I want to start reloading. Where do I find the best resources for a beginner. There is so much information out there. I bought ABCs of Reloading which is little more than a good overview. I just ordered Lee Modern Reloading Manual - 2nd Edition.

I'm looking for the basics. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

The manuals will give you the basics. I like Hornady and Speer. There's a guy on youtube, ammosmith, that makes some great videos. Just follow the basic procedures in the manuals. Worry about safety first, and all the little nit-picky accuracy stuff later.

I learned on the Hornady reloading manual but there is a wealth of information available on the net also.

Lee's Modern Reloading is a great start. roger

The very best reloading source is -- a friend with experience. Please don't go beyond basics without lots of communicating. (This forum may help, but at the advanced levels here it gets very theoretical at times.)

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(This forum may help, but at the advanced levels here it gets very theoretical at times.)

Scot, that's a valid observation! We "old" hands, ie, those of us who are just passed the neophyte level, are often so eager to help we forget what it's like to be a noob and dump advice far past what the poor new guy needs or can absorb!

Start with a manual, as you have, then get catalogs from the makers and see what's available for BASIC reloading. It will be a long time before you will see any advantage with expensive "BR/Competition" type tools. And, if you do buy something more advanced/expensive later, you will still have reason to use your original tools from time to time, they WON'T be a waste.

Know that ALL reloading brands are quite good. Personal opinions aside, you will get good service from any brand of tools and price is a poor guide for what you can do with any of it so you really CAN'T make a big mistake! Understand now, loader experience and skill means MUCH more than brand of tools and right now you ain't got NEITHER!

Hopefully striving to do "precision" reloading at the beginner level would only complicate your learning, and that to little or no benefit! You are a beginner. You WILL learn but you need to accept that it will take time and experimenting to get where you want to go. Be patient and don't let us rush you.

Ask questions here but appraise answers by the supporting logic, not "It works for me" or "My brand is best, it's all I've ever used" or "That other brand is junk", etc.

After you load/shoot a couple of years you MIGHT get your groups down to a consistant MOA or less. THEN you can start to try more refined loading methods/tools and our personally biased but valid, for us anyway, help will make some degree of sense. AND, you will have gained the experience to seperate the kernals of wheat from the volumes of our often enthusastic but useless chaff!

one of the first things you need to learn is the language.
the different parts of the rifle ,revolver etc.
the certridge parts,the parts of a bullet and boolit.
so that when you do ask a question you can be very specific,it also helps you to understand the answer.
we do forget that the new guys don't know what an ogive is or the diference between a driving band and a base band.
or that a flattened primer doesn't always mean high pressure.

Thanks for all the replies thus far. I'm guess I'll wait for the book to come and start from there. Believe me, I plan on starting basic. I was considering a Lee Hand Press to start and buying just the basics that I need to reload. I'm a little spaced challenged and I don't want to spend a bunch money on expensive equipment when I'm just starting to learn. I plan on sticking to just loads that are published in books or on bullet/powder manufacturing websites.

So no matter how much I beg, don't give me any recipes

Scott,
It also makes a difference what you are going to reload and how much. There are guys that will praise progressive loaders to a significant degree and they often reload large volumes of a single pistol caliber. If you load small amounts of a variety of rifle calibers your equipment and techniques may/will be somewhat different.

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Believe me, I plan on starting basic. I was considering a Lee Hand Press to start and buying just the basics that I need to reload.

In the long run it'll be less expensive to buy a good press to start with, they're really not too expensive. And it's pretty much a lifetime investment.

And you can make a base that'll clamp to a desk that'll allow you to just set it up when you use it.

At least that's how it starts.............

You can load off of a coffee table with hand-held tools. Anything more will require at least a Black&Decker WorkMate.

Did you order the Lee book with the C-press? It will give you the kind of experience that will lead to better decisions, as will the hand-held press you're considering.

To get a fair estimation of reloading, you should at least get tools competent to perform the task. Your press doesn't have to be a Forster Co-Ax or Redding turret, but it should be capable of resizing your brass concentrically without undue effort on your part. It's not cheating to eliminate the lower leg of the learning curve.

Your basic setup should include a decent press, scale, powder dippers, trickler, funnel, chamfer, case trimmer, dies, caliper, and sizing lube.

Searches on the forum will be beneficial.

don't overlook the used market, loading equipment isn't that hard to find, and is usually quite inexpensive. (check ar classifieds) while the lee manual is good, i do get a kick out of the mouth job they give other manufacturers. Then don't overlook your local shops,and clubs, they as well as some of their customers can be the greatest help

Great Reloading video:
http://learnreloading.com/

Okay, you do want to start simple but you don't want to waste money, right?

SO...for your first press consider getting a little Lee "Reloader" press and mount it to a board, C clamp it to what you have.

That press is the same price as a Lee handpress but it's MUCH easier to use. Later, when you've gained enough experience, you will know what you want to move up to and won't need to ask anyone!

The inexpensive little press will always be handy for special tasks later. I have two on my bench now, one for a universal decapper, the other for a Lee AutoPrime II; I love 'em! And they are quite stong despite their size.

My RockChucker deflects about .003" when FL sizing .30-06. That's not much, but those small "Reloaders" show NO such deflection, none at all!

IF you get the Lee handpress OR Reloader, you will also have to get a seperate priming tool. I have two of Lee's handprimers as well as the press mounted type. Some cuss 'em but in some 25 years of use I've never had a problem with any of them. (Might be a user thing, maybe?)