You assume correctly Dan.
This does not include the cost of the hulls and if you really want 'brand new' ones they likely will have to be trimmed and skived from 2 3/4" shells.
RST shells are the same hull and you can reload those a few times.
It's worth looking into if you shoot in volume.
Equipment cost amortization will take a while, but loading is educational and gives you a measure of flexibility and freedom. It's nice to be able to load stuff not commercially available.
I feed a Damascus Parker with very light reloads for skeet and and have burned about 7,500 of my handloads in it.
The targets and gun don't know the difference between my shells and boutique loaded new shells, and I've saved nearly the initial cost of the gun.
In fact, if I could not load for it I would not have bought the gun.
