[Samurai]

You're right on. When you pay an ammo manufacturer for ammo, the VAST majority of what you're paying for is good, cheap labor.

If you're someone (like me) who operates a professional practice (lawyer, doctor, accountant, etc.), your time is worth WAAAYYYY more than the cost of manufactured ammo. If I factor in labor costs into my reloads, based on my regular billing rate, my reloads cost me several hundred dollars per box!

But at the same time, I reload on the weekends. I don't reload during times when I would otherwise be at work. So, it's not really fair to factor in my time in reloading cost; it's time I wouldn't be getting paid for anyway. I consider it "free", because I enjoy it; reloading relaxes me.

Still, it's a very good point. I know several guys in my profession who only shoot factory ammo, because they don't want to expend the time it takes to reload. (In fact, in my early years of gun enthusiasm, I was that way. I didn't reload, because it was too time consuming.)