I'm not a fan of the pre packaged kits, IMO they tend to be loaded with items you don't really need. I would recommend purchasing seperates and look for items on sale. If you are in western Pennsylvania you may want to consider a road trip to Ashland, Ohio. There you will find Fin, Feather, and Fur just east of the Ashland exit for RT. 250 off I-71. It's the finest reloading center in the midwest and prices on sale items are really hard to beat. For example last month they had the RCBS Rockchucker Supreme on sale for 119.95.
Now for some recomendations.
First off I've used the Lee Safety Scale and the Perfect Powder Measures and while they do work they can be a bit of a PITA to use. The Safety Scale is a PITA to zero and sensitive to vibration, so do NOT place in the same bench as your press. It's also a bit of a PITA to set with that vernier for the light poise. As for the Perfect Powder Measure, they are a PITA to adjust, fussy about what powders they'll meter accurately, and leak badly with really fine ball powders like Accurate #5. Point is, you can go cheap and get by, but you'll spend at least twice as much time adjusting settings than you would with higher priced tools.
Time and experience with the pitfalls of some of Lee's cheaper products has made me a real fan of RCBS. So, you'll find my recommendations are heavily biased to RCBS and it's because of lessons learned trying to go cheap.
Press. RCBS Rockchucker Supreme. IMO you won't find a finer single stage press for the money and it's a great value. The only fly in this particular ointment is that the primer catch tray doesn't not work well at all. Basically, when decapping your brass you'll leave about 10% of the removed primers on the floor. Keep a broom and dust pan handy.
Scale. RCBS 502. It's a 2 poise scale that is easy to zero and easy to set. The only hitch is common to all of the RCBS scales and that is that the heavy poise can be set so it's only partially engaged in the notch on the beam. When this happens your reading can be off by as much as 2 or 3 grains. Use a pencil or powder dipper to tap lightly on the poise to vibrate it fully into the chosen notch on the beam. Cost for the 502 runs about 80 bucks, less when it's on sale.
Powder Measure. Here is a case where going first class yields huge benefits in accuracy and ease of use. For handgun I would recommend the RCBS Competition Powder Measure With the Handgun drum. This is NOT a cheap measure at 121.99 at Midway but it is worth every penny. What you get is basically a tricked out Uniflow with the micrometer adjusting screw and the powder baffle. You also get a measure designed specifically to meter charges from 0.5 to 40 grains. Later on you can purchase the Rifle metering drum and micrometer screw and use it for Rifle loads. BTW, the handgun version is only available at Midway on the Net but the Fin may also carry it.
Electronic Scale. Yeah, you'll want one even though the cheap ones do tend to have a drifting zero. Frankfort Arsenal DS-750. It's only truly accurate for the first minute or two when you first turn it on but does work well to confirm you have your beam scale set properly. As for the drifting zero, it's typically around 2/10 grain and seams to behave in a sinusoidal manner with a 30-90 second period.
Case cleaning. If you want to do it really cheaply you can tie the cases in a sock and throw them in a washing machine. If you want to spend some money for a decent machine get a Lyman Case Tumbler. BTW, I am not a fan of the Ultrasonic cleaners, IMO all of the cleaning solutions that work well use an acid that will leach zinc out of your brass and shorten case life.
Dies. I use Dillon, RCBS, and Lee die sets and am happy with all of them. Given a choice I prefer the RCBS dies but that is simply because I like their decapping pin assembly design better than other makers. I also have a bag of 50 spare RCBS decapping pins.
Miscellaneous items. Lee's powder dipper set is inexpensive and handy for trickling powder into a scale to load up a small batch of experimental rounds, so I'd put that on the nice to have list. Calipers, go to
www.pts-tools.com and do a search for "procheck caliper". You'll find a set of well made digital calipers with auto off and absolute zero functions that sell for about 36 bucks. Put that on the must have list. Loading trays, if you can scrounge up some trays from a box of Federal or Speer 45 ACP ammo they make good cheap loading trays. Otherwise you might want to spend a few bucks for a few RCBS loading trays. Funnel, you really don't need one, hold the empty case against the drop tube on your powder measure and every bit of the powder will end up in the case. In addition the powder pan on the RCBS 502 has a fine enough tip to pour powder into a 30 caliber case if your careful. Ammo boxes, I am a huge fan of the caliber specific MTM ammo boxes. Yeah, at about 2 bucks each they are an expense but they last a very long time and the 50 round boxes are typically a bit smaller than the commercial ammo boxes.
Bullets. For range loads I am a huge fan of Extreme Bullets and Rocky Mountain Reloading. They both beat Berry's prices by 5-10% and they are well made accurate plated bullets. Note, due to concern about lead exposure and one local range banning lead bullets I prefer to reload with plated bullets.
Brass. Haunt the local gun shows and you'll find dealers that almost always have some 38 special once fired range brass for sale for 5-8 cents per case. If you want new, check in at Starline brass daily and put in a back order when you see them open the back order listing. Note, that back order listing won't be available for more than a few hours so act quickly.
Reloading manuals. Lee 2nd, Lyman 49th, Speer 14th are all good manuals to have even if you find they don't always agree. You can also find load data on the net at the various powder manufacturers.
Primers. Are currently available and I would suggest you pick up one or two 1000 count bricks at a local Bass Pro, Cabela's, Gander Mountain, or the Fin over in Ohio. Because 6 months from now you may not be able to find primers.
Powders. This is a toughy right now because Handgun Powders seem to have vanished. First, get the Lee 2nd and make up a list of powders that seem to be suitable for your caliber. BTW, for 38 special Accurate #5 and Vihtavouri 3N37 are my preferred powders due to their excellent metering. For 357 Magnum with bullets up to 125 grains Accurate #5, for 135 & 140 grain bullets 3N37, for 158 grain and heavier bullets Hodgdon H110. Other powders you can use are Unique and Longshot but both of these meter somewhat poorly in the RCBS (+/- 0.15 grain variation) and won't meter at all in the Lee measure. There is also a long list of powders I haven't tried but others recommend, such as HP-38, Winchester 231, and a variety of others.
Yikes, I forgot about a Hand Primer. I really like the RCBS Universal Hand Primer. It has enough leverage to make the job easy, works with any case smaller than the 50 BMG, and is a good value.
