If you are like me, you may buy one or
two guns per year. A bulk of your 2A enjoyment spending is spent on
ammunition and accessories. If you are only buying a few guns a year,
a membership in a buying club may not be worth it, as it doesn't take
too long to look all around to see who has the best price on those
few guns a year. However, with all the shopping time you spend buying
accessories and ammunition you may be tempted to join one of those
buying clubs. With all the time I have on my hands with being
recently laid off and looking for a job during “The Pandemic of
2020” I figured I would do a little comparison by building the
same shopping cart at several sites. I had to substitute some of the
ammunition a couple of times with a similar product, as you would
expect. My cart consisted of: One CMMG .22LR AR Conversion Kit (1
mag); 1350 Rounds of .22LR; A box of 20 of 30-30 Winchester (150g
Core Bonded); A box of 10 CCI .40 S&W Shotshells. (Fishing –
Water Moccasin Dispatchers!)
The two buyer's clubs I compared were
NGOA (National Gun Owners Association) and Big Daddy Unlimited. For
the traditional online storefront comparison, I used Bass Pro,
Tombstone Tactical, and Battlehawk Armory. I wanted to use Academy
Sports and Outdoors and GrabAGun, however they didn't stock many of
the items I was using or their substitutes for the comparison. It is
also of note that NGOA says to call them directly for the best
pricing when placing an order. However, I just used their advertised
member prices. If I wanted to talk to someone I would just get in my
Jeep and head to the gun shop. Calling someone on the phone to order
merchandise you saw online defeats the purpose of online shopping in
my opinion.
Enough with the chit-chat, here are the
shopping cart results:
Everyone can make their own minds up.
For me, I will just continue to look around for the best deals on
accessories and ammunition versus using a monthly buyers club. I
concede that this was just a small shopping cart of 4 items and can
in no way make a determination as to which business is the best
choice for what you need to buy or how often you need to make
purchases. This is just my experience and perspective and a leisure
read for everyone with extra time on their hands.
