OK, so I am new to reloading and have been poking around doing a little research here and there.
I hoot 45acp and 38/357 most, so them are the 2 rounds I will be trying to produce...

I also shoot 308 {target and hunting}, 338 lapua {some target and some hunting, the 200 rounds I own will probably last me the rest of my life}, 7-08, 22-250, 12ga all for hunting again the boxes I have will last me a while...

OK anyway, I bought the following gear...
Hornady lnl plant with both feeders and the electric controller system.

Inline fabrication, stand, ergo lever, light, and some boxes.

Hornady scale and calipers. plus the dies, feeder disc, ect for 45 acp

I am looking into a tumbler and a scale..

Anything I am forgetting?

Yes, you are starting out way too aggressive and complicated before you even know how to do the basics. I fear you will be overwhelmed with tech minutia that would be intuitive to solve had you started out simply, with a single station press.
Oh, I see you already bought it. Never mind.
Having said that, the Hornady is the best progressive in it's class made.

I figured there would be a learning curve, but I want to buy once and not have 2 presses.
I didn't think I would spend so much to start but its the story of my life..
Already cost me $1400 for just the press, controller, inline gear, and 45acp parts...

I am hoping I can figure everything out with a little internet help...

You spent a lot of money and you are mostly focused on avoiding a single stage press?

You should start with one round at a time with each step completed in batches.

Starting with a single stage loader is just a necessary part of the loading curve.

I can tell you that most people that blow up handguns do it with a progressive loader. They are too focused on fast, fast, fast not on right, right, right.

There is a big problem with internet help. You assume that everyone is an expert. Many newbies do not understand that some of the experts have been reloading only 15 minutes longer than the newbie. There are also "experts" that are only reloaders. They use one load for each gun for decades and never learn anything new after the first 2 months of loading.

Take a little responsibility for teaching yourself. Buy a few manuals. Load a few rounds and shoot them. Ask questions. Take it slow. Master one step at a time.

I can assure you once you start shooting 200 rounds of .338 will not last you very long.

I have to ask though. Would you learn to fly an airplane by jumping in and taking off full throttle down the runway?

quote:

Originally posted by Gunslinga:
I figured there would be a learning curve, but I want to buy once and not have 2 presses.
I didn't think I would spend so much to start but its the story of my life..
Already cost me $1400 for just the press, controller, inline gear, and 45acp parts...

I am hoping I can figure everything out with a little internet help...

I am not looking to "blow up" any handguns, that is for sure...
As far as the 338 goes, I just don't shoot long range targets much and if I do I use the 308. I shoot mostly 38/357 and 45acp, thats what i take to the pistol range, I burn through a few hundred rounds a week, but my once fired brass pile is out of hand, I have to have at least 30 lbs and a have given a lot away, I only pick it up at the range because it is a range rule...

While I am new to reloading I am not new to shooting, I have been hunting, shooting, building, and collecting firearms for a long time. I have built over a dozen 1911's {caspian frames to finish}, countless ar's, plus my share of 700's... All done from books and asking questions. I am pretty confident I can handle reloading pistol ammo...

I have a couple books, and have been reading and watching videos in my spare time, it will be a couple weeks until I have the bench and press all setup, this is kind of my busy season {I own an HVAC installation and service company specialising in geo-thermal energy systems {ground source heat pumps}}. Plus hunting takes a lot of my time, so a lot of the spare time I do have is spent shooting or in the woods. Basically I am going to go at this slow, when the wind is wrong or its raining I will spend time setting this up and learning the ins and outs..

I still haven't sourced all of the components, I still need a tumbler, a scale, and a few measurement tools... maybe a case center of some sort..
Any recommendations, am I missing any crucial components?

Thanks for the advice...

You will still need a single stage press to do some large rifle rounds. You won't want to set up the progressive just to load a few 308s, for example.
Be aware of internet help; everyone is an expert and it is hard to tell the real ones. I personally believe you jumped in too deep, too soon, and got things you don't need right now. Things like the case feeders and controllers, are for more advanced loaders. Slow down and learn the basics first. Tumbler and case center can come later. Scale; get any digital scale you like; I have RCBS.

thanks, I have been reading and watching videos... I probably wont ever reload rifle rounds, since I don't shoot them a lot, the cost of the dies would probably never be recouped, never mind an entire separate press for rifle rounds...

I want to be able to quickly and efficiently reload 38/357 and 45acp, thats what I shoot on a weekly basis...
For example Saturday I went to the range and went through 15 mags of 45 acp twice {200 rnds} and 80 38s wad cutters {I got a good deal on 2500 38s and 357 full wad cutters}... I normally do that an average of 6 times a month, so reloading should save me a ton of money per year. Hence wanting to do it as efficiently as possible..
The reason I have never reloaded up until now is because it looks very time consuming with a single stage press, and I would not be interested in doing it at all with out the feeders...

I am hoping I can get through it starting on a progressive press, I can't honestly be the first person to do that...

No, you aren't; I just taught a friend to do it but I was sitting beside him and he caught on fast. But I never recommend it for most people as they get frustrated too easily. I do not have a case feeder for my Hornady as I found them to be more trouble than they are worth and you can feed cases by hand very fast.
It is not time consuming with a single stage press either; you do the operations in batches.

I am very patient, the press and all the parts are actually sitting on the floor in the room I am putting the bench...
I have been gathering wood for the bench, got some really nice red oak 4x4's for legs and some maple 2x2's to make a butcher block top...

SO I have plenty of time to learn, I plan on being careful and getting it right, my 1911 target pistol has over $4K investing into it and I would hate to crack it in half with a bad load...

Which is why I always recommend starting on a single station press; FAR harder to get a double charge that way; it happens on progressives. But I see you are determined....
Best to find someone locally who can help you. Where are you? If you are close I will come and help.

I have the control center that locks the press if you get a low charge/2x charge, plus I plan on weighing and measuring the bullets before firing them, I will for sure go slowly, but by watching videos it looks like even going slowly on the ap plant will be much faster than rushing along on a single stage...

I really just don't want to buy more than one press, I want this to be the last press I ever buy and just to load pistol ammo. I know a bunch of guys from the range that reload and when I get everything setup I will have someone come by and check it all out for me, but I live far from the range {although its 5 minutes from my work}. I hate to inconvenience someone like that, its 2 hours here and 2 hours back plus a couple hours loading and learning, thats a day of someones life, lol...

I am in eastern CT... I would welcome any local help, I'll supply the whiskey and steaks...

I've had 4 single stage presses on my bench at one time (it is z large bench).
Three of them were set up for a specific cartridge and one was "utility".
I've never owned a progressive press. I like to monitor closely each stage of my reloading.
Good luck to you.

I am not into pistols but I've done a fair bit of reloading for rifles over the last 20 years.

FIRST - Always remember that pressure is not free and faulty Pistol ammo blows up the gun 99% more often than any other firearm!

My suggestion is to buy a simple Lee press on Ebay for $50 or so
http://www.ebay.com/bhp/lee-reloading-press

You will learn a lot in 2 weeks and avoid a lot of pain and waste of money / time. You can then sell that Lee press!

Also I would read the Lyman book (not the loads) - all the chapters 2 or 3 times and not complicate it with other info.

Finally I would stick to the Lyman book / manual for 1 year and get really comfortable / confident with all the little tweaks before adding to the complications / variables etc. I got that advise and it was the best reloading advise I ever got - even today.

By the way - I would also get a basic Electronics scale that is correctly calibrated. It makes reloading a lot easier than using the beam scales.