Bill Hicks Co vs MSR Distribution
Both catalogs are synced into one shared vocabulary, so the same UPC can be counted on either side and matched across them. Everything below is what we measured in the two feeds — how much each one lists, how much of it is the same product, and what only one of them carries.
| Bill Hicks Co | MSR Distribution | |
|---|---|---|
| Active SKUs | 30,682 | 2,554 |
| Distinct UPCs | 30,680 | 2,482 |
| Shared UPCs (both carry) | 554 | |
| Only at this distributor | 30,126 | 1,928 |
| Uptime | 100% | 100% |
| Integration | API | FTP |
| Freshness | Synced 1 hour ago | Synced 21 minutes ago |
What each one lists most of
Bill Hicks Co and MSR Distribution describe their catalogs in their own words, and we resolve both against one shared product vocabulary before counting. A category below therefore means the same thing on either side. Each list is that distributor’s own largest categories, counted in active listings.
Bill Hicks Co
- Firearm
- 13,941
- Hunting & Outdoors
- 4,793
- Ammunition
- 3,408
- Optic
- 2,566
- Magazine
- 2,029
- Reloading
- 1,500
- Parts & Components
- 1,104
- Suppressor
- 509
MSR Distribution
- Firearm
- 1,119
- Magazine
- 319
- Apparel
- 258
- Parts & Components
- 146
- Safe & Storage
- 143
- Other
- 112
- Optic
- 90
- Ammunition
- 67
Firearm, Ammunition, Optic, Magazine and Parts & Components appear in both lists, so those counts can be read against each other directly.
Each list stops at that distributor’s eight largest categories. A category on one list and not the other is one we have not counted here, not one that distributor does not carry.
Where each one will ship it
Taken from each company’s own site on the dates shown on their individual pages. Running a drop-ship programme and naming where the parcel goes are separate questions, and most distributors answer only the first — so “Not stated” below means they have not published it, not that they refuse.
| Bill Hicks Co | MSR Distribution | |
|---|---|---|
| Ships to your store | Yes | Yes |
| Offers drop-shipping | Not stated | Yes source |
| Ships to your customer's FFL | Not stated | Yes source |
| Ships to your customer's address | Not stated | Not stated |
| Ships NFA items to a receiving SOT | Not stated | Not stated |
Every distributor here ships to your own licensed premises — that is what a wholesale account is, not a policy any one of them publishes. Confirm anything you will act on directly with the distributor.
Which should you open?
Bill Hicks Co lists 30,680 distinct UPCs to MSR Distribution's 2,482 — about 12.4× the breadth. 554 UPCs are carried by both — 2% of what Bill Hicks Co lists and 22% of what MSR Distribution lists. Beyond that overlap, 30,126 UPCs appear on Bill Hicks Co alone and 1,928 on MSR Distribution alone. If you open one account, Bill Hicks Co is the wider of the two on its own — it leaves 1,928 UPCs unreachable, against 30,126 if you open MSR Distribution instead. Carrying both reaches 32,608 distinct UPCs, 1,928 more than Bill Hicks Co covers alone. The largest category in both lists is Firearm — Bill Hicks Co lists 13,941 there to MSR Distribution's 1,119. Both feeds answered us 100% of the time over the window we monitor.
This is arithmetic on the counts above, not a recommendation of one company over the other. Which account is worth opening also depends on terms and on what your customers ask for, neither of which is in the catalog data we measure. What each company publishes about shipping destinations is in the table above it.
Bill Hicks Co
Bill Hicks & Co. runs a broad catalog that Project Parabellum polls over a dealer API on an automated schedule. Breadth here is a matter of assortment width rather than depth in any one line, so on this hub it shows up as a distributor that has something to say about a lot of different searches. Whether that is worth an account depends on how many narrower distributors you would otherwise be reconciling by hand.
MSR Distribution
MSR Distribution runs one of the smallest catalogs Project Parabellum syncs, delivered as scheduled file drops the same way MGE's and Zanders' feeds are rather than through a live API. A sync pass here finishes quickly given the size, and in practice it works as a niche or supplemental source rather than a catalog broad enough to anchor a storefront on its own.
Applying for a dealer account
- Apply for a Bill Hicks Co dealer account — Breadth is the reason to open this account; if your other distributors are narrow specialists, this is the one that fills the spaces between them.
- Apply for a MSR Distribution dealer account — The catalog's small size makes this a supplemental account rather than a dealer's primary distributor. As an FTP file drop, updates land on MSR's publishing schedule rather than on demand.
Both links leave this site. Applications are submitted to, reviewed by, and approved by the distributor themselves — Project Parabellum is not part of that process and cannot speed it up or vouch for you.