Mesa, when we are open, and the fastest way to reach a human.
Still easier to just ask? Call the shop and somebody who knows the shelf will pick up. We will tell you straight whether your caliber is in today. Deals are in-store only and our current in-store deals change week to week, and the frequently asked questions page covers returns, our 90-day defective-ammo warranty and what to bring with you.
Se habla español
Questions? Stock? Deals?
Come by, or just ask us first
The owner is usually the one behind the counter. Call or text before you drive out and you'll get a straight answer about what's on the shelf, what it costs today, and what to bring.
Se habla español. Or see hours, the map and how to reach us.
