LAX Ammo San Diego FAQ

Because the two are different kinds of number. A deal is a fixed price on a fixed quantity for one fixed week, so we publish it in full — it holds for as long as the deal runs, and you can read the whole board before you leave the house. Catalog pricing moves with the wholesale market, and a figure printed next to a caliber here would be stale within weeks; a stale number is worse than no number, because it either costs you a wasted trip or costs us your trust at the counter. So we quote the catalog on the phone instead. Call, tell us the box and the quantity, and you get today's real figure from somebody looking at the shelf.

We work at it, and hardest of all on the high-volume calibers people buy by the case. What we won't do is promise to beat a number we haven't seen — anyone can post a figure that doesn't survive contact with shipping, fees or a hazmat charge. Tell us what you were quoted and what you're actually after, and we'll tell you straight where we land on it.

No. California law requires every ammunition transfer to happen face to face at a licensed vendor, so an ammunition purchase has to finish at our counter no matter where it started — anyone offering to deliver ammunition to a California doorstep is not complying with state law. Accessories aren't sold online either, but that one is simply how we're set up: there's no cart and no checkout on this site, and we don't ship.

Yes. Call 858-987-0509, tell us the caliber, the load and the quantity, and we'll hold it at the counter under your name for 24 hours. After that it goes back on the shelf, because somebody else is usually asking for the same thing. If a day genuinely isn't enough — you're driving in from the far end of the county, or you can't get here until the weekend — say so on the phone and we'll tell you straight what we can do.

Yes — it's the single best way to avoid a wasted trip. We're building up our inventory over the next few months, so what's on the shelf genuinely changes week to week. One call to 858-987-0509 tells you whether your caliber is here right now, and if it isn't, roughly when we expect it back.

Cash, credit and debit at the counter. Everything is paid in person at the time you pick it up — there's no online payment, no deposit link and no invoicing. If you're buying ammunition, bring your ID: the eligibility check needs it before any money changes hands.

Match the chambering exactly, and let us check it with you. Almost every firearm has the chambering stamped on the barrel or the slide, and it's in the owner's manual as well — bring the manual, a photo of that stamp, or just the make, model and chambering, and we'll match the caliber and the type at the counter. Close is not the same thing: several cartridge names look nearly identical and are not interchangeable, and that is the one mistake at this counter that can actually hurt somebody. Ask every single time you're unsure, including on a gun you've owned for years.

New ammunition is built entirely from new components: new brass case, new primer, new powder, new projectile. Remanufactured ammunition takes once-fired brass, inspects it, cleans and resizes it, and loads it again with a new primer, new powder and a new bullet. The case is the expensive part, so reusing it is what makes reman the cheaper way to shoot volume. Everything else is the same job done with a recycled case.

Reman from a reputable loader is loaded to the same specifications as new, and high-volume shooters and competitors have run it for decades. It's the right choice for practice, drills and any range day where round count matters most. Choose new for self-defense, for duty use, for hunting, and for anything where you want a factory warranty behind the box. Tell us the gun and what you're doing with it and we'll tell you which one we'd put through it.

Range ammunition is usually full metal jacket — built to feed reliably and punch clean holes in paper, and that's the whole job. Self-defense ammunition uses a hollow point engineered to expand on impact and limit over-penetration, which is why most people practice with FMJ and carry hollow points. Hunting loads are chosen for the animal and the distance, and California has its own rules about hunting ammunition, so ask us before the season rather than after. Whatever you carry, run a few of those exact rounds through your gun first to confirm it feeds them.

Grain is a unit of weight — there are 7,000 of them in a pound — and on an ammunition box it refers to the weight of the bullet, not the powder. Within one caliber, a heavier bullet generally leaves the muzzle slower, carries more momentum and recoils a little more; a lighter one is faster and shoots flatter. Both will work in a gun chambered for that caliber, they just print in slightly different places on the target. Pick a weight, shoot enough of it to learn where it lands, and stay with it for anything that matters.

If you have the choice, start with .22 LR: it's quiet, it barely recoils, and it's the cheapest way to build real skill. Nobody ever learned to shoot faster by starting with something that hurts. Add hearing protection you'll actually keep on, eye protection, and a target or two. Then bring the gun's manual or a photo of the barrel stamp when you come in — that stamp tells us the chambering, and matching ammunition to it is the one thing you can't get wrong. There is no dumb question at this counter.

No — all ammunition sales are final. That's standard across the trade, and it exists for a safety reason: once a box leaves the store there's no way for us to verify how it was stored or handled, and we won't put a box back on the shelf that we can't vouch for. Check the caliber on the box against the stamp on your barrel before you leave the counter, and ask if you're not certain. We'd far rather answer the question twice.

Defective ammunition is covered by a 90-day warranty from the date of purchase. Stop shooting it the moment something isn't right — don't work through the box to see whether it happens again — then bring in the remaining rounds, the box and your receipt and tell us what the gun did, how many rounds in, and whether it repeated. If you'd rather describe it before driving out, call 858-987-0509 first.

Yes, as long as the product hasn't been opened. Unopened accessories are returnable until the end of the calendar month you bought them in — bring the item in its original packaging along with your receipt. Once a product has been opened there's no return on it. Note that the cut-off is the end of the calendar month rather than a rolling thirty days, so a late-month purchase gives you a short window.

Call the store first — most things get sorted in one call by whoever picks up. If it needs to be written down or passed to someone else, email support@laxammosd.com with what happened, when it happened, and your receipt details if you have them. For a general question rather than a problem, info@laxammosd.com is the right address. Either way, tell us: we can't fix what we don't hear about.