Howdy Bob!
I've been shooting factory Barnes 300 WM for two years and saving brass with the thought of reloading one day. With 500 once fired casings now I'm very much closer to buying a reloading setup. While I'm still very very new at LR, I've definitely seen inconsistencies in the Barnes ammo. So much so that 5-6 out of 20 rounds you can spin the bullet in the cartridge it's crimped so loose. This probably explains why I'll shoot a decent group but almost always have a flyer 1.5" out. Or considering I have no training and little experience it could be the ME factor as well or a combo.
I've done a ton of research and have asked a lot of questions and have come up with one set of reloading gear I can get into for roughly $600 kit and another a la carte set based on experienced reloader suggestions for about $1000.
The thing that stalls me over and over is do I really have the time and interest in reloading when the fact is I'm just an elk hunter and only dabbing my toe in LRH at this point. I'm an archer as well and frankly don't find it that difficult to get inside 300 yards or even 40-50 yards of elk after I find them. Where it (LRH) struck me this past season was when I spotted a bull elk on the side of a mesa in NM at 675 yards and spent the next seven hours and a ton of hard hiking circling downwind to get up on the mesa over top of him for a 90 yard shot. It was either 90 yards or 675 and I wasn't comfortable with 675. The ability to do a LR shot would have saved me a ton of hard work and the risk he would have moved on me. As I get older, I'm 58 now the enchantment of "beast mode" running uphill with a pack at 8500' elevation is less appealing.
That's sort of where I'm at with reloading and hardly a day goes by that my mouse isn't hovering over the "Proceed to Checkout" button in my Midway USA shopping cart.
Decision constipation at it's finest!
Good luck!
Robert