New to Handgun reloading, .45ACP

The only killer of 45 brass is annulling of the case mouth from flaring and crimping, and as said, you'll probably loose them before they get to an unusable state. Only flare enough to get the bullet started, and not shave lead and a light crimp and brass will last forever.
 
Grumpy, I suspect you meant to say "work hardening" instead of "annealing" (annulling?). The brass will work harden and crack if worked too often for too far.
 
1 - don't buy a pile of non-round-nose bullets until you know that your gun will feed them reliably. I have 1 gun that won't run SWC so I stick with RN

2 - 3 die set works fine. Range brass works fine. Norinco brass works fine. Full length size and don't worry

3 - set your seater die to just iron out the bell. No more crimp than that. I have never needed taper crimp. I have never had bullets driven into the case. Just have the case mouth kissing the bullet, rather than standing off from it by even a hair.

4 - as you are adjusting your seater die, listen to the gun and not the manual. You may have to seat deeper in order for the round to chamber. You might not. Do the "plonk" test on a few rounds and adjust until they drop into your chamber to the full depth without jamming the bullet into the rifling. Please remove the barrel from the gun first.

That's about it. I stopped worrying about gauging cases and eyeballing every primer long ago. Perhaps if you are competing that would be of value.
 
4 - as you are adjusting your seater die, listen to the gun and not the manual. You may have to seat deeper in order for the round to chamber. You might not. Do the "plonk" test on a few rounds and adjust until they drop into your chamber to the full depth without jamming the bullet into the rifling. Please remove the barrel from the gun first.

That's about it. I stopped worrying about gauging cases and eyeballing every primer long ago. Perhaps if you are competing that would be of value.

Absolutely!
Bullets that fed fine in my Para had to be seated quite a bit deeper to fully enter the chamber of my SIG.
Try the plonk test on all pistol rounds in your disassembled barrel before you have an emberassing jam at the range, with a live round stuck in your barrel..
 
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