NEVER DID ANY RELOADING until I started shooting in Cowboy matches. I could always get my plinking ammunition cheap enough, but I learned a few things very quickly about my Cowboy ammo:

1. .44-40 ammo is scarce locally and expensive
2. .44-40 black powder ammo is non-existent locally, and really expensive
3. You're stuck with whatever load you get — there's no way to tailor it to your specific gun or shooting need

Everything I had read and all the folks I talked to told me to get a single-stage press and learn to reload on that, then move on to a progressive press if I thought I needed to. So I did that, even though The Wife was telling me that I should just go ahead and get a Dillon and be done with it.

As usual, The Wife was right.

I bought the Lee Anniversary Kit from Midway for about $60 — it said it came with everything you need to begin reloading except the components (though I knew even then that statement wasn't quite true) and was cheap enough that I wouldn't feel too bad about it when it came time to move up to a progressive machine. Well, after loading the first 50 rounds, I was ready for that Dillon. All I could think about every time I pulled the lever was "That last round would be done now — instead, I've gotta run it through the press another three times."

The Lee has worked just fine — don't get me wrong — but it's so dang slow. It took me several hours to load up enough ammo for a match, and frankly, I don't have that much free time to spare. So a few months later, Pixelwiz got me a Dillon 650 for Christmas. I sure do love her!

If you're thinking about reloading for the first time, here's the stuff you'll need to at least get started with a single-stage press:

• the reloading press
• the appropriate shellholders for your caliber(s)
• an automatic powder measure
• a powder scale (I got a beam scale; an electric one would be nicer, though much more expensive)
• powder funnel (for dropping powder into the cases)
• case prep tools
• case trimmer
• chamfer/deburring tool
• primer pocket cleaning tool
• case lube (needed for the bottlenecked .44 WCF cases)
• a primer tool of some sort (the hand-held Lee Auto-Prime works fine)

All that stuff came in the Lee Anniversary Kit. But there's more you need:

• Of course, you'll need some powder. I started out using TiteGroup, then Bullseye and Unique (which is what I load for Pixelwiz in her smokeless .44 WCF rounds). Now I'm using American Pioneer Powder (a blackpowder substitue) which I like a lot.
• Bullets will be helpful, too. Initially I got RNFP laser-cast 200-grain .427" bullets from Oregon Trail Bullet Co., and they worked alright. I used a Meister kit to slug the barrels of my guns and found out that I needed .429" bullets, so that's what I get now.
• Primers -- I use Winchester Large Pistol primers.
• Brass -- I mostly use .44-40 cases from Starline, but I've got 500-odd Winchester cases, too. They seem to be a little thinner at the case mouth, and will usually chamber better in my revolvers if the bullet isn't "just so."
   
• Safety Glasses. "You'll put your eye out, kid!" Seriously, you're going to be working with things that can go "boom!" (especially the primers) and with a pair of $5 safety glasses from the hardware store you won't have to change your alias to "One-Eye McGoo" or something.
   
• A reloading manual (or two). I got the Speer Manual #13, Modern Reloading (2nd Ed) by Richard Lee, and several of the free data manuals available from the various powder companies. It's also worth going and looking at a lot of the other data available online. Whatever powder you're going to use, check out the data from that company in addition to whatever it says in the manual you happen to get. A lot of companies are putting out data specifically tailored to Cowboy Action Shooting, and that stuff is all available for free online.
   
• Reloading dies — I got the Lee .44-40 three-die set, which included the shellholder I needed (#14) and a powder dipper. They work just fine, but I also got a set of Redding's .44-40 dies when I got that Dillon press, and I like those a lot.
   
• I picked up a .44-40 Lyman neck-expander "M" die, though the Lee set has its own powder-through expander die. I've used both dies, but since I use the Dillon press now, I just use the neck expander built into the Dillon powder die. Now that Pixelwiz is starting to shoot, I should probably get a separate toolhead and get that set up for my blackpowder rounds. Then I'll just use the Lyman die in the powder die slot.
   
• I also got the Lee Factory Crimp Die, which I'd read was ideal for use on the .44 WCF case — and it is. I highly recommend getting one if you're going to be reloading the old bottlenecked cartridges. Just seat the bullet with the seating/crimp die but don't crimp with that one — crimp separately with this die. It gives a good, strong crimp and you're less likely to crunch the thin case wall.
   
• A shellholder (better yet, two of 'em) for the priming tool
   
• Loading block(s) for your brass — you can make your own or buy them, but they're really necessary to have. They hold your brass while you're charging them with powder.
   
• Calipers — get a one of these, you'll use 'em. Make sure it'll read to .001" (almost all of them do).
   
• I got the RCBS Case Lube pad, which is a little quicker to use than smearing the lube onto the brass with my fingers (though I did that, too). Lubing cases is a tedious chore, and I quickly decided that a bottle of Dillon spray lube would make my life much easier. Spend the 5 bucks -- you won't regret it.

There are a couple things that I bought and didn't need immediately:

• The Lee Zip Trim. This looked like a really cool little gizmo, and it was inexpensive enough, but it hasn't been used yet on any .44-40 cases. Maybe my brass just hasn't been shot enough to stretch yet, or maybe these light Cowboy loads don't stretch the brass much — but so far none of my .44 cases have needed trimming. Using the Lee Factory Crimp helps here, too, since the case length isn't a big deal for that kind of crimp. I've used the trimmer on .30-06 brass, though, and it's a neat little machine.
   
• The case-length gauge and shellholder for the case trimmer (like I said, I haven't had to trim any of my .44-40 cases yet).
   
• A set of Powder Dippers. I used the automatic powder measure and the scale for loading smokeless, and didn't have much use for the dippers -- until I started loading black powder cartridges. Wouldn't part with them now. A Lee 1.9cc dipper gives me a perfect full case load with the American Pioneer FFG powder.

If you're not planning on loading a bunch of ammuntion — say, a couple hundred rounds a month — a single-stage press is probably all you need. Doing that amount won't drive you nuts. I've also found the single-stage press to be ideal for reloading high-power rifle cartridges where I wanted every round to be reloaded to perfection, "just-so," for optimum accuracy. But when reloading several hundred rounds of Cowboy ammo for big targets at close range, I'm not looking for pinpoint accuracy. I'm after a whole lot of cartridges that will go "bang" when I pull the trigger and won't take me twenty hours of my non-existent spare time to load up.