Re: New to reloading - need to learn
I'm fairly new to the handloading hobby, having been at it for only a year and a half...
In my case, equipment "type" was a difficult choice.
Everyone says to start with a single stage press.
I couldn't see going that route. Needing to load for myself, and my two sons meant 300-600 rounds (rifle, not pistol) ammo per month.
So, a progressive press was the only choice that made sense.
But, I used it as a single stage press for a long time until I had a good feel for the process. Loaded one case at a time, decapped/sized it, inserted the primer. Then pulled the case, weighed it, put it back in the shellplate, dropped the charge, pulled it, weighed it again. Adjusted until the charge was perfect, then seated the bullet. IOW, I weighed and measured every case, every step of the way, just like a single stage press for months. It wasn't until I had a good "feel" for the equipment, and confidence that everything was set up correctly, that I began to use it as a progressive press.
If you're going to be loading any sort of high volume, progressive is the way to go unless you want to dedicate DAYS to the reloading process every month. Depends how much you shoot...
Using a powder drop in a progressive press also means there is going to be some deviation in the charges. Stick powders, like Varget, are a bitch to get consistent. They just don't meter as well as ball powders. So, if perfection is your goal, and you don't have high volume to contend with, single stage is the way to go- where you weigh each and every charge "tits"...
Costs can run the gamut from a few hundred for a minimal setup, to $1000-$1500 for a progressive setup and electronic powder dispenser.
If you know someone that handloads, you can obviously cut the learning curve to a fraction... but I learned myself, as have many others here and it's no big deal.
It's not just the process of loading powder and bullets into the cases, it's learning load development ("start low and work up"), how to examine and evaluate your ammo for pressure signs, spotting potential "issues", etc...
It's a potentially dangerous hobby- but once you reach a level of confidence that you're doing it correctly you realize it's perfectly safe as long as you follow the "rules".
And cranking out your own match-grade ammo for one-half to one-third the cost of what you can buy commercially, AND that's perfectly tailored to shoot out of YOUR rifle better than anything that money could buy, well, that's PRICELESS...
