18+ Content Warning

By clicking Enter, you confirm you are 18 years of age or older and agree to comply with all applicable local, state, and federal laws.

Notice: Any content or member activity - including anything you may buy, sell, transfer, or discuss - must comply with current and upcoming laws.

Members are encouraged to stay informed: California Firearm Laws: 2026 Outlook & 2025 Recap . Responsibility for compliance rests solely with the individual member.

What's new
caguns.net

Welcome to CAguns.net!
Join our growing community where you can ask questions, share knowledge, or browse our classifieds section.

Sign up for a free account today and unlock full access! Once registered, you can search, post, and take advantage of exclusive features unavailable to guests.

A note on why more of the site now requires an account: automated scrapers and AI systems have been crawling our forums and classifieds at a scale. Requiring sign-in for those sections is the most effective tool we have. It takes a minute to register, it's free, and it keeps what happens here between actual members.

New to California gun ownership or trying to keep up with the changing laws? Check out our sister site CA2A.com — free courses, plain-English legal updates, and step-by-step guides built for California owners.

Advanced features are available only to registered members. Register today!

What's your go to shop get lead free ammo?

Vtec44 said:
Oops I should have mentioned my location. I'm in So Cal. I've been using local Turners but their inventory and selection are slim picking lol
Click to expand...
I have my own FFL and order online from wherever it is cheapest. Best thing i ever did since 2019. Screw CA and its inflated pricing.
 
I’m way up north. The ace hardware in Eureka has a little high prices for normal but they do sales all the time where the prices are better than sportsman’s. Also, after deer season they clearance a lot of the hunting ammo at really low prices. Last year I bought 12 boxes of sellior and bellot 165 grain .308 ballistic tip copper for $16.89 a box
 
Vtec44 said:
Oops I should have mentioned my location. I'm in So Cal. I've been using local Turners but their inventory and selection are slim picking lol
Click to expand...
What caliber are you looking for lead free; any grain or brand preference?

oops for me as well as I thought your question was more store oriented compared to internet order oriented. For store oriented; I’m a Nor-Cal guy. However, for lead free I would just find a hunting oriented store for mom and pop or look around on the online inventory at sportsman warehouse and ship to store; sometimes the tactical mom and pop shops can order it for you from their distributors even if they don’t have it in stock inside the store. Some tactical shops have been carrying the fort Scott munition tumble upon impact. 7mm-08 in fort Scott groups tighter for me than Barnes ttsx 120 grain at 100 yards in my Ruger American.

I’ve stopped buying ammo in store ever since I acquired my 03/coe; besides the one time recently I bought a 20 round box of pmc .308 as apart of a ppt thank you to the mom and pop shop, including excise tax, I paid double the price of what I could have bought online. $31 vs. $17/$18

Budsgunshop has a larger in stock inventory for selection of lead free; however they charge more for shipping. They are a hassle because they need to manually input the order for you using the credentials for exemption. You can’t just order it yourself for ship to home through the add to cart route.

Target sports is my convenient ordering process for lead ammo in general however I feel like for lead free they have options but limited in stock options which makes less choices.
 
Ever thought about hand loading? A lot of factory loads haven't worked out for me. Actually, none of them have. Loading my own has made all the difference going from 4" groups to 1.5" or better.
 
Soless said:
Ever thought about hand loading? A lot of factory loads haven't worked out for me. Actually, none of them have. Loading my own has made all the difference going from 4" groups to 1.5" or better.
Click to expand...

I thought about it. What are some of the places for me to go and read up on it? I don't even know where to start to be honest.
 
Vtec44 said:
I thought about it. What are some of the places for me to go and read up on it? I don't even know where to start to be honest.
Click to expand...
Any reloading manual will touch on every aspect about the process and explain the how's, why's. Berger touches on seating depth which affects accuracy especially with mono's. Youtube is saturated with tutorials. Many of which show theoad development process and results at the range of the chosen bullet, powder charge, seating depth etc.
 
Vtec44 said:
I thought about it. What are some of the places for me to go and read up on it? I don't even know where to start to be honest.
Click to expand...
Read my stickied threads on calguns.

Randall's "match ammo is too expensive" list. - Calguns.net

I wrote this for the precision rifle forum, but it's probably worth posting here too. It's inevitable that new precision rifle shooters will want to start reloading soon after they get into our sport. I have worked up two lists, one high-end and one low-end. This is the complete setup of tools...
www.calguns.net
 
Last edited:
PlinkyDinky said:
Does that mean you don't have to pay the excise tax? That alone would make it worth the effort!
Click to expand...
Only CA firearms dealers can collect the excise tax.
If you legally get your ammo from a source outside of CA using your 03FFL and COE, there will not be a way for excise tax to be collected by a CA firearms dealer since there was no CA firearms dealer involved in the transaction.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom