Ammo buying guide

Your firearm's barrel or slide is stamped with its chambering — that exact cartridge is what you buy. Similar names are not the same round: .223 Remington and 5.56 NATO differ in pressure (a 5.56-stamped rifle shoots both; a .223-only chamber should stick to .223). 380 ACP is not 9mm; .308 Winchester and 7.62×51 are close cousins with the same caveat; 12-gauge shells come in 2¾", 3", and 3½" — check what your shotgun's chamber accepts. When in doubt, the owner's manual settles it. Every listing on our site shows the exact cartridge, and you can filter the ammo section by caliber.

"Grain" (gr) is the bullet's weight — 7,000 grains to the pound. Lighter bullets leave faster and shoot flatter; heavier bullets buck wind better, hit harder, and run quieter through a suppressor. Practical defaults: 9mm — 115gr or 124gr for practice, 124gr/147gr for defense loads; 5.56 — 55gr for general range use, 62–77gr for duty or precision (check your twist rate — 1:7/1:8 handles all of it); .308 — 147–150gr practice, 168–175gr match. Consistency matters more than the specific number: zero your optic with the load you actually shoot.

• FMJ (full metal jacket): the standard practice round — cheap, clean-feeding, no expansion. Range days and stockpiles.
• JHP (jacketed hollow point): expands on impact, transferring energy and reducing overpenetration — the standard choice for defense. Buy enough to verify your gun feeds it reliably.
• SP (soft point): the classic hunting bullet — controlled expansion for game.
• OTM/BTHP (open-tip match): precision bullets built for consistency, not expansion. For accuracy work.
• +P: loaded to higher pressure for more velocity. Only in firearms rated for it — check the manual.

Brass-cased ammo runs cleaner, extracts more smoothly, and is reloadable. Steel-cased is cheaper per round and fine for high-volume range use in guns that tolerate it (some ranges ban it — bimetal jackets trip their magnet test). If the price gap is small, buy brass.

Box prices hide the real cost: a $14.99 box of 20 is 75¢/round; a $24.99 box of 50 is 50¢/round. Every ammo listing on our site shows per-round pricing so the comparison is done for you. Case quantities (500–1,000 rounds) are almost always the best cost per round, and ammo stores essentially forever kept cool, dry, and sealed — the factory packaging in a closet is fine. One habit worth keeping: when you find a load your gun shoots well, buy deep from the same lot.

Factory ammunition ships by ground service directly to your door in most states — no FFL involved. A handful of states regulate ammo delivery (for example, New York routes ammunition through a licensed dealer, and California requires an in-state licensed vendor we don't currently support). Our checkout applies your state's rules automatically: it will route your order to a dealer where that's the lawful path, or tell you up front if we can't ship — before you pay. Full details on our shipping page.