One day a while back I took a trip to the range with my young son. Shot the big boomer (475L) till I was worn out and called it a day. On the way home we stopped off to one of my favorite little gun shops. Just for kicks I did a price check on ammo. They didn't have anything for the 475, but had some Hornady in 480 Ruger. Did the calculation in my head and realized that I had just finished shooting the equivalent of $160+ worth of factory loads. I was completely floored.

Truth be told, I'm a pretty young shooter. But outside of 22LR, I've never actually shot any factory ammo in my guns. How anyone can shoot the required volume of rounds to become (and stay) proficient with a big-bore hunting arm using only factory loads is completely beyond my understanding.

Or maybe I just haven't yet realized how, um... "underfunded" I actually am.