Ironbarr,
When I got into reloading, I bought some good brass (Federal and Winchester-Western) for my 45 1911. I haven't kept records on individual brass, but I had less than 700 pieces of brass for a lot of the time. Some of these original cases have been loaded around 20 times. I haven't had a single case failure, although I have had some that have rims that are so beat up that they don't chamber correctly. I shoot very soft target loads, for the most part. I have on ocassion shot some much hotter loads, but usually I shoot either 3.8 gr of Clays or 4.0 gr of Clays.
As far as price of a box of reloads, lets see. I pay about $1.70 for a box of Federal Large Pistol primers (100), about $3.50 to $4.00 for 100 cast 200gr lead slugs (in box of 500), $56 for a 4 lb keg of Clays. Four pounds of powder, 7000 gr to a pound (I think), means 28,000 gr for $56, or about $.008 per round (4 gr load) or $.80 per box of 100.
So $.80 plus $4.00 plus $1.70 equals about $6.50 per box, not counting the brass, which I figure is has paid for itself already. My math may be wrong, I'm not sure about the 7000 gr per pound. The cost of the Dillon SDB was about $300, I don't remember. I have loaded around 18,000 rounds with it, so if you figure $300 / 18,000 you get $.016 per round, so you should add $.16 to each 100 round box for a total of (horrors!!) $6.66 per box. But that's only if I didn't use the Dillon press anymore; it's in fine shape, and I'll probably reload 200-300 on it tomorrow. It's still going strong.
Just my results. You also have to count in your time, which is why I use a Dillon progressive.
Casey
