I am a commercial loader and reloader, we have been in the business for the past 30 years. The main question is what press do you want to get. Single stage, turret, progressive, etc. IMO RCBS makes the best single stage press with the rock chucker. They make a master reloading kit that has pretty much all the basics. If you want a turret press, for the money the Redding is the best. Progressive presses, you can't beat a dillon. Dillon 550 or 650 is the way to go. The Super 1050 is what we use for the majority of our smaller quantities if we don't have an automatic set up for it. But the Super 1050 has their drawbacks, you can't load magnum rifle cartridges on them. THe 650 you can. The conversion kits are far cheaper than the 1050. All three of these companies have great no hassle lifetime warranties and great customer service. IF you just do a few calibers and not too many at a time, the Rock Chucker or the Turret would be the way to go. If you want to crank out a couple thousand rounds in an evening after supper, the dillons who do the best for that.
After choosing a press, you need to get a trickler if you would like and a good powder scale, beam or digital, both are good, but beware of cheap digital ones, they can be off. RCBS again makes a great one in the digital realm, it also can come with an automatic powder trickler. A digital one is good for weighing cases and bullets to sort them within a tolerance if you would like.
Also a powder measure, Frankford Arsenal makes a great one, comes with 12 or so different caliber specific drop funnels.
Priming, if you don't get a progressive or don't choose to prime on a progressive you need a priming tool, Lee makes a good kit with the majority of the shell holders in it, I think it is called the Lee EZ Prime kit. RCBS makes a good universal one with no shell holder, but spring tensioned jaws to hold the cartridge in place. If you use a progressive machine to prime, you will need tubes and dillons come with one or two and you can buy more to suit your needs.
Dies, RCBS, Redding, Dillon are all great, I am not a fan or Hornady or Lee, except the Lee Factory crimp die. I think Lee would be good for a weekender, but not for commercial use, we go through quite a few Lee crimp dies a year per caliber. A lot of dies will seat and crimp at the same time, but I shy away from that because the bullet is still being seated when the crimping starts. Get a separate die for crimping for sure.
You could go on with case prep centers, or just the tools themselves, cleaning the primer pocket, chamfer and deburring the necks of the brass, flashhole reamer, etc. RCBS makes a good case prep center. Frankford Arsenal makes great trays for cases as well, works great with their powder measure.
Case lube is often overlooked by beginners, Hornady One Shot is the best for pistol cases, but for bigger rifle, Lyman makes a good case lube or Cabelas brand works good as well as Dillon brand. Although if you leave the cabelas or dillon lube on for longer than a day or two, or maybe a week, it will be very hard to come off in the tumbler. So lube what you will load that day.
If you shoot a lot of rifle, and trimming is necessary, gracey makes a good automatic trimmer and they have and can make any neck bushing for their trimmers, if you want a manual one, rcbs has a good one for that as well.
Cleaning and polishing brass and loaded shells, you will need a good tumbler, Frankford Arsenal makes a good small one for a start up reloader, you could do 100 or so big rifle and 250 or so 45 ACP, etc. If you want a good bigger size, Thumler Tumbler is the way to go. If you do a bunch of stuff, a cement mixer works great as well, although soft points can get dinged up. Corn cob media or walnut hull media, they both work, although corn cob puts more of a shine on them, walnut is more aggresive and makes the brass a little duller. Some people do both, start with walnut and end with corn cob. A good kitchen colander helps separate the corn cobs and brass or ammo.
There is more stuff to think about, stuff I probably forgot, but this is a general start up description. Hope this helps, PM me if you have any questions.
