Ditto the read the manual(s). Most any of them have sage advice at the front of the book and the one by Lyman is particularly good, as is Hornaday, in this regard.
Learn all you can BEFORE you start relaoding or even buying equipment. Much of what you will want to purchase depends on what you will want to load and how much you intend to shoot. I started with the RCBS (master?) set. But as I look back on it, I'd buy the next better scale, better calipers, seating gauge from Sony Point and their headspace gauge too to check my relaoded rounds without needing to chamber them. Get the best dies you can afford (Redding, Hornady, RCBS,etc) they last a lifetime. But if $ is an issue starting with Lee will work. Take your time and talk to as many knowledgeable folks as you can; folks who actually reload, not salesmen. Watch a good relaoder at work if you can. That, and his mentorship, helped me more than anything else. Subscribe to some good gun mags like Hadloader and Rifle Shooter. Also check out the Accurate Relaoding site and shootersforum in addition to this one.
Lastly, if you don't particularly like precision, uniformity and attention to detail, particularly rules for safe reloading, don't start. This is one hobby where close enough is NOT tolerated...for long. Sloppy technique could maim you and others, or worse. You're not likely to save any money by relaoding unless you shoot a lot. And it's difficult to beat the best commercial ammo by handloading primarilly because they may have access to powders we do not and are able to get and incorporate techniques that are hard to duplicate without special equipment into their processes. But it can be done. For example hadloading allows me to 18 cartridges, including 6 wildcats that I have to make cases for, with the best bullets for their intended purpose. For me, there is nothing so satifying as maxing out the performance of a particular gun and harvesting game with a cartridge I loaded. (Besides, I just plain like the relaoding part too). If you need help, feel free to ask, no such thing as a dumb question in this hobby...except the one not asked.
|