I'll put in my 2 cents.
I am fairly new to reloading. I have reloaded .45ACP mostly but am preparing to start 9mm soon, and .223 when primers arrive...if ever. I have gotten to the point where I feel comfortable going to an IDPA match and shooting my reloads without worrying about bringing along back up ammo...just in case my reloads don't work well...they do now.
I was going through the same decision making process that you have. I wasn't looking for a NEW hobby, I was just looking for a way to make my current hobby a bit more affordable. I only shoot a max of about 2000 rounds per year.,,sometimes not that. I initially started looking at a progressive press. I like the Dillon SDB, but I wanted to eventually load .223 and I didn't like the fact that the dies were propriatary to that press only and fairly expensive to boot. I then thought about a Lee Loadmaster. I almost bought a used one locally but the deal fell through. That may have been just as well.
If you read comments about the Loadmaster you can read several folks that just love it and are satisfied with it, but mention having to "tinker" with it from time to time to keep it functioning well. There was a significant percentage of others who just really disliked it and felt strongly about it that way. I am pretty handy and figured that I could keep it running but I wanted a tool I could work WITH rather than one I would have to work ON. All the other progressives were just to pricey for my needs and would take years to break even, so I ruled out progressives for now.
Single stage presses did not appeal to me for the most part. They are good for learning and being able to batch component processing but they are SLOW. Then I found a middle of the road machine which provides plenty of learning opportunities like a single stage but can reload considerably faster when the time comes without having to buy a new set of equipment. It has been my exerience that it is usually a bad deal to UNDERbuy. That is true for weapons, cars, motorcycles, etc. If you just buy something comfortable initially, you will often become dissatisfied with it after your skills improve.
I decided on the Lee Classic Turret kit. There are two sources of pretty good kits. One is at Cabelas here:
http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templ ... hasJS=true" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
The other is as Kempf's Gun shop here:
https://kempfgunshop.com//index.php?pag ... &Itemid=41" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
They are both good kits. The list of equipment is a bit different by in the end the price will come out pretty close.
I chose the one from Cabelas and am very pleased with it. I am sure the other would have been fine, too. I chose Cabelas because they had an online coupon for $50 off on any order over $150 and they have free shipping with pick up at any of their stores. I only live about 8 miles from the Buda store and had it shipped there. I got a very good deal. They have since had a price increase but so has Kempf's...and so have ammo sellers. If you get Kempf's kit, definaterly get the upgrade.
The beauty of the Classic Turret (much better than Lee's Deluxe Turret Kit...more sturdy) is that you can set it up as a single stage and batch rounds one function at a time. When you are ready you can reactivate the autoadvance mechanism(very easy and quick) and have a "semi-progressive." When you get skilled at it and have your components organized you can crank out between 150 -200 rounds per hour. That is plenty fast for me.
As for cost, my .45 reloads with jacketed bullets(stock Glock) cost about 15 cents per round using cleaned/polished range brass. If you were to purchase and use lead bullets you could knock of at least 6 cents from that. With what I paid for the press kit, tumbler kit (also Cabelas) and books, calipers, bullet puller and incidentals, I will have recovered my setup costs in under 2000 rounds.
I have never hit the 150-200 rounds per hours rate yet, but I am still being very careful and checking overall length and powder weight every 10 or so rounds. I CAN see that it could be done once the skills and confidence are there.
A real convenience of the Lee Classic Turret is that you can change calibers VERY quckly and easily. The turret heads are only $10 and a 4 die pistol set is about $35. I have gotten one for each caliber, mounted the dies and adjusted them. To reload another caliber, you can just pull one turret/die combo and install another turret/die combo. It takes all of 90 seconds and you do NOT have to readjust the dies each time. Set it in and go.
This press is VERY sturdy, works well with esentally no fiddling. I feel that for the amount of ammo that I shoot, it has proved to be a really great choice. If I were to need 4K-10K rounds per year I would go for the Dillon 550B, but I just couldn't justify that level of expendature for the amount that I get to shoot these days.
I hope this has been helpful.
), that would do the job??