New to reloading, serious question

[Danimal]

If you have never reloaded before just about the worse mistake you can make is to start with a progressive press. You will ALWAYS have a need for a single stage press for decapping or working up a load.

Dillon is good, but I have never drank the blue kool-aid (although I have read the Blue Press) but so are others. I am not a fan of Hornady presses or dies. That is all.

This is pretty much exactly the way that I feel (except the Dillon part, I love my Dillon). If you want the Dillon, by all means get it. Then at the same time buy a cheap single stage. Everybody looks at reloading like it is just slapping components together. But the truth is the brunt of the work and all the heartache is in brass preparation long before you do any real reloading. If you are doing any real volume of cases on a progressive, it is very hard on the press. There is a bunch of dirt, grime and crap that comes out no matter how well you clean the brass and it goes everywhere. Then wait and see how awesome you feel when you get a stuck case and have to crank on your $440 Dillon until you rip the rim off of the case or disassemble the whole thing just to get the ram back down so that you can get the die out and use a stuck case remover. It will happen that you get a case so jammed in there that you have to drill and tap the primer pocket so that you can put a stuck case remover on it just to get it out. Brass prep is so much easier on a single stage press that you don't have a heavy investment in. If I get a stuck case I pull harder. If the case comes out great, if not and the rim pops off you are still 30 minutes ahead of where you would be if you disassemble your Dillon so that you can pull the die tool head.

It is true that anyone can learn on a progressive. It is also true that sometimes you only get one fuck up. Take it slow and take it seriously.