Based on your reloading experience, the number of rounds you're looking at and making things affordable, here's my recommendation:
1. Buy yourself a Lee Classic Cast single stage and upgrade it with a Hornady LnL bushing conversion kit or Lee's breech lock kit.
2. Buy yourself a Lee Classic Turret press - this press will load approximately 200 rounds an hour with basically zero setup time. You can have a hundred rounds loaded before many progressives are setup and the caliber changeover bugs ironed out.
Add the following items:
Lee Pro Auto Disk Powder Measure
RCBS Uniflow Powder measure
Lee Auto Disk Riser
Lee safety prime, lg and sm primers kit
Dies for calibers you need, Lee brand will do fine - I recommend the Deluxe die sets for rifle and pistol, most bang for buck.
Hornady LnL case activated powder drop
RCBS, Dillon, or Hornady balance beam powder scale, any of those any of these companies sell
Tumbler, most any name brand will do
50/50 (you'll have to mix yourself) corn cob/ground walnut from the local pet store, fine ground btw
Rotating sifter to sift tumbling mix from brass, any name brand will do
Lee universal depriming die
Lee rifle charging die
Dillon super swage 600
Set of calipers
Akro Plastic bins, buy in quantity
Handful of dollar store plastic bins with lids to hold your brass
Couple of Akro bins sold at Target to hold your various bullets and "reloading goodies"
Wilson manual case trimmer to start, look at Giraud later down the road
RCBS Case prep station, motorized
Stoney point chamber measuring device for rifle
Stoney point case measuring devices for rifle/pistol
The above list is a set of equipment that is fairly simple to start up with, is reasonably affordable, give you most of the things you need to start reloading effectively and most of all, give you satisfaction and control with your reloading process.
The equipment listed is fast enough to provide enough ammo for most reloaders, but affordable enough it won't break the bank. (You may notice I added a bunch of stuff most reloaders don't mention or consider when they're first starting out, but soon find out they need or want.) When you factor in the extra "stuff," the habit can get kinda pricey, even without buying one of those higher priced progressive reloaders.
Can you get by without some of the stuff? Yes, but you'll make much better ammunition if you buy and use these extra measuring tools.
Additionally, go back to the beginning reload posting sticky at the top of the forum and read it. I think you'll find a good handful of books there you might want to buy several of BEFORE you buy the first piece of equipment. I'm willing to bet you can order them into your current local and read them there before you ship back stateside if you're quick about ordering. I recommend the ABC's of Reloading and Metallic Cartridge Reloading. Lots of good information and things that aren't mentioned in some of the other books.
Finally, before you spend lots of money on high priced presses, remember, those beasts need to be fed. If you're spend every dime you got on the press and accessories, you'll not have money for the brass, bullets, primers and powder. The presses I've listed are excellent quality and are two of the true bargains of the reloading equipment currently available.
And this is coming from someone who's owned or tried a good bit of the equipment out there. I have a Hornady LnL AP progressive and I've owned a Dillon 550, but if I were buying today, knowing everything I know, I would start with the presses I've listed at the beginning of this post.
If you have any questions, feel free to PM me, I'll be glad to help any way I can.
Note, you cannot load shotgun on metallic cartridge reloading equipment, but a box of shells can be loaded in an hour on a typical single stage shotgun shell reloader.
Always Faithful.
Best Regards,
Dave
P.S. Keep your rear end low short timer and thank you for your service.
