What a bargain! Only .27/round. Geesh....
Somewhere along the line you fellas with the voracious appetites for RF ammo need to step back and ponder the economics of what you're doing. .22s are useful for a myriad of things, but there are a lot of cheaper alternatives available these days. Seriously.
Buy yourself some casting equipment and see the light.
Lead can be had cheap if you scrounge around for it. Or you can go high end and purchase it directly from suppliers for a bit more. Depending on source we're talking less than $1 up to $2/lb.
A pound of lead will give you this:
-155 .22 caliber bullets of 45gr. .6 to 1.2 cents per bullet
-116 .25 caliber bullets of 60 gr. .86 to 1.7 cents per bullet
-41 .30 caliber bullets of 170 gr. 2.4 to 4.8 cents/bullet
-44 .357 caliber bullets of 158 gr. 2.25 to 4.5 cents/bullet
At the worst pricing I've seen at gun shows or retailers powder runs about $30/#. That's about .4 cents per grain.
Likewise, primers run about $40/K, or 4 cents a pop.
One can reload cast bullets in CF cartridges at approximately the following cost schedule per round:
.22 CF at a velocity of around 1500-2000 fps - 7.1 to 7.5 cents
.25 CF, vel 1500-1800 fps - 7.4 to 8 cents
.30 CF, vel 1600-1800 fps - 13.2 to 16 cents
.357 CF, vel 800-1400 fps - 7.45 to 11.7 cents
It takes a couple of hours to make 200 bullets with a double cavity mould. Maybe 30 minutes to lube and size.
