...how exciting...the world's your oyster! seriously
whatever you decide find someone who reloads and who can help you out...see if they will work up a load or two for you in whatever calibre you choose...then a simple lee hand loader will serve you a lifetime and a LOT of $...back in the day i actually started with a lee in my dorm room producing .30-30 ammo! then we'd all pile into a car and go out to the range...unreal...
...good luck, man!
I agree!!!
here's my silly low end budget... (and rant now that I re-read my post)
lightly used Stevens .223 in a used Choate tactical stock and reload 1 time fired brass with a $40 lee loader!
My loading bench is a Log (with a piece of foam under it to dampen the pounding noise) Kind of feel like 'caveman' as I smack cases into the neck-sizer with a mallet ontop a log...
the sporter barrel shoots just fine for me till I shoot it out and re-barrel to something fancy when I can afford it. just space out your shots to let it cool a bit between shots and its fine.
23.5g of H335 sure pushes SMK69's tighter then the white box 55g Winchesters! and for cheaper!
I have little money and other 'just as expensive' hobbies other then shooting... like trying to keep a 'close to scratch' golf handicap, and going on 3-4 day off-road jeep trips only to destroy it, bring it home and re-build it with my own wrenches and junkyard parts.
Remember, You can save tonnes of money just making your own coffee and bagel in the am, your own lunch instead of fast food! also I don't have a cable bill, just the interent and netflix and heat my whole house with a wood stove. Even learning to do your own car maintenance, and saving tax by buying/trading for good used stuff saves huge! it all take lots of work and searching but I'd rather be able to have fun shooting/jeeping/golfing after work then napping on the couch watching 'someone else's reality' TV show...