I received alot of cabelas gift cards for Christmas, and used them to buy a Lee classic turret press kit. The cabelas kit does not come with any of the case conditioning tools that come with the kit that other people sell but I did get a lee 4 die set for 40 s&w and my wife got me the lee reloading stand. I'm not going to be ordering any components for 2 or 3 weeks as we are moving. But I do want to pick up anything else I will need before then I'm just not sure what all I absolutely need to get before I start loading. Thanks in advance for any suggestions
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Aside from the components, you only need three things, physically, to load ammunition.
A press (because fingers are not strong enough)
Dies (because fingers are not precise enough)
A way to mete powder (because eyeballs are not precise enough)
To most folks, this means a press, dies and a scale.
Everything else just makes things faster, easier, simpler or more accurate.
Of course one would be foolish to load without a manual or two for referencing load recipes.
A primer dispenser is a great convenience. Handles putting the primers into your priming arm.
A powder measure (The Lee Auto-Disk is the natural adjunct to your press and dies) makes things CONSIDERABLY faster. Get the Pro model. It is worth the small price boost over the standard Auto-disk.
Case prep? Buy those items as you discover the need for them.
I loaded for 3 decades before I had a brass cleaning vibratory tumbler. I just wiped them clean with a soft rag. My cartridges are prettier now, but shoot just the same.
A trickler is handy, but you can do the same function with a butterknife or an empty cartridge (longer ones are better if you have large hands).
You can chamfer case mouths with a pocketknife, but the proper tool is easier. You may load thousands of rounds before you discover the need for one, though.
See the pattern?
You have a couple of weeks to study. Get a copy of "The ABC's of Reloading". Any edition. Your local library may have one if you don't want to have to pack it. It is put together by a number of different editors; each time a new edition comes out the writing styles vary. Lyman's Manual is one of my (and a whole slew of others, too) favorites. Lee's Modern Reloading is good reading, too. Once you get past Lee's self-aggrandizing, there is a lot of good information in there that it will take you a long time to digest, but once you do, you will know a lot about internal ballistics.
Welcome to reloading and thanks for asking our advice.
Lost Sheep
