What you'll need:
1. Books, books and more books. It's hard to say that you have too much literature to review concerning load data. Don't pass up older books either as they still have very pertinent data. I recommend getting the following:
a. Lyman 49th Edition
b. Speer 13th Edition
c. Cartridge specific books (cheap paperbacks that are a conglomeration of multiple printed data
d. Modern Reloading and/or ABC's of reloading
2. Press. You have a few choices of presses to look at:
a. Single stage. As the name implies, this is the simplest of all press types. You do each stage of reloading (sizing/depriming, flaring (pistols), seating and crimping) all in individual steps. It is the most time consuming, but generally accepted as also capable of producing the most accuracy. I still load for bolt action rifle on a single stage, as well as precision pistol rounds too. Brands include RCBS, Lee, Hornady, Lyman, and all of them are pretty much equivalent in quality and durability. My RCBS Jr. is probably pushing 50 years old and it still works as good as the day my grandfather bought it. I highly recommend a single stage to a beginner so that you have to learn the individual stages and can pay more attention on getting things right versus quantity.
b. Turret style presses these are a ******* child of a single stage and a progressive. The good aspect is that they do speed up over single stage reloading. The bad, to me anyway, is that I don't find them all that useful.
c. Progressive as the name implies, these are semi-auto presses that are designed for volume reloading. Contrary to opinion, you can still get extremely high grade ammo from them, but they are primarily designed to produce very good quality at high volume. Great for pistol, .223, .30-06 type loads that are high volume shooting loads.
3. Scale. You must have a scale. With the advance of digital, just get a good digital scale that will weigh in grains to the tenth.
4. Powder trickler you'll want this if you plan on getting very precise with your charge weights
5. Powder drop RCBS and Hornady make the best manual powder drops.
6. Calipers you need to be able to measure the OAL of your rounds to ensure you are loading correctly
7. Primer seater some presses have this feature built in. If they do, great, if not get an RCBS Universal hand priming tool. It works on everything from .17 cal up to .45-70 type rounds without the need for additional shell holders (huge drawback on the Lee system in my opinion)
8. Dies you'll need dies. In order of quality and workmanship from low to high:
a. Lee you can make decent ammo on Lee dies, but they are the low end in terms of quality
b1. Forster good dies for the money
b2. RCBS very good dies for the money
b3. Hornady very good dies for the money
c. Redding extremely good dies, but hell for expensive
Every brand, except Lee, makes match grade type dies. I wouldn't mess with these until you really get the hang of things as you are starting to get into some very precise measurement requirements. RCBS and Hornady are who I would recommend as they are pretty much tied in terms of quality and price.
9. Case prep kit includes brushes to clean necks, chamfer/deburring tools, primer pocket tools, etc.
10. Flash hole uniformer/deburrer
11. Case Trimmer Lee, RCBS, Hornady, Forstner, Wilson all make really good trimming tools. Gracey and Giraud make powered tools that are the cat's meow, but they are expensive and designed for high volume shooting. Trimming cases, by the way, sucks.
12. Case cleaner vibratory, ultrasonic or rotary with sstl pins are all tried and true methods. I like the rotary with sstl pins personally as it just gets everything almost new type clean. Vibratory with walnut or corncob will be the most cost effective to start with though. I've never had luck with ultrasonic, but others have had very good luck with it.
Other things to look at:
1. Headspace gauges let you measure the headspace of your rifle so that you don't overwork your brass on sizing. Not necessary, but nice to have.
2. Bullet comparators Better method of measuring round dimensions than overall length
3. Go/no go gauge I don't have one, but some use them to verify that their loaded rounds are within SAAMI specs. Much more useful on semi auto rounds than anything.
4. Hornady chamber gauge and modified case lets you measure from the case head to the lands and helps you determine case head to ogive length of your rounds. Really more useful in bolt action rifles than semi auto rifles, but still useful just the same
5. Chamber plug lets you measure from the headspace datum point to the edge of your chamber so that you can uniform your trim length. Not necessary unless you want to get into some really accurate and uniform rounds
6. Case neck outside turning tool uniforms the thickness of your case neck to promote better centering of the round inside the chamber
7. Case runout measurement tool measures the concentricity of your brass and loaded round to help you ensure you have a single axis instead of a crooked seated round.
Tumblers:
There are multiple methods of cleaning brass from doing individual pieces by hand with steel wool up to expensive ultrasonic and sstl tumblers. Many folks don't even clean their brass, though I'm not in the camp that this is really ever a good idea. Starting with good, clean brass is positive for the following reasons:
1. It allows you to visually inspect the case for any defects, cracks, overpressure signs or case failure signs.
2. Clean brass means clean dies. Getting dirt, grit, etc. in your dies can cause issues up to and including out of spec ammo, which is not a good thing.
3. It's just easier to deal with from start to finish
4. Purely cosmetic, but it looks better. If you are taking the time to reload, have pride in your finished product.
Types of brass cleaning from simplest to most complex (or, hardest to easiest or worst to best)
1. Hand cleaning - as the name implies, you clean each piece by hand. Time consuming, tedious and you are probably slightly nucking futs if your preference is this and you have more than 5 cases to do. But hey, it's cheap, simple and works, so there's something to be said for that.
2. Vibratory tumbling with dry media - either corncob or crushed walnut are the most common types of medias. Everybody and their brother makes a vibratory tumbler, so stick with a major brand if you don't want to buy a tumbler ever 6 months or so. Harbor Freight is a good place to pick up a cheap one that won't break the bank to start off with if you want to test the waters. As far as media goes - either Petsmart brand walnut bird bedding, or Harbor Freight walnut blasting media is the cheapest. Don't buy expensive name brand tumbling media - it's all the same stuff.
3. Ultrasonic. Lots of folks really have good results with ultrasonic. I was never able to, though admittedly I didn't invest in the equipment specific to reloading either. It's basically the same thing as jewelry cleaning - water, detergent and a machine that uses high frequency to agitate the water. I'm not a fan, but other folks swear by it and the result I have seen tell me it works.
4. Wet tumbling with stainless pins. This is my favorite method and I have gotten absolutely phenomenal results. The drawback is that the equipment investment is going to be around $250, but it works. And I'll probably never have to buy tumbling media again, or have to mess with the dust created by my vibratory tumblers.
Whichever method you choose, more power to you.
