4411 Mercury St, Suite 103 · Kearny Mesa, San Diego
Every option, including the ones that are not us
Ammunition specialists, gun shops, ranges with a retail counter, and online orders that still end at a California counter. Sorted by the job you are doing.
How to read this page
Two of the five answers below send you somewhere that is not us.
One rule applies to every option here. In California, ammunition changes hands face to face at a licensed vendor. Shop, range or national website, the last step is identical: a person in California hands it over after a DOJ eligibility check. So the question is not whether you stand at a counter. It is which one.
We are one of them. Our scope, in case it rules us out: ammunition and accessories, no firearms, no range. Se habla español.
Every business below was read on its own website on and described the way it describes itself. Nobody paid to be listed, and there are no prices — we cannot verify anybody else's, and ours move weekly.
Five jobs, five honest answers
Find the line that sounds like your week.
Two kinds of counter do this well, and they are different visits. Where ammunition is the main line, you are talking to somebody whose whole day is ammunition: bullet weights, what a pistol feeds, what a range allows. At a gun shop you can add a holster or an optic in the same stop.
Worth knowingEither way, call ahead with the exact load. No shop's website is a live inventory feed, ours included.
Start at a range, not at us. One with its own retail counter turns two errands into one, and rentals let you try a gun you do not own. Four are listed below.
Worth knowingThere is no range at our store. If shooting today is the point, a stop in Kearny Mesa first only costs you daylight.
Not here — ammunition and accessories only, and we do not transfer firearms. California adds a written safety-certificate test and a waiting period, so you want a dealer who does this daily. The shops and ranges below sell firearms.
Worth knowingA firearm and ammunition are separate transactions under California law. One trip is convenient, not required.
No web page can answer that honestly — a search for the cheapest ammunition ranks pages, not price tags. What genuinely moves your cost per round: buying by the case, choosing remanufactured where the job allows, and the state eligibility fee, charged per transaction rather than per round.
Worth knowingPhone two or three counters with the exact load and quantity. Ten minutes beats any article, ours included.
You can, but it cannot be delivered to your door. The California DOJ is plain: ammunition acquired outside California must first be delivered to a licensed California ammunition vendor. So the order ends the way a walk-in does, plus shipping and a wait.
Worth knowingBefore paying for shipping, confirm the seller ships to California, and that your chosen vendor accepts inbound deliveries.
The check is identical wherever you go: how it works, why checks fail, range line rules.
Read on their own sites
Described in their own terms, and rated against nothing.
A lane and a shop in one building.
7853 Balboa Avenue, San Diego
Their site lists thirteen automated 25-yard lanes, firearm rentals, a retail store, memberships and classes from first-timer through CCW.
Good forShooting the same afternoon, in central San Diego.Their site
13550 Danielson St, Poway
Their site lists indoor ranges, training, retail sales, gunsmithing and rentals; their online store carries ammunition.
Good forA lane, a lesson and a gunsmith in one building.Their site
El Cajon, in the Rancho San Diego community
They call themselves the county's largest shooting sports retail store: indoor and outdoor ranges, firearms, ammunition, rentals, training.
Good forOutdoor shooting and clays, east county.Their site
618 Airport Rd, Oceanside
Their site lists 24 lanes across a 25-yard rifle range and a 15-yard pistol range, plus rentals, instruction and a store at the range.
Good forNorth County shooters.Their site
Ammunition beside everything else — one stop if the trip also includes a firearm or an optic.
8199 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, San Diego · 841 Arnele Ave, El Cajon · 2085 Montiel Road, San Marcos
A California chain with three county stores, covering guns, ammunition, optics, archery, fishing, hunting and courses.
Good forA firearm, an optic and hunting gear in one trip.Their site
4891 Convoy Street, San Diego
They call themselves San Diego's premier firearm dealer, with new and used firearms plus ammunition, and advertise the county's largest used gun selection.
Good forUsed and collectible firearms.Their site
1619 Grand Ave, San Marcos
Nearly seventy years in business by their own account: handguns, shotguns, rifles, ammunition, optics and safes, plus gunsmithing.
Good forGunsmithing, and North County.Their site
A real option. It ships to a licensed California vendor rather than to you, and you collect it in person after the usual check — the DOJ's rule, not a seller's policy. Add shipping, a charge and the wait.
First person, no rankings
Everything above is a fact about somebody else's business. This one is about ours.
Ammunition is the whole counter here, not one aisle of a larger store. That is a statement about our floor plan rather than anybody else's — a shop that also sells rifles, safes and fishing rods is solving a broader problem, and on the day you want all three it is the better trip.
What it buys you is the conversation: which bullet weight suits your gun, what a range allows on its line, what the DOJ check will make of your record.
When we are the wrong stop
A firearm. A lane this afternoon. A scope mounted. A gunsmith. A reloading press. Ammunition delivered to your door, which nobody in this state can do. We sell none of those, and the list above is where we would send our own family.
Common questions
Answered the way we answer them on the phone.
There is no single answer, and any store telling you there is has an interest in the outcome. If ammunition is all you need, a counter where ammunition is the main line goes deeper on load selection. Shooting the same day? A range with a retail counter saves a stop. Buying a firearm too? A gun shop is one errand, not three.
No. The California DOJ states that ammunition acquired outside California must first be delivered to a licensed California ammunition vendor. Ordering online is legal; home delivery is not. Your order ships to a vendor, who runs the usual eligibility check and hands it over in person.
That varies by shop, by week and by caliber, so nobody can answer it in the abstract. What reliably changes your cost per round is buying by the case rather than the box, choosing remanufactured where the job allows, and consolidating trips — the eligibility fee is per transaction, not per round.
Neither. We sell ammunition and accessories only, and there is no range at the Kearny Mesa store. If you want a firearm, a lane today, a scope mounted or a gunsmith, this page lists businesses that do.
Questions? Stock? Deals?
Tell us what you are trying to do and we will point you at the right one, even when it is not us.
Se habla español. Or see hours, the map and how to reach us.
Businesses last read on their own sites:
Every description above came from that business's own website on the date shown, never a directory or a review site. Anything we could not verify there — an address, a service, a change of ownership — was left out rather than guessed at, which is why this list is shorter than the county's. These are independent businesses that can change what they offer tomorrow, so their own site beats this page. Nothing here is an endorsement and nobody paid to appear.
General information, not legal advice. The full explainer is how to buy ammo in California, last reviewed ; the official source is the California DOJ — Ammunition Purchase Authorization Program.
Closed Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
Calls only
310-499-3499Text only
Text anytime. Anytime — immediate during business hours, forwarded after hours.
Se habla español
How California's ammo law works