9mm is my going thing. I have my price down to around .10 a round (shooting cast. I bought 2k rounds from Darda's cast bullets for 120 bucks shipped (he gives a discount to TFL members). That's .06 per. Primer cost is .03 per round. Oh, 1 lb of HS-6 (not the greatest 9mm powder but I use it because it's cheap) is about 20 bucks locally and I can reload over 1k rounds with it, so that cost is around .015. So, I can load 9mm for 10.5 cents per round. The cheapest (brass) ammo I've seen for 9mm is around the 28 cents per round after tax, and even steel cased will run you a little over 20 cents per round. So... I'm saving 10 cents per round.
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It works out to around a $1/hour I'm paying myself to reload these rounds. I could see loading them for better performance, but the cost savings just isn't worth the time to me. I can be doing something else with my time @ $1/hour that will be making, or saving me a lot more than that and just buy loaded ammo.
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I have a turret press and can load 150 rounds an hour if I'm getting on with it... probably more like 100 rounds an hour if I'm slacking. I saved 15 dollars on those 150 rounds, so I'm actually getting paid to do something I enjoy. Plus I reload because I can make more accurate rifle ammo for my bolt guns and I can afford to shoot my ARs. With loading high volume rounds for AR shooting, then you're talking about more time and a little less savings. I can load .223 for around 20 cents a round if I'm careful about buying components, yet wolf can be had for about 28 cents a round. Also, there's more work and time involved in loading .223. I simply wouldn't shoot steel cased ammo out of any of my current rifles though. If cheap practice was that important and I didn't reload, I'd buy the cheapest crappy Del-ton or P-tac upper I could find in a bargain bin and shoot steel out of that. FWIW, I would shoot steel cased out of a pistol without worrying too hard about it... just can't find it cheap enough
