I agree buy a good manual first, read it second, then and only then buy the equipment you need third. I got into reloading after I bought my 204 and was ready to quite 2 days into it. At the end of the second day I bought and read a book, here is how I remember it going. I was at a auction and got a screaming deal on a RCBS Rock chucker press and scale. Stopped at the sporting goods store on my way home, asked the guy for some powder, primers, and 40gn v-max bullets. He sent me home with them, back to the store for a shell holder, and dies. Stuck a piece of brass in my de-priming die, didn't know it was sizing also. Took the dies back to the store and said I think these are defective, back home with sizing lube, pad, and a couple ideas on how to get the stuck brass out. Several hours later back to de-priming and sizing, several crushed cases later I decide to read the directions that came with the dies, finally got one size, then try to find out how much powder Hornady used in their factory load for 204 with out the internet, tried taking a couple Hornady factory loads apart, powder flung everywhere, wife scared the house is going to explode, back to the store, bought the thickest Hornady reloading manual they had, spent the next week of evening's reading it, back to the store Saturday bought a chamfering tool, primer pocket brush, a uniflow powder dispenser, trickler, funnel kit, dial calipers, priming tool and reloading has been very enjoyable ever since. Again, please spend a few,and hopefully several hours educating yourself first, it will save you a couple weekend of frustration, several dollar's and maybe even a gun or arm. I don't know what would have happened had I managed to get some rounds loaded before I bought the manual, but I do remember saying to my wife thank god that he put all those obstacles in my way before I got my first round load because I think it would have been a bad one. If you don't mind buying your equipment online, you can find great deals for rock chucker presses on ebay, the Hornady classic is a bit cheaper and works good from what I have seen, but personally I would go with the RCBS rock chucker press. I wasn't one who jump on the electronic powder dispensers wagon, but I went down to my little brothers for a P-dog hunt back in August, he only had 50 223 rounds so we load another 200 Friday night. He had a Gen6 and I have to admit it worked nice. I weight every 10th charge, every one weight 23.2gn. The Gen6 was set to dispense 23.3gn, he said it is a 10th light all the time so he just adds 1/10th to his charge and all is good. I think it was as fast, probably a little faster then my dump and trickle method. I added it to my birthday/Christmas list and would recommend getting one right from the start. I haven't used or been around the Hornady one, but amazon has them for $175 most of the time. Pickup a manual for $30, a used press for $80, shell holder kit for 29.99, dies for $40, funnel kit for $14.99, a cheap set of calipers for $9.99, some sizing lube with a pad for 14.99 and for $395 you some pretty good looking equipment. Then you need to figure $25 for powder, $4 per hundred for primers, $25 for bullets, and seems like brass is $50 for anything theses days. I guess if I was going to get setup and load my first round all over again it would cost $500-$550.
