Are you honestly not getting the point that many of us have posted time and time again? I'll try one last time:
If reloading is a separate independent hobby that you enjoy, go nuts.
I do, and I will continue to do so.
If you want to make up numbers to make yourself feel better or rationalize costs, go nuts
If you want to perform a true cost comparison you must include all tools, materials, and labor. That's how a cost comparison works. You don't get to say that brass is used more than once so it's free. It's not free, and you need to spread out the cost over the number of times that material is used. You don't get to ignore the price of your equipment - you amortize over number of rounds made with said equipment. You can get slightly more involved if you truly want a life cycle cost, but above is the absolute bare bones minimum - tools, material, and labor.
If I include tools and amortize by the year, it comes to around $33 per year. Amortizing by cartridge, it comes to about $0.05 or $1 per box.
A LOT of my brass came to me for $0.00. Free. I am not going to assign a $$ value to it when I calculate reload costs. The free brass includes .223. 5.56, .22-250, 6.5 Creedmoor, 7mm RM, .308, .30-06, .375 H&H, .380 ACP, 9mm Luger, .40 S&W and .45ACP. We're talking a couple hundred cases minimum per cartridge, with some in the thousands. Then there is the once-fired brass I've purchased at substantial discounts over new prices, often about 50% less.
The free and once-fired brass covers the vast majority of my brass stock and reloading needs. While I used the cost of new brass in calculating my brass costs for reloading at maybe $1 a box, the actual cost is far less due to my use of the free and once-fired brass. Quite often the cost is indeed $0.00.
Whether you realize it or not, you have assigned a value to your time of $0.00/hour. Myself and others have stated that our time is more valuable than $0.00 at this point in our lives. Maybe in 30 years, I will say my time is free, but not now.
Nobody is saying that you are wrong for doing something you like. Some of us are just pointing out that your cost comparisons are riddled with holes.
The value you place on YOUR time has no effect on how I value MY time. Most of my life I've been salaried rather than hourly and have been paid the same regardless of the actual hours I put in. It wasn't like I could put in more time at the job and earn more. I put in enough hours every week (typically well over 40 - and too frequently double that) that I darn sure wasn't going to get a second job.
That said, there is an opportunity cost associated with everything I do, whether it is reloading, sleeping, rebuilding the deck on the back of our house or whatever. If you want to measure that cost by what I COULD be doing instead, go ahead. I'll measure it by what I WOULD be doing. Most times other activities I would engage in bring in no new money or involve actually spending money. Home and auto repairs and reloading all have one feature in common – at the end of the day I save money, which has the same net effect on my bank balance as earning it.
If I was going to put a $$ value on my reloading time, it would be related to the money saved. Even on my single-stage Rock Chucker I can crank out 100-200 cartridges an hour, depending on the cartridge, and that includes case prep time. If I'm saving $10 a box and build 100 cartridges (5 boxes), that equates to $50/hour post-tax dollars or $74/hour in pre-tax dollars. If I'm saving $25 a box it equates to $125/hour in post-tax dollars or $185 an/hour pre-tax dollars.
The "holes" you say are in my cost comparisons are the result of you applying your values and way of doing things to my way. If you want to quibble about $1.50 or less in my reload costs, that's fine – but it doesn't substantially impact my cost analysis. Federal Premium 6.5CM 130g Scirocco II loads still cost me $42 if I was to buy them and I can still build ammo with the same bullet for under $18 a box, a savings of $24 per box. The cheapest .45-70 ammo I can find is $25 a box. I can save $20 a box building it. And so on and on and on…
Most of my shooting is rifle cartridges and much of the ammo I shoot has no corresponding factory option. While I could have custom ammo built to my specs, the cost would be far higher than my reload costs. But why bother – what I do is build custom ammo, the quality of which is as good as anything you can get from factory or custom ammo makers and much better than most.
Does it always make sense to reload? Not for me. I quit reloading shot shell because I didn't shoot enough to make it worthwhile. I don't reload .25ACP for the same reason. I purchased factory .327 Fed Mag ammo for a while because I had no brass and dies were $100. Now I have the brass so I purchased the dies - and can now build target loads for $5.30 per 50 instead of paying $29.99 when I can find it. Factory defensive loads run $1.30 or more each but I can build them for $0.22, saving $1.08 each. I build them 50 at a time and savings from the first 2 boxes more than paid for the dies. Future reload sessions will save me about $24 per 50 for target loads and $54 per 50 for defensive loads. And I can comfortably build 150 per hour. That's a pretty good return on investment whether you are retired or not.