Any thoughts on the Hornady LNL AP Progressive guys? The only thing turning me off the Dillon 550 is the manual indexing. If I were to go that route I'd spend my money on the 650. However the Hornady LNL I can grab for $530 press by itself but then I'm still left grabbing all the needed loading equipment, such as scales, calipers etc...
F22, as for brass sales the Bass Pro off the 400 prices for brass are ~30$ for 100 cases. Another place you can try is Le Baron just south of Hwy7 and 404 (woodbine). They are the two main stores I check first for all my needs. If you become a member for $25/year you get 10% off everything that isn't on sale. It's already paid off for me.
Also any online stores for reloading supplies would be greatly appreciated too.
I also picked up the Lyman #49 reloading manual due to lots of people recommending it. $20 at le baron I couldn't say no.
I think you're making a bigger deal out of this than you need to. It can be so much simpler than that.
Even if you get yourself a simple turret or single stage setup, you'll be happy. Setting up the dies takes 5 minutes total - even if you have to adjust them from scratch. All you need is a loaded round and a resized brass to help set them.
Trimming and inspection should take longer than everything else put together or you're doing your gun and your pretty face a disservice.
resize die - take a resized brass and screw the die in until it stops. Normally the nut stay in place well enough you can just screw the die in. Resize 100 brass in 15 minutes easy.
priming - I use the lee auto prime in my press. 100 rounds primed 15 minutes easy.
Belling. Same thing - screw it in until it stops on the nut. I've never overbelled a case.
I measure my powder with an RCBS powder measure. Setting it up takes about 5 minutes if you need to calibrate the charge. If not, just do a quick check to make sure it's still set and go. After adjusting any powder measure, crank a couple out and then measure the third one - usually, after making an adjustment, they will let out a miss-weight charge.
I measure charges 20 at a time in a loading tray. Just hold the tray under the measure and drop the charges. It takes like 2 minutes to charge 20 brass.
Seating. Screw the die in until it stops on the washer. I back mine way out so the seating die does NO crimping. Put the loaded round in and screw in the seating screw until it stops on the bullet - then just a touch more.
Seat your bulles. 2 minutes for your 20 brass.
Crimping... Screw in the die. These are pistol cartridges - crimping them isn't precision science. 5 minutes for 100 brass easily. Probably less.
So the total time to load 100 pistol cartridges is (giving 2 ample minutes for die changes): 2 + 15 (sizing) + 2 + 15 (belling) + 2 + 10 (powder) + 2 + 10 (seating) + 2 + 5 (crimping) = 65 minutes. If you're shooting 500 a month I'm going to guess that means about 120 a week. That's an hours and a half a week spent reloading.
Starting with a single stage press will teach you all the little variables and things that can go wrong. Once you get the motions down, reloading is fast and easy with any press. Heck, I bet I could reload 200 quality 45acp in 2 hours with a lee hand press only. I'll bet money on that if anyone wants to time me.
