Tell us something about yourself
Steep yourself in the lore of reloading. Think through the process. Read some manuals (Almost all loading manuals have their early chapters devoted to describing the process). ABC's of Reloading has no loading recipes, but is REALLY GOOD. Check one out at your local library or buy one (about $17 from Amazon, or any good gun store that carries reloading supplies). Lyman's manual is very good, too.
If you tell us something about yourself and your shooting habits, we can better answer your questions.
How much do you shoot? Of rifle, pistol, shotgun? What calibers/gauges?
What quantities of each casliber do you shoot
How long have you been shooting?
What part of the country do you live in?
How much room tdo you have for reloading?
Do you expect to leave your loading gear set up all the time or will you put it away after each loading session?
What kind of budget do you have?
What are your shooting goals (ultimate long-range accuracy, saving money, becoming independent of your retailers,, etc)
What kind of experience (both shooting and life) do you have? Are you mechanically inclined; have a big workshop where you could leave your stuff set up; limited in workspace; have grandkids or other small children around? You get the idea.
You can get started reloading for $35-40, but with the most primitive (but effective) equipment you can imagine (The Lee Load-All). It uses a mallet to drive the process and is slow. Or you can spend $2 or $3 thousand. You can get a first-class setup of well under $500, starting with a $300-400 kit and adding a few peripherals not included in the kit. Very careful shopping and judicious purchase of used gear could set you up for as little as $100-$200. A little luck and a LOT of care.
If you start slowly with just the extremely minimal necessities and only buy what you really need, you can put together your own kit (better than any off-the-shelf, pre-packaged kit), but you will have put a lot of thought into it (which actually is a good thing, but will tire your brain and take time, measured in both hours spent in research and measured in weeks/months in experimenting with the loading process, and shopping).
Minimal necessities and no-brainers (assuming you skip the Load-All option)
1) A press. (choosing one will be a big hurdle, though. Progressive, Turret or single-stage is only the first debate. I recommend single-stage. You will never regret having a good single-stage)
2) Dies absolute necessity. Get Tungsten-carbide. Tool steel requires lubrication, which adds steps to the process and only saves $10, but costs you to buy a lube pad and lube.
3) Something to mount the press on unless you use one of the few hand presses available, but don't. A mounted press is much more convenient. (a 2x6 will do, clamped to a handy table or workbench-I use a Stanley folding workbench, similar to the Black & Decker, but in the past used an end table-properly padded with newspaper or towel, of course)
4) A loading block (piece of wood or plastic with 50 holes in it to keep one box of brass organized) I use two, moving brass from one to the other as they progress through the process. No mix-ups.
5) A scale to weigh powder charges, bullets, etc.
6) Some way to dispense powder. I use the Lee scoops ($12) over the powder dispensers ($50 to $sky's the limit). I find them equally as accurate and only about twice as slow.
Consumables: Powder, Primers and bullets. You selection will depend on what kind of shooting you intend.
Summary:
Read ABC's of reloading first (if you can't find one, almost any reloading manual will do because the first few chapters are usually devoted to describing the steps, but different writing styles and emphasis vary widely, so read more than one.)
Read the "Sticky" thread in this forum.
Come back and tell us something about yourself and your style(s) of shooting.
Good luck, I am looking forward to your next post.
Lost Sheep
