At the end of last month I got a really cool email from Lucky Gunner. Lucky Gunner is an online ammo company and Russ wanted to know if I wanted some free ammo to shoot. My first thought, of course! Who wouldn’t want free ammo. But I had to write him back and say I’ll do the test as long as I can write about exactly what I found, good or bad. I also told him it’s been almost 10 years since I ordered ammo from the Internet. He said that was fine and wanted to know what I shot. I gave him my list of what I train with the most (9mm, .32 ACP, 5.56mm, and 7.62×39). I also told him I could get rid of some .45, .44, .22, or .38s. He sent me two boxes of .32 ACP Magtech 65 GR JHP. I carry a .32 Kel-Tec P32 as a back up and when I can’t carry my Glock.
I received an email order confirmation that an order had been placed for me with a gift card. The next day I got another email saying my order had been shipped. Two days later I got an awesome little box in the mail.
It looks like they just put an order in for me and didn’t treat me special. In the military and as a contractor my company was sent things but they just showed up in the mail. I never got any order confirmations. So it appears they have enough faith in their system to get things out on time.
I wanted to do a pour-man’s ballistic test on the ammo along with my current .32 carry load (Speer Gold Dots). So I was going to test Lucky Gunner for sure and buy extra Speer Gold Dots. The price was right, until shipping was added. Ammo is heavy and expensive to ship. 20 Rounds is $26 (I love that they put $26 instead of $25.99), which is about the going rate. Then I added shipping and it was another $13.49. Too expensive for my blood, so I started looking at other prices on the site.
Lucky Gunner comes into something when you start looking at buying in bulk or buying things you can’t find at your local store. Since I shoot a 9mm (because it’s the cheapest center fire handgun round) I looked at 9mm in bulk. The following is an accountant’s analysis of Lucky Gunner’s prices. I pulled prices from the Lucky Gunner and Academy Outdoor web site on May 7. I’ve been buying ammo from Academy for the last couple years and found that their online price matches what I find in the stores. I used the cheapest ammo each had and then compared prices on ammo they both stocked.
If you look close, Monarch steel case ammo is the cheapest stuff I can find. For practice it doesn’t bother me to shoot. It does recoil noticeably more then Federal, Sellier & Ballet, or Winchester. Before I found Lucky Gunner I would buy Winchester White box to shoot competitions, but I think I’ll start shooting Blazer. I’ve shot tons of this stuff in .45 and never had an issue. (Special Note: Lucky Gunner has brass cased Blazer 9mm ammo on sale for cheaper then the aluminum stuff right now). At the bottom of the chart you can see if you are going to buy large amounts of defense ammo Lucky Gunner is considerably cheaper then my local Academy.
The Lucky Gunner site says it keeps everything up to date and it looks like it’s true. In the time it took me to finish this post, Hornady Critical Duty ammo is no longer listed on the site.
I’m saving my pennies and next month will be ordering a case of Blazer ammo. I’ve looked at the Lucky Gunner site for a couple weeks now and they rotate sales almost daily, so check them out and find something you like on sale. When looking at ammo prices, sit down and do the math. Remember to factor in sales tax and/or shipping costs. I would also say that paying a little more to a place that is in the firearms business and that will continue to help you in the future is worth it. Lucky Gunner is a new player but after dealing with them I think they will be around for a long time to come.
Hat tip to Russ at Lucky Gunner that set all this up, found my web site, and sent me some free ammo!
Stay Safe,
Ben