At $1 a shot, buckshot seems to be out of the question. What options do you go for when you have some range time coming up?

I bought a Lee slug mold. I buy the 100 round boxes of shotshell and pour out the shot, then re-crimp the shell with the homemade slugs. Very accurate and low recoil. Thats 100 slugs for $20. You don't have to have a lot of reloading equipment, just a slug mold ($25) and a way to melt lead.

The cheapest birdshot available for practice loading and shooting.

8 pellet Flight Control low recoil 00 Buck for when the gun is ready for duty.

The difficulty of running a shotgun is in keeping it fed as you fight with it. Shoot one, load one etc.

Just use birdshot etc for this. You can usually find it on sale for $3-5 per box of 25.

Only the very best buckshot is $1/round. That leaves plenty of options for cheap range ammo. Cabelas often has 25 round boxes of Rio 00 or #4 buck for 15 bucks. Walmart has 25 round boxes of a Spanish brand, forget the name, for about 6 bucks. Then of course there's inexpensive birdshot. I've had good luck with Armslist ammo deals from local guys, too.

Suprema is the Spanish buckshot found at Walmart, and it's really good shooting stuff. NOT low-recoil, it's definitely got some power behind it, and it tosses a decent pattern compared to Sellier & Bellot 00 buck. It's around $.50/rd, which means relatively cheap shooting when you want to practice with full-power ammo. 25/$12 for the 00 buck, much less for birdshot.

I shoot the S&B 00 Buck for practice. I picked up four cases @$0.40/round a while back.

I also shoot a lot of informal Trap using cheap birdshot in my defensive shotguns (if it will cycle it). The game keeps it interesting and shooting a 100 birds in double trap mode, once a week will keep you proficient with handling and operating your shotgun.

I do this on a private range as most Trap & Skeet "Clubs" will not allow you to shoot from a full magazine or even let you shoot anything with less than a 23" barrel.

you need to shop around, as others have stated.. it's all over the place for half that..
here are two.. (left cold)

http://palmettostatearmory.com/estate-00-2-3-4-buckshot-25rds-1127n0.html

http://palmettostatearmory.com/estate-12ga-2-75-00-buck-shotshells-175rds-in-ammo-can-i127n-00.html