Can cases of ammo be sent to from the mainland to your home or have to special order it from a vendor like Kaleo?  Cases of ammo are going down in price and I want to order more cases, can ammo be shipped to your door?

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The short answer is.....no.

Has to come via boat and the hazmat fees aren't cheap, unless you are bringing in entire pallets its VERY cost prohibitive.

Back in the day, had a FFL and a good friend who organized a small Hui.   Found a Cali gun store willing to truck one pallet to the LA Matson terminal.  We broke down the pallet at the Sand Island terminal.  Cheapest way, I thought, but there were other problems and worries.  Money and pilferage were two.

Reloading and casting your own bullets will keep you shooting more for the same $, imho.

Tentative late summer pallet

http://www.kaleoarms.com/hawaii-ammunition/order

Yes. I received a case via FedEx last year. The shipper has to know how to label it as ORM-D

Can cases of ammo be sent to from the mainland to your home or have to special order it from a vendor like Kaleo?  Cases of ammo are going down in price and I want to order more cases, can ammo be shipped to your door?

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It doesn’t have to be through us. It is definitely possible, but like the other replies mentioned, it can be expensive and there’s some hurdles to clear.

The first hurdle is going to be finding a retailer who is willing to even ship the ammo to California. California went to an ammo vendor license system a few years ago. Even though the ammo is technically going to a final destination outside California, for the ammo retailer’s purposes, your shipment is delivered to a California address and that’s a no no. Alternative is to ship to Seattle, but there’s not as many freight consolidators.  The second hurdle is going to be finding a freight consolidator that handles ammunition and that you’re willing to pay their prices. Some also tack on a per piece surcharge to receive and consolidate in addition to the actual ocean freight and hazmat. Shipment minimum charges suck too if shipping only a couple cases.  Once it gets to Hawaii, the to your door gets a lot easier.  Most ocean freighters will also offer delivery of some type, but the cost for delivery can often be just as much as the ocean freight was (seriously, so expensive for final delivery) so it’ll be cheaper just to pick it up yourself if you can.

Side note... we checked with UPS hazmat to see if we could ship ammo ground directly from the mainland like Rhugged claimed that they could. UPS hazmat said the rules haven’t changed, and that shipping ammunition ground conus to Hawaii is not allowed. Would’ve been cool for all involved if could, but still no can.


Ammo prices and availability have improved greatly the last month for the bigger retailers (probably the ones who take huge deliveries directly from Vista group etc). Ammo hasn’t come back on the wholesale distribution side to nearly as great an extent, if at all. That’s why we haven’t sent another pallet yet even though availability looks like it’s better elsewhere. We could send retail sourced ammo, but the downside is we don’t have the wholesale price buffer to absorb the expense of shipping so we wouldn’t be able to price competitively (maybe it still would be competitive seeing what some prices are but that’s another blog). As of now, we’re aiming for maybe late August dependent on if the wholesale side comes back. Many wholesaler arms had retail arms (ex: countrywide sports and outdoor unlimited) and their inventory was almost exclusively diverted to their retail side. Can’t really blame them for doing so... more profit for them selling retail and limited inventory industry wide. 

Yes. I received a case via FedEx last year. The shipper has to know how to label it as ORM-D

The thing about the Limited Quality label (the ORM-D was phased out at the end of 2020) is that it is a trust and honor system to a great extent.  The UPS and FedEx systems don't ask what's in the package, although some drivers and customer service agents will occasionally.  Should it be that way is a different discussion.  Of course it's a personal/moral/ethic decision, and to each their own, but I personally would not want to be responsible for a plane going down (and loss of the crew) to save money by skirting the hazmat rules.  Side note, most USPS mail flies on the same aircraft you do...     

Typically the penalty is on the shipper for shipping hazmat incorrectly, and that penalty could be thousands of dollars a package according to UPS.  Because UPS and FedEx don't allow limited quantity ground shipments, your package risks being pulled anywhere along the way if a facility it transits through finds the black and white diamond on the box with a Hawaii address.  Granted some get through.  Some retailers say that the risk of package not getting delivered passes to the buyer once the package gets tendered to UPS or FedEx so in those cases, you'll have to duke it out with UPS or FedEx to somehow get your package sent back to the shipper for the shipper to re-send full hazmat (or hopefully just cancel and refund the order).  Most ammo companies on the mainland ship limited quantity ground so they don't have the hazmat shipping certifications to send it full hazmat (if the company sells/ships powders though they would have those certs).

FYI for anyone interested, these are the FedEx and UPS policies applicable to hazmat/ammunition to Hawaii:

The FedEx policy is that "Hazardous materials cannot be shipped to, from or within Alaska or Hawaii via FedEx Ground.  This includes shipments containing or marked as Limited Quantity materials and combustible liquids." 
https://www.fedex.com/en-us/service-guide/hazardous-materials/how-to-ship.html

The UPS policy is that ammunition can be shipped under the limited quantity when shipped by UPS Ground within the 48 contiguous states, UPS Ground Intra-Oahu and Intra-Alaska. 
https://www.ups.com/us/en/help-center/packaging-and-supplies/special-care-shipments/hazardous-materials/shipping-ammunition.page