Follow me through, here...
$50-$70 for a Lee electric furnace
$20 for a Lee 2-cavity mould
Using wheelweight alloy at the "price" I paid LAST WEEK, $13 (two cases of Pepsi to the tire-shop guys) for 160 pounds of REFINED alloy, or about EIGHT CENTS per pound, and
1000 120-grain 9mms cost $1.60 for alloy, while 1000 .45/250s cost about $3.20 for the metal.
1000 primers...$20.00
3/4 lb of powder...$15.00
For under $125, you can set up to cast, AND load the first 1000 rounds of 9mm or .45. For the NEXT 1000 rounds, you're looking at about $40.00.
Don't try to say it can't be done, because thousands of us ARE doing it. Yes, there's some learning to be done, but it's not difficult and it's very rewarding. Don't believe old-wives' tales of how looooooong it takes to cast a thousand bullets. Do it right, after some research, and you can do as I do...my two-cavity Lees can cast over 400 bullets per hour, NO BS.
I have over 5000 loaded .45 ACP cartridges on hand right now, and if my total investment in those rounds is much over the figures above, I'd be very surprised indeed. Brass will last practically forever, and usually my autoloader brass gets lost before it wears out. Twenty or more loadings per case is certainly not unusual.
Buying bullets when we could be making our own is pure foolishness. Many people will throw up all kinds of excuses about "why *I* can't cast", but if one is intent about getting more "serious fun" out of a given amount of money, then the excuses won't matter and casting will work for us.