SendRounds
Methodology

How SendRounds Works

Last updated: May 28, 2026

Every ammo retailer puts the cheapest number on the product page. That number is incomplete. Shipping changes what you actually pay. SendRounds adds estimated shipping before you click Buy. Tax stays out because it depends on your state.

Data source

Retailer catalogs update daily. We use structured feeds, public product indexes, and retailer pages where feeds are not available.

Current prices

Current listings use products we saw in stock during the latest ingest. Products with bad round counts stay out.

Price history

Archived r/gundeals posts provide the older price history. Recent prices come from live retailer data.

The Formula
true cost per round = (listed price + estimated shipping) ÷ round count

The math is simple. The work is in collecting accurate inputs for every product, every day.

How we collect prices

We pull current prices from structured feeds, CJ catalogs, public product indexes, and retailer pages. The source varies by retailer, but the target is the same: current in-stock listings with enough detail to calculate price per round.

The pipeline runs daily. Products that go out of stock drop off within 24 hours. Products that come back in stock reappear.

Where the historical data comes from

The caliber guides and Ammo Index charts go back to 2013. That data doesn't come from our scrapers. We weren't around then. It comes from archived community deal posts: prices that gun owners logged in real time when retailers ran sales. Price, round count, retailer, date.

Early data is sparse. 2015–2017 runs about 3 samples per caliber per month, enough to see the trend but not enough to call it precise. From 2020 onward sample density increases sharply: 22–64 data points per caliber per month through 2025. Recent history is solid. Earlier history is directionally accurate.

Live prices come from our daily retailer scrapes. The handoff point is visible on the charts: historical data ends where live data begins.

How we extract round count

Retailers title things like "Blazer Brass 9mm 115gr FMJ 1000 Rounds" or "500 Round Case – .308 Win 147gr FMJ." We use Claude to parse those titles and pull out round count, caliber, grain weight, bullet type, and casing.

Round count is the denominator. A $220 case of 1000 rounds is $0.22/rd. A $22 box of 50 is $0.44/rd. Comparing prices without it is useless.

Products with no reliable round count get excluded. Components (brass, primers) get excluded. We only index loaded ammo.

How we estimate shipping

We encode shipping policies for active retailers we track. Shipping is still an estimate: cart size, destination, coupons, and retailer changes can move the final number. The point is simple. A shipping-included estimate beats sorting by the headline price and pretending freight is free.

Retailer Current source Coverage
AmmoToGo Retailer catalog Active true-cost estimate
Ammunition Depot CJ catalog Active true-cost estimate
Bulk Ammo Retailer catalog Active true-cost estimate
Fenix Ammunition Retailer catalog Active true-cost estimate
Freedom Munitions Retailer catalog Active true-cost estimate
Lucky Gunner Retailer page data Active true-cost estimate
Natchez Shooting Supplies Retailer catalog Active true-cost estimate
SGAmmo Retailer catalog Active true-cost estimate
Sportsman's Guide CJ catalog Active true-cost estimate
TargetSportsUSA Retailer page data Active true-cost estimate
True Shot Gun Club Retailer catalog Active true-cost estimate
Velocity Ammunition Retailer catalog Active true-cost estimate
Widener's Public product index Active true-cost estimate

Always verify the final checkout total before buying. SendRounds gets you closer before the click. The retailer's cart is still the final word.

On "hazmat fees"

A lot of people think ammo shipping triggers a $27.50 hazmat surcharge. It doesn't. Not for loaded rounds.

Loaded cartridges fall under DOT "Limited Quantity / Cartridges, Small Arms (1.4S)." UPS and FedEx don't apply a dangerous goods surcharge to that classification. The $27.50 hazmat fee is for primers and smokeless powder. Our estimates reflect this: hazmat = $0 for all loaded ammo.

On tax

We don't add state tax to the estimate. Rates vary too much and some states exempt ammo entirely. You know your state. We don't.

The ammo index

The SendRounds Ammo Index has two parts. Buy Score is the headline number: a 0-100 read on whether current shipped prices, deal depth, and product freshness make this a good time to buy.

Market Pressure is context: a separate sourced view of forces that could push prices up or tighten supply. It does not move Buy Score. We keep the two separate so news cannot manufacture a better or worse buying signal when retailer data has not changed.

The historical chart is monthly context. The current Buy Score comes from daily SendRounds product data. Historical coverage spans over a decade of real prices from in-stock listings and archived deal posts, not manufacturer list prices.

Buy Score Primary

Current shipped price per round, deal depth, and freshness. Stock breadth is tracked, not scored in V1.

Market Pressure Context

Sourced pressure drivers such as published policy, tariff, manufacturer, and supply-chain events.

What is not included

We do not include AI/deepfake risk, generic threat scores, regional crime, weather, forum sentiment, or unsourced political chatter. If it cannot be measured or sourced, it stays out.

What we don't do

We don't sell ammo. We're a price aggregator. All transactions happen on the retailer's site under their terms.
We don't guarantee prices. Prices change. A price accurate at 6am may be different by noon. Always verify at checkout before purchasing.
We don't show out-of-stock products. If it's on SendRounds, it was in stock the last time we checked. If the retailer runs out before you click Buy, that's a data lag, not a false listing.
We don't rank by commission. Results are sorted by true cost per round, ascending. No placement fees, no featured slots, no paid rankings.

Retailer coverage

We currently index active retailers including: AmmoToGo, Ammunition Depot, Bulk Ammo, Fenix Ammunition, Freedom Munitions, Lucky Gunner, Natchez Shooting Supplies, SGAmmo, Sportsman's Guide, TargetSportsUSA, True Shot Gun Club, Velocity Ammunition, and Widener's.

If you're a retailer and want to be listed, apply here. It's free.

Questions or corrections

If you spot a price that looks wrong, a shipping policy that's changed, or a product that shouldn't be in the index, email hello@sendrounds.com. We take data quality seriously.

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