It certainly is NOT NECESSARY to spend that much to get into reloading. It is ill-advised to buy NEW equipment when you can get ANYTHiNG you need off of internet auction sites, usually for less than half of retail price, and a lot of that stuff is new or used very little. This includes reloading dies for many oddball calibers that would cost a small fortune if you bought them new!

Over the last two years, I've been able to buy an RCBS Rockchucker in near-new condition off e-bay for $50.00, several die sets for under $20.00 apiece including.38/55 Win. and6.5X54mm Mann-Schoen. sets, plus several Lyman-Ohaus M5 scales for under $30.00 each (just for parts).

A pound of powder costs $17.00, 1000 primers is $20.00, and 100 cup-and-draw bullets, like Speer or Sierras, can be purchased for under $20.00, sometimes under $10.00 for smaller calibers.

Later on, one needs a case trimmer and a case-mouth chamfering tool. But even adding these on, you can reload your first 100 empties for under $250.00.

I started out reloading with a Lyman 310 tool and a cheap Pacific powder scale for loading .30/'06 ammo. This outfit worked for three years before I started buying other tools. You can still get these tools off of e-bay, and they still work!