I've been loading over 25 years for all 3, shotshell, pistol, and rifle and will never go back to factory. Even at todays prices for components, it is still an excellent savings. I just loaded some 7mm rem. mag and did an accurate cost acessement. Using a quality bullet I can build a box for $8.60 Going up in quality to a Barnes or Nosler I'm still way under the cost of factory, way under at about $14.00 to $19.00 per box.
Even my .357 is economical to load for. It's actually less expensive to load for than my .40 or 9mm. A box of 125 gr. XTPHPs run $11.00 and if I want to drive a little bit I can get that down to under $10.00. I don't load non jacketed bullets. But, if I did, I know hand loading would be expedentially more inexpensive.
But on the negative side of economics is shotshells. I use reclaimed shot to load for clays, dove and quail loads and am building a box for about $1.90. To load magnum stuff for turkey or pheasant loads it gets pretty expensive because reclaimed shot isn't available in larger shot sizes.
Over all my expense for hand loading stays lower than average because I use once fired range brass and also know people who don't hand load and give me their brass. At 67 per round for the 7 mag. brass to buy it new my box price could get real high. That alone would add another $13.40 to my box price, not going to happen. I think if a person is resourceful and put a little time into it, they can reduce the cost quite easily, and also help to provide a way reduce wasted resources, kind of going green I guess.
