I am loading up 9mm 124-gr plinking ammo right now using Titegroup powder.
Titegroup is reduced volume powder, a little more expensive but you use a lot less, and it's clean.
Powder for a 9mm costs less than a penny.
Primers are 2.5 cents each.
Bullet is about 5.5 cents each.
Brass is free at the range.
So you're talking under nine cents each for 9mm 124-gr plinking stuff.
That's $9 a box of 100, using prices on stuff I bought within the past couple weeks.
Dicks' $6.98/50 REM UMC is the cheapest stuff I know of.
Figure you save $5 per hundred. I loaded 1000 9mm this summer, shot it all, and decided for the time involved I would buy 5K from Dicks and stash it and store all my 9mm reloading stuff for later.
Is that a great savings? Not really. IMHO it is right at the break-even point for me, if it gets up to $9.99 a box and stays there I will load all my 9mm.
I still load hot 9mm +p for my KelTec Sub 2K with Rainiers, but I will be switching to the TJ Convoveras, and that's all, right now.
Now, .45 ACP, .357, .44-mag, etc. those are where the money really comes out of the press.
I can't get .45 for less than $25 a hundred, and .357 is about $38 a hundred, .44 MAG is $45 a hundred.
I can load any one of those using lead hardcast bullets I bought online last month for about $9 a hundred for .45 and .357, or $10 a hundred for .44 mag. Add $5 a hundred for plated bullets.
So the larger the ammo the more your savings ratchets up.
If I load up all those thousand .44's I bought, I just paid for all my reloading gear with the savings.
Hollow, that, since it all winds up in a dirt berm anyway, though.
And we are not even touching on rifle.