Happy Math!

So a buddy and I loaded up about 200 rounds of 500 S&W magnum last night for our shooting outing on Saturday.  It felt like we were cruising through the powder with how much powder we were using.  It got both of us thinking about how much money we were really saving by casting bullets and loading the ammo ourselves instead of buying factory ammo.  I know it isn't exactly an apples to apples comparison, but we took the price of a box of 20 rounds at the local shop: $60.00 and compared it to a similar weight of our cast bullets which we loaded and came up with a number of about $6 per 20 (math below).

Cost per 200:
$30 per 1 lb of powder (just enough to load 200 rounds)
$6.60 for 200 primers
$4 cost of lead for 200 bullets--(200 bullets x 330 gr = 66,000gr = 9.42 lbs of lead), price paid for lead is $.30/lb for a total of $2.83 plus a little for hardening it up & throw a few cents in for powder coating)
$20 cost of brass assuming the following: 200 pieces of brass for $120 with a life of at least 6 loadings (probably will be closer to 8.)
Total cost for 200 = $60.60

Assuming my math is correct, we are only paying 1/10th of what factory ammo would cost us.  If we were to buy factory ammo to replace what we loaded last night, we would have had to spend about $600 instead of $60.60...  That there is what I call, "happy math!"

I just did the math for a box of 50 of 9mm, and it came out to just under $3.00

Cost for 1 box of 50 rounds:

$0.964 for powder (assuming a 4.5 gr load of powder with a cost of $30 per 1 lb of powder)
$1.65 for 50 primers (assuming 3.3 cents each)
$0.32 for cost of lead (assuming a 125 gr bullet and a cost of 30 cents per lb of pure lead plus a little for hardening it up slightly and powdercoating = 35 cents per lb)
$0.00 for brass (have never paid for 9mm brass, and it seems like I keep getting more and more)

total: $2.934 rounded up to $2.94 for 50 rounds of 9mm

This is why I still cast and load 9mm even when it the price drops down to about $12.00 per box.  I know I didn't include time/labor in the calculations--which is a big limiting factor for most people.  Casting and loading are still hobbies for me, and I enjoy doing them with the exception of brass prep (tumbling & trimming)--I still dislike doing that part of the loading process.