New Gun, New Scope might start reloading looking for advice.

[cgard423]

As far as the manuals go, I'm with the guy that said to get one for the brand bullets you use. In addition to that, I suggest you pick up the manual produced by Lee precision. Although not regarded with as much authority as the Lyman, it does a great job covering the basics and it has WAY more information about different powders. Lyman, hodgdon, Berger, nosler, hornady, Speer and the rest have great information and cover the powder which should work best for a given cartridge, they don't cover all the possibilities. I bought the Lee manual because they cover powder which can be safely used with a given cartridge/bullet weight combination and if the shelves are as bare in your neck of the woods as they are in mine, you may find yourself having to develop a load using a powder you wouldn't typically prefer to use. If you're lucky, you'll stumble upon an unusual load that miraculously gives amazing results. Prime example: I didn't want to use up my preferred powder doing seating depth tests for Berger vld bullets in my .300wm and stumbled upon a load using h4895. Although it isn't an ideal powder, I not only found the jump my rifle likes, but have been consistently shooting .5 MOA. Just food for thought.

 

[Shawn Carverelli]

Depending on what you are trying to do. if you are hunting and want are wanting to produce cheap ammo, you can probably get a Lee set that you don't even have to have a press for, just a hammer. that would run you less than $50 and if your going to reload less than 100 rounds per year, that would be perfect.

If you want really high accuracy ammo, you are looking at several hundred dollars in investments which will not really be recouped from lower cost shooting unless you are shooting in very high volumes. so you kind of have to decide what you want.

Most guys who are 'serious' reloaders have lots of money invested, but its a hobby, we aren't trying to save money on ammo. I have well over $1500 in tools. My scale was in the $500 range, and its not one that you can buy at Cabelas or Brownells; its a lab scale that scientist's use... I'm saying that because if I were hunting with my 300 WinMag and shooting deer at less than 300 yards, I would never need anything other than factory ammo or a Po'dunk hammer die set.

Having said all that, reloading and accuracy is very addicting so try and figure what you want to do before you get started. A good way to get started is to read a reloading manual to learn the process and the parts and other general knowledge. That way you can determine how deep you want to get.

great advice