Handloading for deer hunting: Great for accuracy, and can save you some money

“You won’t save much money,” advised an old friend, who long ago convinced me to hand load ammunition for fun and self-gratification. His comment regarding the activity’s economic benefit was correct then because factory ammunition was inexpensive and plentiful in the late 1980s.    
Recently, another friend asked me to keep my eyes open for specific ammunition he struggled to find on retailer’s shelves. As I perused the inventories of several shops, I learned that many cartridges were in short supply, and the prices were higher than I expected. The discovery led me to investigate if hand-loading ammunition today provides significant cost savings. My suspicions proved correct, but what had changed?