I just reread your post (I admit that I just skimmed it the first time), and based on that, I'd say don't bother spending the money on a handloading setup. You seem like the "instant gratification" type that doesn't have the patience to handload and would find it burdensome and unenjoyable. I'd have to say just keep buying the Federals from Walmart (while you can, since Walmart of late has taken a decidedly anti-gun tack) and live with the 2" groups. That is adequate accuracy for most big game hunting.

I, for one, find 2" groups for a small bore bolt action rifle to be entirely unacceptable. Handloading allows me to carefully taylor my ammo to my rifle, and 1 MOA or better accuracy is common and fairly easy to achieve. I don't know what vabyrd is doing, but he makes it sound like his scenario is common, but in my experience, it's not if you stick with recommended powders for your cartridge. The only time I had most of a pound of powder go to waste was recently when I experimented with Retumbo in my 257 Wby. I got some data for it from a non-standard source, and decided to try it as it seemed to be a way to squeeze another 100 fps out of the Roy without pressure problems. Turns out that it's just way too slow burning for the 257 (it's meant for the big boys like the 300 RUM and 30-378 Wby) and I couldn't hardly get anything resembling a measurable group with that powder. I loaded the remaining bullets with another powder and got sub-MOA performance right away during the ladder test. Now I have 3/4 of a pound of Retumbo sitting on my shelf with no use in sight, but it was the cost of playing outside the sandbox. I found out the hard way why none of the mainstream data sources publish loads with Retumbo for the 257 Wby.

Mike