r/canadaguns • u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca • Mar 12 '26
Feets / Collection / My build I built an engine to search prices for every firearm and ammo in Canada - MapleGun.ca is live
Hey r/canadaguns,
Like many of you, I relied on ArsenalForce to find prices, firearms, and ammunition across Canadian retailers. When it went down, I felt that gap hard… manually checking a dozen stores to find the best deal on ammo or track down a specific rifle is nobody's idea of a good time.
I'm a firearms enthusiast and an engineer, so I decided to build and improve what I wished still existed. After too many sleepless nights, MapleGun.ca is live.
What it does:
MapleGun lets you search every firearm, ammo box, and piece of gear for sale in Canada instantaneously. No more opening 50 tabs to find the best prices. Filter by what actually matters: in stock, price, caliber, deals...
What's coming next:
Price history so you can see if that "sale" is actually a deal ;)
Watchlists with alerts when something you want drops in price
If you want to add any new retail, reach out!
I built this for myself first, but I want it to work for the community. If something feels off, a feature is missing, or you have ideas to make it more useful, I genuinely want to hear them.
Keeping it alive:
ArsenalForce going down was a reminder that projects like this cost real money to keep running. I don't want MapleGun to disappear the same way. I've set up a Patreon so folks who find it useful can chip in a few bucks a month to help cover hosting and keep the site free for everyone.
Give it a try at maplegun.ca and let me know what you think. Feedback, suggestions, bug reports - all welcome!
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u/Acceptable-Two-3563 Mar 12 '26
Price per round! That would be sooo good!
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u/FromDeepestFathom Mar 12 '26
Price per round would be a great addition, basically a must
If there would be a way to estimate shipping too that would be cool
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u/Acceptable_Visit_115 Mar 12 '26
Yeah, the price per round feature on ArsenalForce was iffy at best. I suspect it picks the round count randomly. For example if the title is "9mm 124gr 50rds" sometimes it'll think the round count is 124 and not 50, so it spits out a comically cheap number.
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u/_Armpit AlmostProhibited.ca Mar 13 '26
I'd imagine that they didn't have the best regular expression matching, or if they were doing some inferred text matching with something like BERT, that it wasn't trained that well.
Ammo costs gets tricky if the retailer doesn't include the round count anywhere in text.
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 29 '26
Thank you for the suggestion, prices per round are now available on maplegun.ca !
Also, many other requested features are coming soon.
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u/StrangeSmellz Mar 12 '26 edited Apr 05 '26
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 12 '26
Thanks for reporting this! The prices for Al Flaherty’s should now all be fixed. Please let me know if you see the issue resolved on your end as well.
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u/ALX_21 Mar 12 '26
i had the same thing happen, looking for a Beretta AX800. It showed at 2355$ and when i clicked on the link it was at 2995$
i dont know if its a coincidence but the error was also on the Alflahertys website2
u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 16 '26
Thanks for your feedback! Alflahertys prices mistakenly logged USD, it's now all fixed and in CAD!
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u/mangobludden Mar 12 '26
take the socks off first
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u/Primary_Judge Mar 12 '26
I used to have a foot fetish but with the metric system, it became a meter fetish.
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u/JH272727 Mar 12 '26
why do you want his socks off?
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u/_Armpit AlmostProhibited.ca Mar 12 '26
It's the only valid way to share collection pictures here.
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u/JH272727 Mar 12 '26
Noted! How bout armpits ?
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u/ImNotLHO Mar 12 '26
Armpits?! What kind of depraved sub do you think this is?!
We’re cultured around here; feet will do just fine!
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u/youcantchangeit Mar 12 '26
What are you doing in this forum mate
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u/slevenznero Mar 12 '26
Very nice project you've built, I was looking for something like this when I was shopping.
A few quick win ideas:
- In the Deals page, reuse your filters module like on the ammunition page.
- In the Search with MapleGun page, I would rename it to "Browse with ... " and allow the user to browse the entire catalogue, using filters or not. For example, In stock, in Ontario, Firearm, price, under 2k should return all items. With pagination and lazy loading for sure.
- In the Search page, I would like a button to "See more", for the calibers,, brands, and models. And be able to multi-select per category. My use case is I'm shopping between .223 and .308, for example, and I want to see various models to compare.
- I don't know how deep your product DB is, but one thing I was trying to search for is, I was looking not for a specific model, but rather I was looking for reliable models with easily available ammo and parts, if need be. And looking into reviews too, if you can cross-reference resellers' stock with reputable reviewers, you are golden.
- In this line, I've spent most of my time finding brands that are reliable first, then digging through tons of reviews to find models that are reliable, to find resellers. And in the end, I realize that the model is out of stock everywhere.
- If you can cross-reference the infamous list of banned models, and/or display on the product card what this model's status is, it could be nice.
Monetization:
- Create a biweekly promoted sales mailing list for a fee, so resellers can reach out to you and promote their sales/events/promo/whatever via your site.
- Add one ad banner (you can even mention it under it - This is the only ad you'll see, and it's to keep the site running).
I can have other ideas if you want to chat :D
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 12 '26
Thank you for your thorough feedback, much appreciated! I'll prioritize these suggestions, and you'll start seeing many of them implemented soon in the website (some are easier, some are more advanced features)! I'll be looking for your feedback when you notice them live!
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u/groggygirl Mar 12 '26
Bug: searched for "tikka t3x ace target" and got a hit for Al Flaherty's selling one for $1,828.85...but every caliber is $2,325.00 on their site. Same with the LH model (your site says $2,064.83, their site lists them as $2,625.00). Tried another couple guns and Al Flaherty's also had invalid pricing. Not sure where you're scraping the data from, but it appears to be misbehaving for Al Flaherty's.
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 12 '26
Thanks for reporting this! The prices for Al Flaherty's should now all be fixed, please let me know if you also see it solved on your end
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u/groggygirl Mar 12 '26
Honestly I was mostly sad I couldn't get one for $1800...it's my next gun :-)
Really like the idea behind the site - hope it works out for you.
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u/LongjumpingChipmunk Mar 12 '26
Seconding this, similar on a Benelli M4 search.
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 12 '26
Thanks for reporting this. Al Flaherty's prices should be fixed now
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u/ALX_21 Mar 12 '26
same thing happened to me withe the AX800, also on a Al Flahertys link
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 16 '26
Thanks for reporting this. AlFlahertys was mistakenly logging USD prices; it's all fixed now!
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u/WasPremeditatedOK Mar 12 '26
After checking out the site, it needs a $$$ per round search feature imo
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 29 '26
Prices per round are now available on maplegun.ca !
Also, many other requested features are coming soon.
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u/afookenleaf Mar 12 '26
I can see myself using this on a daily basis
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 16 '26
Glad to hear! Let me know if you have any suggestions or feature requests as you keep using MapleGun!
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u/Wolfxskull Mar 12 '26
Dude, thank you I just found a Ruger gunsite scout. It my dream rifle I thought I’d never get to own now that it’s discontinued.
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 16 '26
That's awesome! Thanks for sharing it, and let me know if you get any suggestions or feature requests as you keep using MapleGun!
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u/__WayDown Mar 12 '26
Found something in stock according to your site, but it just links to the backordered page on RDSC.
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 17 '26
Thanks for reporting this! It has been fixed, backorders on RDSC won't appear as "in stock" anymore
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u/__WayDown Mar 17 '26
Thanks for looking into it, but unfortunately they still seem to be. I looked up Marlin 1894 and it's listing the Dark Series 357 and 44 as in stock for $1799 (hah, I wish).
Edit: just searched Dark Series and the 1895 and 336 are "in stock" too.
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 17 '26
Thank you so much for helping me out with this one! Could you please try again now and let me know if it's fixed? You may need to refresh the page and start a new search.
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u/__WayDown Mar 17 '26
They're gone now. It's falsely returning a 336 Dark Series at Goble's still though.
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u/z00animal Mar 12 '26
There’s also almostprohibited.ca
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u/Iokua_CDN Mar 13 '26
I've really really enjoyed that one actually. Great for finding deals.
This one will have to be great to compete
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u/Acceptable_Visit_115 Mar 12 '26
Very nice. I did notice a couple things though, namely the "deals" page.
There's a Charles and Daly 101 single shot "on sale" from 799 to 749, but when you open the link it's selling at its MSRP of 229, and not on sale.
The Benelli Supernova is showing 38% off at 1295 but that's the normal price. No sales observed anywhere.
Also lots of guns are showing 1% to 2% off but there isn't a change in price. How are "sales" calculated?
Another suggestion would be to include gun parts (and filter them out, ArsenalForce failed to do that). For example if I want a 10/22 barrel of a specific length I should be able to find it easily.
Keep up the good work though!
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 12 '26
Thank you for your feedback! You should see improvements to the "Deals" page soon. More advanced features, like the one you suggested, will follow. Please keep sharing your feedback in the future, it will help keep improving MapleGun!
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u/Spydude84 Mar 12 '26
Would be nice to search by shotshell type too, both length and projectile type.
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u/Hell-Let-Loose00 Mar 12 '26
Great job! All the other crawling sites, especially the ammo ones, are so hard to use compared to this.
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u/cptseawolf Mar 12 '26
Take Canada first ammo out of your searches, they are essentially out of business. No emails work, CC payments fail, FB page taken down, and tons of people in a hell when they paid by EMT.
Tried some stuff and looks good otherwise.
Some of your stuff shows as in-stock at RDSC, but it's actually "backorder" and not actually in stock.
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u/Comprehensive_Air283 Mar 12 '26
Very clean site! Definitely bookmarking this. Thank you for your service 🫡
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u/Dantheislander Mar 12 '26
Search “left” sort price low to high. You show a ruger American for 399 that’s actually 899 on great northern so it’s very buggy. Filters are not persistent.
It’s a great idea and keep up the effort you’ll have it polished in no time.
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u/HappyCan7250 Mar 12 '26
Super awesome. Thank you. Basically all my internet browsers on my computer and phone are about 50 different pages of gun sites browsing ammo prices. Super helpful.
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u/AndyTheWoman Mar 12 '26
Could you add filters for different quantities of ammo? Like filter for boxes of 20,50,100,500,1000.
Also I can’t get the price range filter to work
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u/Spydude84 Mar 12 '26
Looks like shotgun ammo for Gobles is acting weird when doing a price/round comparison. Best deal is apparently a box of 25 for $47.95?
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u/Magic_7_Ball Mar 12 '26
Many many thanks for this!
https://santarossashootingsports.ca/ currently missing https://clintonsporting.com/ missing
(might be more but love the site so far!)
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 16 '26
Thank you for your suggestion! These retailers will be added soon!
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u/_Armpit AlmostProhibited.ca Mar 13 '26
Congrats on launching, always nice to see alternatives pop up.
You'll want to watch out for the variants some products have, they won't have the same price in all cases.
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u/IReZEXL Mar 12 '26
It's a cool concept but I think there might be some bugs right now. I just recently bought a Ruger GEN II for $900 and was curious if I had missed a sale - did a quick look and saw your site aggregates were listing them for 2.7k -- I never ran to GunPost faster thinking I was about to make a great flip lol
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 12 '26
Thanks for sharing! Could you give me the search query you used? When I search "Ruger GEN II" I get all results in the ~900 to 1k range
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u/IReZEXL Mar 12 '26
So I think when you just use the filter options "In stock - Firearm - Ruger - Search" and not the actual specific name, it can pull some wacky results because you're right, when I searched the name specifically, it showed up and the one listed for 2.7 doesn't even show up
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u/Toecutt3r Mar 12 '26
well hot damn! this is very useful as I never knew about arsenalforce. thank you for this!
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u/ArtVanderlay91 Mar 13 '26
This is awesome. Have you considered setting up affiliate referral fees through the links you provide?
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u/VAPORWAVE_ARTWORK Mar 13 '26
That's incredible! And the website is so fast too. Thank you, so much!
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u/CaIIMeBones Apr 05 '26
Don't often comment on my reddit (or even browse on reddit all the often) but I must give my commendations for this. Good on your for putting the effort of making the gun communities lives so much better and more convenient. Thanks for the hard work!
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u/China_bot42069 Mar 12 '26
money per round feature would be awesome as per other comments
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 29 '26
Thank you for the suggestion. Prices per round are now available on maplegun.ca!
Also, many other requested features are coming soon.2
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u/Vikare_ Mar 12 '26
I haven't had a chance to check out your site yet, but thank you so much for doing this!
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u/eldaniay Mar 12 '26
Hey i was having the same idea as you but looks like you beat me to it!. I think a great feature would be to have a advanced search function that will list anything that matches the search. for example: type:rifle (manufacturer:colt OR manufacturer:fn) (rifles by fn or colt) year<1950 (firearms with year older then 1950 type:rifle -action:bolt ( rifles that are not bolt action) I was thinking to build a database and matching each listing to a make and model, using the FRT from the government to standardize the data to make this possible. Also an api would be great. Good work
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u/fishinguy44 Mar 13 '26
Awesome! Would be nice to look up scopes as well if possible. I’m just seeing gun/scope combo packages
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u/Minute_Candidate_292 Mar 13 '26
The engine isn’t picking up ammo correctly, for instance, when you search up .416 ruger. Corlane has them in stock. Som other shot gun ammo’s weren’t registering as well but overall it’s an amazing site, and these are just release day issues and will be fixed instantly!
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u/donzi39vrz Mar 13 '26
I've been debating making something like this for a while just for myself. Awesome to see you did it! Glad I don't have to lol
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u/Main-Bug-8832 Mar 13 '26
Hello , for SK rimfire ammunition it shows RDSC as having stock of a lot , but upon going to their website it can only be back ordered. Just a heads up 👌 but this is awesome ! Great job
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u/ArtVanderlay91 Mar 13 '26
Btw, your "Ammo" and "Firearm" filters won't both work at the same time.
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u/EntropyRX maplegun.ca Mar 17 '26
Thanks for reporting this. The idea is that "Ammo" and "Firearm" filters are mutually exclusive. I have now enforced this behaviour in UI thanks to your feedback. You can only select either ammo or firearms. If you don't select any, it searches across both categories.
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u/ArtVanderlay91 Mar 19 '26
Instead of a toggle that's mutually exclusive, I'd recommend a check box so that as a user I can search for ammo, firearms, accessories separately or in whatever combination I'm looking for.
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u/jerbearman10101 Mar 13 '26
Very cool. Obviously there will be bugs but once you iron out the kinks this will be incredibly helpful!
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u/IndividualCertain358 Mar 13 '26
it would be amazing if you could add reloading components to it!
this is amazing, thank you for doing this.
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u/--Ether-- Mar 14 '26
good stuff. I always wantes to make something like this but I always thought writing a custom scraper for each site would bs too tedious
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u/Smart_Letter366 Mar 15 '26
I can't say that will be too accurate, honestly.
People may complain about a brick-and-mortar operations but, they allow first hand handling of firearms and accessories. Naturally, prices are slightly raised to pay for staff and a business front everyone tends to ignore.
So if a internet site states 'X' webstore has cheaper ammo, how will that compare when shipping is added. At various weight and size intervals.
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u/cvirus3333 Mar 20 '26
I searched "blackpowder" to try to find some leads on storefronts with FF or FFF in stock. got only 1 result and its a blackpowder rifle. So either there is 0 blackpowder in Canada or this might be missing a lot of sites/data.
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u/digitaltech604 Mar 21 '26
Very cool! Ive just launched my pilot as well. Findyourfirearm.ca
Would love to chat sometime! This was a bit of a side project but the feedback has been awesome so far looks like a few of us have aimed to solve a problem for the community!
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u/TescoValueSoup Mar 12 '26
Just letting you know you're probably violating T&C's for every website you're scraping that has such a policy.
If you monetize your site, you're now doing that commercially.
Picked one at random >>
Gobles S12(i): In addition to other prohibitions as set forth in the Terms of Service, you are prohibited from using the site or its content: .... (i) to spam, phish, pharm, pretext, spider, crawl, or scrape;
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u/RedBoyRob Mar 13 '26
Will you also be selling all the meta data you collect for visitors? Like basically every website
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u/[deleted] Mar 12 '26
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