When you throw away an empty brass cartridge case, you are throwing away about 75% of the value of a loaded round of ammo. Reloading a fired cartridge essentially involves four simple things: Removing the spent primer and replacing it with a new one; squeezing down the neck of the fired case so it will hold a new bullet; putting in the new powder charge; putting the new bullet in the case. I started loading with a .30/06 years ago with a simple tool called the Lyman 310. I didn' t have a powder scale, so I cut off a .30/06 case about 2/3 of its length and soldered a little handle onto it made from a coat hanger wire. Using Army surplus .30/' 06 powder (4895), I made my powder measure short so it could not possibly hold a dangerous overload of this powder. I bought 1000 salvaged GI bullets through the NRA. The ammo I made would not win any rifle matches, but it was good enough to permit me to shoot a lot. If you are shooting your reloaded ammo in just one rifle, and using very mild loads, you can shoot indefinitely with the same brass and neck-size only. Once you start reloading for different calibers and different rifles, things get a little more complicated, but by then you will have read several reloading manuals, and will get the additional info you need from them.