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Hey, all,
I have been wanting to get into reloading for a while, and it's not the expense that's holding me up, it's the 'what all do I need' question.
Are there any classes that one should take before beginning to reload?
what all sort of equipment should one get first?
can someone point to a web reference/printed book that they favor that can answer all of my inane questions?

One good spot to read is Brian Enos's site. It is "Dillon" specific, but it has a lot of good information about what you need.

http://www.brianenos.com/pages/dillon.html

Ryan

I found the Speer manual to be very informative in helping me learn how to reload. Besides if your planning on reloading it's a good book to have. Also the ABC's of reloading is also a great book.

Get a copy of Lyman's reloading handbook. Excellent instruction, good illustrations and recipes for almost any cartridge, powder, or bullet. I've been involved in reloading since the late 1950s and I feel lost without the latest edition on my bench. It is undoubtedly the best twenty bucks or so you'll spend on reloading.

Your questions are not inane, and you are to be commended for asking them instead of going off "half cocked" and maybe huring yourself with an overcharge or some other easily accomplished disaster.

The books already recommended are excellent. There are threads on this Forum in which the individual steps of reloading are listed and described. Reading the Reloading part of the Forum is a good start, if you can't get to the bookstore (or gun store - books are available there too) right away.

Start a list for yourself, about why you want to reload. Is it to save money on practice ammo? To load match quality ammo you can't buy everywhere? To tailor particular loads for particular weapons, especially suited to particular game? Your choices of equipment and components will depend on what you are trying to accomplish.

However, whatever your goals you will need a press - single stage, turret, or progressive; dies for each caliber you load; a dial caliper, powder scale, and perhaps a hand priming tool (depending on whether you prime on the press or as a separate step). And other small stuf I'm too lazy / absent-minded to think of right now.

Start reading! You're going to have fun, and you will feel an earned sense of accomplishment when you fire the first rounds you loaded, and they all go into your aiming point.

Have fun!

Regards,
Andrew

Edited to add:
try this link - http://www.gunloads.com/modules.php?nam ... d=5&page=1

The Lyman book is good, the Lee 2nd ed. is very good and has much of general interest for handloaders and casters.
Casting is the real moneysaver, especially for pistol and revolver shooters.

Here's what I bought:

Lee Anniversary Kit (press, scale, powder dispenser, auto-prime & it's shell holders, manual, and a few other small tools in the kit)

a tumbler

4 loading blocks

carbide dies (I just have one set right now, and it's .45 acp)

Your consumable supplies are your brass (which can be picked up at the range if you aren't into paying for stuff), powder, primers, bullets, and cleaning media for the tumbler.

BTW: ground walnut shells are on sale at PetsMart. A 25 qt. bag is $14.99 if you use the discount card.

Wow, guys, thanks!
I am really appreciative of all of the help!

Hey Seburiel,

I would be more than happy to have you visit and I could lead you through some reloading, so you can get a feel for it. What all you gonna be loading for? I could let you run a few for pistol and rifle, and we could step out back and see how you done
I'm just north of Austin, so it would be a small trip from San Antonio.

The offer is open to any one interested in getting in to reloading.

Dan

I would also be willing to share what I know with you.

I'm just getting into reloading myself. I bought the Lee Reloading Manual just because I knew I wanted to start out with Lee stuff because of the price. It's good because it explains all of Lee's products and has helped me pick out what press I want to go with. The only part that is bad is that the guy talks about Lee stuff like it's the holy grail of reloading. But then again, it's a Lee book so I guess they can say what they want.

XDandy wrote:The only part that is bad is that the guy talks about Lee stuff like it's the holy grail of reloading.

He's a bit proud of himself, isn't he?

Lee is a long way from being the holy grail of reloading products. For me though it was a simple choice of dollars. I was able to upgrade from a single stage press to the auto indexing turret with two additional turrets for the three calibers I load for about 125 bucks. Inexpensive and Lee stands behind their products. Would I like to have a Dillon 650...oh heck yeah but I got the best I could for the bucks and it does the job.

Yeah, one of these days when the gun "want list" gets alittle shorter I'd love to upgrade to a dillon also.... But for now the turret will do just fine.

gregthehand wrote:I found the Speer manual to be very informative in helping me learn how to reload. Besides if your planning on reloading it's a good book to have. Also the ABC's of reloading is also a great book.

I'll throw in another plug for the ABC's of Reloading. Every beginning reloader should read that book.