The Gun Van: how it works, what it sells and why you should check it weekly

The Gun Van is a travelling arms dealer that parks somewhere different in Southern San Andreas every day. It sells firearms, throwables and body armour below Ammu-Nation prices, it stocks things Ammu-Nation does not, and it regularly gives a weapon away for nothing.

It is the highest value thirty seconds in GTA Online and an enormous number of players never open it.

How to find it

The van shows as a marker once you are close enough, but you do not need to stumble across it. The daily location is public and tracked everywhere, ours included in the weekly, so look it up rather than driving around hoping.

Two things worth knowing about the schedule. The location changes daily. The stock generally holds across the full weekly event cycle. So the van moves every day, and what is inside it changes every Thursday.

What it stocks

A rotating selection plus some regulars. The rotation is where the value sits, because the van often carries things that are otherwise expensive or awkward to get.

• Specialist and heavy weapons such as the Railgun, the Up-n-Atomizer, the Widowmaker and the Unholy Hellbringer.
• Standard firearms at a discount, typically in the ten to forty per cent range depending on the week.
• Weapon attachments and components.
• Body armour, usually the cheapest source going.
• Fairly often, one item free outright.

The GTA+ angle

Gun Van discounts are deeper for GTA+ members. Where a non-member sees thirty per cent off an item, a member frequently sees forty. On the pricier end of the rotation that is a real difference, and it is one of the more concrete arguments for the subscription if you are weighing it up.

Non-members still get a discount. It is smaller, not absent.

The habit worth building

Check the van once when the new stock lands on Thursday, and again any day you need armour. That is the entire routine.

The reason to check on Thursday specifically is the free item. Rockstar hands a weapon out for nothing fairly regularly and it is often something genuinely useful rather than filler. If you only open the van when you happen to need something, you will miss most of them.

Common mistakes

• Buying at Ammu-Nation out of habit. If the van has it, the van is cheaper, and the van is rarely far away.
• Assuming the stock changed because the location did. It did not. Same stock, different car park.
• Ignoring it because you own everything already. Armour is still cheaper there and the free item does not care what you own.
• Driving across the map for a ten per cent saving on something cheap. Not worth it. Wait, it moves tomorrow.

Is it worth the detour?

If you are already out doing setups or moving between businesses, yes, without question. The van is usually near something you were driving past anyway.

If it is on the far side of the map and you need nothing, no. It moves tomorrow.

Stock rotates every Thursday and the location changes daily. Check the current week before making a trip.