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494 Posts
Limit: Lots of good advice here - Read the ABC's or Reloading and ask lots of questions. Ask around if anyone near you reloads, ask if you can bring pizza and help crank out ammo one Saturday afternoon. You can learn more in one hour with an experienced reloader than you can forget in a lifetime. If no mentor is available, watch videos online after you read the books suggested above.
Balance beam scales work as good as electronic, they will also force you to slow down a little - by the time you can speed up, you will be dialed in and can randomly check/weigh every 7 to 10 rounds at which point a balance beam scale is still plenty sufficient. My personal advice is to try to borrow, rent, or just try out as many brands of dies as possible and see if one brand just "feels right" to you. I started out and bought 4 calibers in 4 different brands so I could try them all. I absolutely hate my RCBS dies and acquired a set of Dillon dies in the same caliber - (5th brand pistol die in my cabinet). After rolling 300 rounds off the Dillon dies, I want to trade all my pistol dies for Dillons. Your milage may vary.
Buy, download, or print out reloading data. This is a personal choice, if I am using a particular brand bullet, I want that manufacturer's load data. Same for the powder brand, and I keep a Lee manual because Richard has copied a lot of data from a lot of sources (i.e. more data per cartridge than everyone else). Again, personal choice but I don't approach the bench until I have reviewed at least three sources and I have the recipe written down (a small chalk board or dry erase is excellent for this, hang it on the wall behind the press and directly in your line of site that way if there is any distraction - and there will be distractions - you have the data right there.)
Never leave your loading bench with a round "almost done". If you have to leave so quick you cannot pull the handle three more times, put a rag over the shell plate and incomplete rounds, when you come back take them out, weigh the powder, check each of those three rounds carefully, complete those three one at a time. In other words, be careful, be methodical, and remember the hand you may save by going slow could be attached to someone you love.
Suppliers: MidwayUSA, Brownells, Mid-South Shooter Supply, Natchez are all good sources for equipment, powder, bullets, cases, etc. X-Treme and Berry's make plated (less expensive) bullets.
Cost can be controlled with bulk purchases and a few minutes on the internet. At the beginning, you just have to suck up and pay for smaller shipments until you find your case/primer/powder/bullet combo that works best for you. Since you are shooting recreationally you can probably get what is available for bullets and powder. Read a little on primers but in the end, it is like the oil threads in a Harley forum - personal preference motivates 99% of the discussion, pick one and stick with it. Same for cases. Spend more effort narrowing powder and bullet choices. Once you have your powder and bullet choices made,, purchasing in volume is the trick. For example, if you like X-Treme bullets, sign up for the deal of the day notice, when .45ACP is on sale or has free shipping - stock up. When one of the other purveyors offers free shipping and $1 hazmat fee - stock up on primers and powder. Big purchases like that hurt a little, save a lot. Reloading supplies are not perishable. All you need is dry storage space.
Don't forget to have fun.
Balance beam scales work as good as electronic, they will also force you to slow down a little - by the time you can speed up, you will be dialed in and can randomly check/weigh every 7 to 10 rounds at which point a balance beam scale is still plenty sufficient. My personal advice is to try to borrow, rent, or just try out as many brands of dies as possible and see if one brand just "feels right" to you. I started out and bought 4 calibers in 4 different brands so I could try them all. I absolutely hate my RCBS dies and acquired a set of Dillon dies in the same caliber - (5th brand pistol die in my cabinet). After rolling 300 rounds off the Dillon dies, I want to trade all my pistol dies for Dillons. Your milage may vary.
Buy, download, or print out reloading data. This is a personal choice, if I am using a particular brand bullet, I want that manufacturer's load data. Same for the powder brand, and I keep a Lee manual because Richard has copied a lot of data from a lot of sources (i.e. more data per cartridge than everyone else). Again, personal choice but I don't approach the bench until I have reviewed at least three sources and I have the recipe written down (a small chalk board or dry erase is excellent for this, hang it on the wall behind the press and directly in your line of site that way if there is any distraction - and there will be distractions - you have the data right there.)
Never leave your loading bench with a round "almost done". If you have to leave so quick you cannot pull the handle three more times, put a rag over the shell plate and incomplete rounds, when you come back take them out, weigh the powder, check each of those three rounds carefully, complete those three one at a time. In other words, be careful, be methodical, and remember the hand you may save by going slow could be attached to someone you love.
Suppliers: MidwayUSA, Brownells, Mid-South Shooter Supply, Natchez are all good sources for equipment, powder, bullets, cases, etc. X-Treme and Berry's make plated (less expensive) bullets.
Cost can be controlled with bulk purchases and a few minutes on the internet. At the beginning, you just have to suck up and pay for smaller shipments until you find your case/primer/powder/bullet combo that works best for you. Since you are shooting recreationally you can probably get what is available for bullets and powder. Read a little on primers but in the end, it is like the oil threads in a Harley forum - personal preference motivates 99% of the discussion, pick one and stick with it. Same for cases. Spend more effort narrowing powder and bullet choices. Once you have your powder and bullet choices made,, purchasing in volume is the trick. For example, if you like X-Treme bullets, sign up for the deal of the day notice, when .45ACP is on sale or has free shipping - stock up. When one of the other purveyors offers free shipping and $1 hazmat fee - stock up on primers and powder. Big purchases like that hurt a little, save a lot. Reloading supplies are not perishable. All you need is dry storage space.
Don't forget to have fun.