Were I to load pistol ammo, or large batches of varmint ammo, I'd buy a Dillon press for that and most other cartridges. Dillon may not handle some of the bigger rifle cartridges though, neither will a Forster CO-AX press. And then some cartridges need 1" dia dies, and that requires adaptors or a different press than the std 7/8 die presses.
As to dies, RCBS, Redding and Forster,Hornady, C&H all make the same versions available, be it std, carbide, bushing style,neck, and the various forms of seaters. I like the competition style bullet seaters with the sliding collars though. Then you get into the Arbour presses and straight line dies like the Wilson. never felt the need to buy them.
The accessories are as wide and varied as you can dream up, some are special app, many general apps.
I don't shoot handguns, so, I have got by fine with the Rockchucker. I have a Co-Ax, which I would buy over the Rockchucker.
I still need the Rockchucker for one cartridge that I load, also to prime it with, too big for the Co-ax.
The Lee handprimer is great tool, when it wears out, buy a 21st Century body to replace the Lee body. I would not buy another Hornady primer tool. RCBS seems OK for what I have tried so far on it. I would look/ask around if someone has broken or worn out Lee units and buy the 21st Century tool first though.
Forster trimmer is excellent, WFT would be great, if they could come up with a bit more universal version. Hornady trimmer is OK, but needs Hornady shellholders or modified RCBS ( hole has to be .300)
The other night I spent 20-30 min farting around to get a new chargemaster set up. It threw 1/2gr heavy. Have to revisit it when I have some more time to fart around with it, but, Lee dippers and a Hornady beam scale will work fine, if I don't feel like farting around with the Chargemaster, and, as near as I can tell, is just as quick. The trust factor vs the price on the Chargemaster isn't
there yet. But, I will persevere in getting it setup for a while yet.
Always found the small Lee dipper more convenient than a powder trickler.
I still use a lube pad, with RCBS lube, and a Forster dry lube neck brush. No desire to change that.
A Redding powder thrower is great with short stick or ball or flake powder for use with larger batches of stuff like 22-250 or .223, or at the range with AA9 for my 32-40. I'd like to try a Harrelson's, but, I might want a large and small one, and that is a lot of loot.
Would I spring for the cartridge prep centers out there now?, nope. Handheld primer & chamfer tools work fine.
There are some comparators and runout tools I'd take a look at, some really innovative and convenient ideas out there. but, they are not cheap, either. I have a Hornady unit, haven't really used it yet, so, no opinions on it yet.
Electronic scales? I use one to sort bullets, a 20yr old Lyman 1000, way less trouble to set up than the RCBS 750 that comes with the Chargemaster. And it is just as accurate. I still use the old Hornady beam scale to check either one.
Pretty tough to beat MEC on shotshell loaders, universal charge bar works well.
For cast bullets, LBT or Jones or NEI or Lyman moulds do what I've asked of them. I would definitely buy the Lyman or RCBS 20lb pot over a Lee. No issues with a Lyman lubesizer, would maybe like to try a Lee push thru.
