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Wisely or not, that's the standard I think I should be able to meet loading any of these small diameter .32s as well. They are smaller, weigh less and therefore, at least in my mind, should cost less.
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Sorry, but it's flawed. This is not how mass production works in any industry.
Example: .25 Auto, .32 Auto, .380 Auto.
Which of these is as cheap as factory 9mm auto ammunition?
Afterall, each of them uses less brass to build the cartridge case, right?
Every one of these uses a smaller, lighter slug with less lead and copper, correct?
Certainly, each of them uses less of a powder charge, hmmm?
Why aren't each and every one of those cheaper than a $11 box of 9mm ammo?
It's because of the volume of 9mm that they make -- it's cheaper for every manufacturer to build, package and sell 9mm ammo because they'll sell metric tons of it. Any one of them is lucky to sell even a couple case of .25 Auto in any month.
Ever price a quart of motorcycle oil? It's like $6 or $7 a quart. Is it THAT much better than a quart of Valvoline or Pennzoil? Is it even any different?
Doesn't matter. It's all about scale.
And here, you are using a Berry's plated 9mm bullet as your example which is also flawed. Hey -- I'm a
huge fans of Berry's plated. No, really. I use two styles in 9mm, .380, .40 cal, .45, .38 and their slick .30 Carbine bullet -- and YEAH, I even use some of their 71gr slugs in .32!
But you are using the example of a horribly lightly constructed plated bullet that you'd be nuts to use at 45,000 PSI in a full-bore .327 Federal Magnum load.
If you want to be realistic in your comparison, roll 2,000 rounds of 9mm using Hornady's 125 grain XTP bullet and buy them 100 at a time. In a quick search, it seems Hornady's XTP goes for about 90 cents more per hundred than their similar .312" bullet.
The other thing you can do is handload two thousand rounds of .327 Federal Magnum using the .32 cal Berry's 71 grain plated bullet. Your price will be
lower than your "under $6 bucks a box" for producing 9mm.
Here's another way I can try to prove the point.
Build a car. Make sure that it's smaller than a Honda Civic. Give it less steel, less glass, less plastic, with a smaller motor, less horsepower, less weight, smaller footprint, smaller tires, smaller seats, smaller fluid capacities and make every single dimension and facet of the car smaller than a Honda Civic.
Make one of them. Hell... make a hundred of them.
Then get back to me with the
cost for making them and figure out if you can beat the cost it takes Honda to make them. Take orders for them and show me your MSRP and see if you can under cut the Honda Civic and still make a profit to make it worth your time.
Unless you can make 10 million of them, I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that you can't pull it off.
There are countless millions of rounds of 9mm cartridges and components rolling off production lines around the clock, right at this moment. And they don't need to "tool up" to make 9mm parts and rounds.
.32 cal? They have to change a multi-use corner of the facility and tool it up to make a short run of the stuff just to produce
any of it. As FrankenMauser mentioned about Sierra... sometimes, they just don't even get around to doing it. They are making a
killing producing every single .224" rifle bullet they can construct. They have customers falling all over themselves to get more .224" rifle slugs.
So much that they can't seem to find the time to produce a few thousand .312" handgun slugs for the 75 guys in the world who keep shooting... talking about... and loving the .327 Federal Magnum.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economies_of_scale