[Jeff Higgins]

It is simply amazing how much one can save on ammo costs by rolling your own. The savings when shooting commercial jacketed bullets are significant in their own right, but imagine if the bullets were essentially free...

My actual costs for reloading something like .45 Colt are still under five cents per round. The biggest savings come from casting my own bullets from free wheel weights picked up at the local tire shops. I make my own bullet lube in bulk from readily available household items. My only real recurring costs are primers and powder.

I'll get an easy 30-40 or more reloads out of straight rifle, pistol, or revolver cases when shooting low pressure loads. I have 300 .45-70 cases that I have reloaded almost 70 times with my black powder match loads. I don't size, flare, or crimp them, so they should theoretically last forever with low pressure black powder loads. Powder cost are higher (these rounds burn a lot of black powder) and I do buy foundry quality lead alloys for match bullets, so my cost here are a bit higher. Closer to 20 cents per round.

Pretty cheap entertainment, really, if I discount my time. If I actually include my time spent over the casting pot, and the loading bench, as a part of the "entertainment", then I'm really getting a lot of bang for my buck. It's nice to have a relatively "cheap" hobby to offset my 911 addiction...