So I realized tonight that I don't listen to myself enough. Rather than getting deep in the weeds on that, let me instead tell you what I wasn't listening to myself about: Which reloading press a newbie should start off with.
I suppose I could be a bit biographical regarding this topic. I started reloading when I was 12. After a long summer of working as a bus boy at my aunt's diner, I had saved up quite a bit of cash, and I had but one thing on my list of things I wanted, an AR-15. Well, after spending some of my hard earned money and $600 later, I now had the gun I had wanted since about age 9. (I should probably point out, my dad took my money, purchased the gun, and kept it locked up except when we were going to the range. I didn't really come from a family of shooters, and except for a little .22 I inherited from my grandfather we had no other guns in the house previous to this.)
I was now beset with a new problem, a gun I couldn't really afford the ammo for it. So with the suggestion of my shooting coach (I belonged to a Jr Marksmanship Program at the time) I got into reloading. I ordered the cheapest press I could find, a lee reloader (It was about $12 at the time) and RCBS was selling a low cost die set for $17, I then purchased some bullets, some primers, some powder (again, my dad made the purchases, and kept it locked up unless he was supervising me) a priming tool, and I was off to the races. It took me a while to really learn what I was doing, first, due to lousy powder selection I bought a powder that was too fast to reliably cycle my beloved AR, and had a number of other issues. Eventually, I learned a lot, came up with some very good and accurate loads and won many service rifle competitions through my teen years with that gun.
In that time, my reloading kit grew and grew, equipment got replaced with better and more expensive, higher quality, and faster to use tools. So to circle back, where should the newbie start?
Honestly, reloading is a fun and rewarding hobby, but it's one best reserved for those with lots of patience, and those that take pride in working with their hands. Initially, the thoughts of getting into reloading only to save money will quickly lead to impatience, poorly reloaded ammo. At the worst this hobby can just cause you to shoot worse and suck all your money out of the bank, at worst it could severely injure or maim you for life.
So where to start? Because this hobby is about working with your hands, start slow. The Lee Reloader press I started out with back in the early 90's still costs less than $30, and will easily reload most pistol and medium rifle cases (for those looking to do .308 or bigger rounds, I HIGHLY recommend the RCBS Partner press, as the Lee Reloader press will rather quickly snap in two, as mine did). Now the dies, if there is anything that is important to producing good quality ammo, it's the dies, I recommend splurging on this. Lee is crap, RCBS is good, Redding is better. You will also need a shellholder, Lee sells a set of 12 shell holders for $20, buy that, it will fit most calibers you're likely to load. Buy some kind of press mounted priming tool, Lee sells the ram prime which is good, be sure to start slow and only load one primer at a time until you know what you're doing, a chain detonation could severely injure you. And now the two most important tools, buy a HIGH QUALITY scale, I recommend people start with a balance beam, as it doesn't need to be recalibrated constantly, and batteries don't die. And a set of dial calipers. The last thing you will need is a reloading manual, read it over and over several times before you start. If you're not sure what you're doing ask someone with some experience. Ask me, ask someone on a forum. When it comes to doing dangerous things forewarned is forearmed.
Add some shell casings, bullets, primers and powder and you're ready to reload. There are some other things you'll need, like case lube (for rifle cases), maybe a case tumbler a case trimmer. But above covers the basics.
After a few years, and a few thousand rounds, you may think about stepping up to a progressive press. I highly recommend the Hornady LNL to the exclusion of Dillon 550/650's.
